And in one noncontact drill they lost Thomas Brooks-Fletcher for the season.
The irony in the loss of Lex Hilliard to an Achilles injury in this year's fall drills is that the Grizzlies had gone through something similar the August before with Brooks-Fletcher. Only his injury was a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
“He just adds another punch,” Griz quarterback Josh Swogger said of Brooks-Fletcher, who ran for 113 yards on 13 carries in Montana's 31-6 first-round playoff win over McNeese State last weekend. “He runs really hard - it always seems like he's falling forward when he runs.
“With Greg (Coleman) and Lex going down earlier this year, it was Brady (Green) and Reggie (Bradshaw) getting a chance to run the ball. Now it's them and Thomas, and what he's been able to do the last three or four weeks is add another dimension to the offense.”
Heading into Montana's game at Northern Colorado on Nov. 11, the redshirt freshman had just eight carries for 28 yards. Now he's up to 299, after two 100-yard games in three weeks. He's averaging 6.4 yards a carry. He got his first start against McNeese and while he didn't score, he set up one touchdown with a 48-yard burst down to the Cowboys' 6-yard line.
Brooks-Fletcher then put on an understated performance at the postgame press conference. He said he had hoped to get the start from head coach Bobby Hauck, but even several practice reps with the No. 1 offense left him uncertain.
“The whole week he was putting me in (with the ones), but not really telling me,” he said. “Then the day before the game he told me I was going to start. I was kind of relieved. I was anticipating it, but I wasn't really sure.”
Once he was sure, Brooks-Fletcher delivered, and then credited an offensive line that not only opened holes for him but for Green (14 carries, 56 yards) and Bradshaw (five carries, 36 yards).
“The holes were just there all day,” said Brooks-Fletcher. “The line was doing a good job hemming them in. We knew coming in that the linemen were going to block their guys and the running backs were going to have one-one-ones with the second- and third-level guys.
“I just tried to hit the holes while they were there. And the line did a great job making the holes.”
It was the kind of performance that Hauck envisioned when UM recruited Brooks-Fletcher out of Interlake High in Bellevue, Wash., where he had 1,282 yards rushing and 611 receiving as a senior.
The one hiccup Saturday was a fourth-and-2 run in the fourth quarter when Brooks-Fletcher was knocked back short of a first down.
“He made a young guy mistake - he went for the home run and instead of getting his pads down he got knocked down and we didn't convert,” Hauck said after the game. “But he's looking like the guy who showed up here and who we recruited.
“He's finally getting his zip back, and his stride. He sees things well.”
Southern Illinois running back Arkee Whitlock has been anointed I-AA's best player by his coach, Jerry Kill, but the 195-pound senior is not the Gateway Football Conference offensive player of the year.
That went to Youngstown State running back Marcus Mason. The 215-pound senior averages 156 yards rushing per game and has scored 21 touchdowns. Whitlock, a Walter Payton Award finalist, averages 145 yards and has scored 25 TDs.
Not surprisingly, the voting was close: 45 points for Mason, 41 for Whitlock.
SIU had four players make the Gateway's first-team offense. Aside from Whitlock there is senior fullback J.T. Wise, senior tight end Braden Jones and senior lineman Will Justice.
The Salukis also had senior defensive end Lorenzo Wims make first team on defense. Junior receiver Craig Turner was first team at return specialist.
QUICK KICKS: There's a chance Montana could face all three Payton Award finalists this season. The Griz faced Northern Arizona quarterback Jason Murrietta on Oct. 14, and Whitlock comes in Saturday. The winner of Saturday's game faces the winner of the New Hampshire-UMass quarterfinal, and UNH quarterback Ricky Santos is the third finalist. Š Santos threw for 347 yards as a freshman in 2004, when UNH lost a quarterfinal game 47-17 to the Griz. Š Murrietta threw for 828 of his career 10,726 passing yards against the Griz, but he got only 93 against UM in October.
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