The unbeaten Montana Grizzlies start off their 2007 postseason with a No. 3 seed and a home game against the Wofford Terriers.
Bobby Hauck, fifth-year coach of the third-ranked Montana Grizzlies, spent what little time he had to spare Sunday - around the Grizzlies' postseason awards banquet and a coaches meeting - tracking down information on the Terriers, who they'll face at 12:05 p.m. Saturday inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
“I have not seen anything,” Hauck said Sunday afternoon. “I'm hearing (they're) option-based. I know they've got some big wins. Beating Appalachian State is huge. Beating Furman was a big win. And of their three losses one is to North Carolina State, which is a pretty good football program.”
Here are some other tidbits: The Terriers are 8-3 and, thanks to their 42-31 win over then-No. 1 Appalachian State on Sept. 22, owners of the SoCon's automatic bid into the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
Wofford College is a private school in Spartanburg, S.C., whose enrollment of 1,378 students includes 385 first-year students, drawn from a pool of 2,354 applicants.
The Terriers' option attack has piled up the second-most yards among FCS schools - 318 a game.
Tough school, and a tough football team.
“The best of both worlds,” said 18th-year head coach Mike Ayers, whose team includes backup quarterback Ben Widmyer, a junior who played alongside Griz receiver Matt Troxel for Lake City High in Couer d'Alene, Idaho.
Montana, 11-0 for just the second time in school history, figures to move up to No. 2 in this week's Sports Network Top 25. Yet the Griz were seeded third into the playoffs. Hauck expressed some surprise that McNeese State, another unbeaten team that UM toppled 31-6 in last year's FCS playoffs, drew the No. 2 seed.
But he couldn't spend much time on the Cowboys, who drew Big Sky program Eastern Washington in the first round.
“The way I look at this thing is week-to-week,” Hauck said. “Because there is no next week.”
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