“With this group of guys, it's pretty hard to break their concentration,” said the senior running back, who rushed for 181 yards and three touchdowns in a 41-20 win at Montana State. “Sure we have a few speed bumps along the way, but everyone keeps it going.”
Those “speed bumps” are the kind that break other teams - including good ones. On the field and off, life hasn't been anywhere close to perfect for the Montana football team this fall.
Consider the past two weeks:
You play without your best running back (Hilliard), lose your most reliable receiver to a broken arm (Ryan Bagley) and overcome a rash of penalties and questionable calls to earn a win at Idaho State. And you do it just days after your defensive coordinator (Kraig Paulson) learns that his older brother, Kevin, has died.
Waiting for you back in Missoula is the police with news that several players on your team are going to jail. This is scary real-life stuff that dwarfs football. All week you deal with the bad publicity, maybe even catching a glimpse of the local paper's front page with a photo of your ex-teammate in an orange jump suit. Through all of it, and the uncertainty of your top running back's status, you press on.
Then comes Saturday in Bozeman. You fall behind your archrival and face the wrath of its boisterous fans as things start coming apart on a rainy afternoon. You fall behind 14-6 late in the first half and even your most staunch supporters wonder if this is the day the win streak ends.
But you don't even need a halftime break to regroup. You march 63 yards in two minutes to pull within a point, 14-13, in the process reminding your rival that its visions of grandeur are nothing more than that.
“Football is a weird game, and you think of momentum and it's just like this term,” said Montana State linebacker Bobby Daly, lamenting Montana's scoring drive late in the first half. “But it's real, man. It's real. Their momentum definitely carried through the second half.”
Well, mostly.
After jumping on top early in the third quarter, the Griz seemed to lose their edge. Trailing, 20-14, Montana State marched down the field and looked as if it might pull even when running back Demetrius Crawford darted up the middle toward Montana's red zone with nothing but open field in front of him.
At that point Griz sophomore safety Shann Schillinger made the most underrated big play of the game. He dove at Crawford's back, grabbing for anything he could clutch, and corralled the Cats' cat-quick running back at his 21-yard line. No touchdown, and ultimately no points came of the drive after a missed field goal.
“They kind of creased us a little bit, and that's my responsibility to come inside out,” said Schillinger, explaining his TD-saving tackle. “Fortunately enough I was able to get him down.”
It marked the beginning of the end for Montana State. Just like so many of the Grizzlies' upset-minded opponents this season, the fourth quarter was a death knell.
“They execute best down the stretch,” Cats coach Rob Ash said of Montana. “I've seen it all year long.
“They're a good model to look at. They're a good, deep team. What Montana has is a program. They're not a football team, they're a program, and I mean that as a compliment. They're solid all the way through.”
Griz coach Bobby Hauck loves the personality of his confident veteran squad.
“It was fun being around them today,” said the coach, shivering in his postgame press conference after being doused with ice water by his players. “This is a big game for us, chance to go 11-0 and beat our rival on their field, and our team was real calm and relaxed. I like their temperament.”
In the end, it was inspiring to watch the Griz play so well on a day when distractions might have been a convenient cop-out for a weaker bunch. Obviously the sum of Montana's parts is much greater than any one individual.
“Being 11-0 is special,” Hauck said. “I've been on teams that were 10-1, and being 11-0 is leaps and bounds better than that.
“This is a really good football team. They're close. I'm not sure we do anything great. We do everything real well. That's how you get to 11-0.”
Columnist Bill Speltz can be reached at 523-5255 or at bill.speltz@lee.net
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