Watch a weekly video about the Griz from Fritz Neighbor. They’ve already done something novel: After 19 straight losses, they beat the Adams State Grizzlies 38-10 last Saturday in Cedar City, Utah.
Beating another set of Grizzlies - SUU is the opponent for No. 5 Montana’s 2008 home opener Saturday at 1:05 p.m. - may be a taller order. But Lamb likes the feeling his staff and players have right now.
Lamb played football at BYU-Idaho (it was Ricks College then) and BYU, and has been in the coaching ranks since 1997. Before SUU, he spent three seasons as the special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at the University of San Diego, a non-scholarship Football Championship Subdivision program.
Now he’s back in the Beehive State.
“I love the state of Utah, and I love this town, Cedar City,” he said. “But to be perfectly honest, the job was a vertical move in every way. To have an opportunity to be a head coach at a fully funded FCS program was too good to pass up.
“It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, really.”
He took over for Wes Meier, who was fired after an 0-11 campaign that you could partly blame on a brutal schedule. It included the Griz (37-17 victors in 2007), Northern Iowa, Youngstown State, McNeese State, North Dakota and Southern Illinois.
That’s not to mention the T-Birds’ Great West Conference foes. Nineteen returning starters weren’t enough to save Meier’s job.
“The struggles that his program had been through were not because of poor players, poor coaching or poor recruiting,” said Lamb, who has 11 starters back this season. “But the resources have been poor. Even four years ago the former staff was recruiting to a 63-scholarship league (the FCS limit) with 38 scholarships.”
That, of course, has changed. And Lamb has brought positive change as well, to hear receiver Nick Miller tell it.
“It’s from A to Z,” said the senior, who leads SUU’s special teams. “We work a thousand times harder. When you talk about last season, it’s almost like a joke. We’re working so hard, in practice and in game-planning. It’s totally different.”
Southern Utah will bring a multiple-set offense and some pressure defense to Missoula. Quarterback Cody Stone, who took over for the injured Wes Marshall last season, sparks the offense. After 15 interceptions last season, he’s thrown just one through the first two games on ’08.
“We try to stay balanced between the run and the pass,” said Lamb. “What we’ve attempted to do is not let teams dictate whether we run or pass.”
That hasn’t been easy. Air Force allowed just seven rushing yards in a 41-7 win over SUU. The Thunderbirds had 51 yards on 23 carries against Adams State, a Division II program.
In the meantime, sophomore Tysson Poots has hauled in 16 passes after catching 29 all of last year. Lamb said the speedy Miller, who has three catches, draws considerable attention, which has helped Poots.
On defense SUU relies heavily on some heavy lifters: Scott Larson and Chad Westwood, both in the 250-265 range, are the ends; 305-pound Austin Curtis and 285-pound Aaron Fernandez are the tackles.
“Those guys give the rest of our guys confidence that they can stand up and play defense at this level,” Lamb said.
The T-Birds play a lot of man-to-man coverage in the secondary, and will blitz. They have 23 tackles for loss through two games, though Lamb said that can be misleading.
“There’s a couple reasons for that,” he said. “One is we’ve had a lot of rushing attempts against us. Air Force ran 88 plays. That may be a world record for an option team.
“And we have physical players up front. I’d like to say as a coach we’ve pressured and put them in good situations, but it’s mostly that we’re physical up front.”
The top tackler is redshirt freshman Blake Fenn, a free safety from Roosevelt, Utah. A pair of BCS transfers, linebacker Troy Bunting (Utah) and cornerback Tico Pringle (BYU) have helped shore up the D.
The special teams have been splendid, from 6-5 punter Trevor Ward to Miller, who took a punt 57 yards to the house last week.
Now, it’s into a different house for these Thunderbirds. Lamb has been to Washington-Grizzly Stadium: He was Idaho’s defensive coordinator in 2003.
Miller has been here, too.
“Coming into Montana should be a great test for us,” said Miller, who caught six passes for 55 yards against the Griz last fall. “They’re a great team every year, so this should tell us if our hard work is paying off.”
UM clarifies TV schedule for nonconference games
After viewers in Helena and along Montana’s Hi-Line had trouble bringing in the Montana Grizzlies’ football game at Cal Poly last Saturday, the University of Montana has clarified where its non-league games are broadcast.
CW-TV is carrying the games in Missoula at 8.2 digital and Bresnan channel 18, along with Dish Network channel 7. CW-TV is affiliated with KPAX locally, but in Helena CW-TV is not affiliated with either KPAX or CBS. Viewers in Helena can watch the Grizzlies’ next three nonconference games on a tape-delayed broadcast on KXLH.
Viewers in Billings, Great Falls, Bozeman and Butte can catch the games live on CW-TV, but that leaves much of the Hi-Line and eastern Montana out of the viewing area.
“There may have been some confusion last week, particularly across the Hi-Line and eastern Montana, as well as in the Helena market, and this caused frustration,” said Jim O’Day, Montana’s athletic director. “We accept full responsibility for this misinterpretation, and hope this new information will clarify where the game can be seen. Thanks to KPAX and the Montana News Stations across Montana, we are able to get these nonconference games up to more than 75 percent of the viewers in the state.”
All of Montana’s football games are on the radio via the Grizzly Football Network, which includes: Missoula KGVO 1290 AM and KXGZ 101.5 FM; KQRV 96.5 FM in Anaconda and Deer Lodge; Butte KQRV, 99.3 FM; Hamilton KLYQ, 1240 AM; Helena KCAP 1340 AM; and KOFI 1180 AM in Kalispell, Polson and Whitefish.
Also, the rest of the Grizzly football games this year can be seen via video streaming on bigskytv.org, free of charge the entire 2008 season.
Limited tickets available for Southern Utah game
A limited number of seats for Montana’s season opener against Southern Utah will be available on a first-come-first-served basis Thursday morning at the Adams Center Ticket Office starting at 8:30 a.m.
These tickets are the result of ticket returns. There are also a limited number of Terrace Club Seats available, on a season basis or single-game basis for this game only.
- Missoulian
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