mthoopsfan
Well-known member
Montana and the team gets to decide who they consider rivals. Eastern can think they are a rival with anyone they want.
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All time Griz moments in Governors Cup series against EWU
- Thread starter 5280Griz
- Start date
mthoopsfan
Well-known member
That’s 21 years ago. Yes, everyone has forgotten the so-called Governor’s cup.
That was a helluva game in 2004 in Cheney... tons of griz fans
Ut-Grizfan
Well-known member
Side note/rant we REALLY need to go to the Big Sky (also the Cats) and demand they stop making us change rivals all the time to prop up the rest of the Conference. We should be playing Idaho every year, not Portland State and I'd even argue we should be getting more TV revenue since it's our 2 programs that do the most for the Conference.
5280Griz
Well-known member
10 years ago it was Eastern at 2 instead of Idaho. Idaho was FBS and we did not play them at the time. Eastern was the top team in the conference and the games in Cheney always had lot of Griz fans.
Ut-Grizfan
Well-known member
Oh I'm not denying that, with Idaho back in the Conference however and with us being the biggest brand (along with MSU) we should be able to dictate who we play, and Idaho are our real rivals after MSU.
Emphasis on "in Cheney." We lost the game at Joe Albi in Spokane two years earlier. Griz safety Trey Young was out in 2002. Glenn told us the night before the game the Griz were in trouble without Trey.
Returning the game to Cheney in 2004 cut way down on the number of seats availible for Griz fans. Albi games were mostly attended by Griz fans and seated 25k. Fans called Albi Washington's Grizzly Stadium.
University of Montana Athletics Football History vs Eastern Washington University
The official Montana Grizzlies Football History vs Eastern Washington University
5280Griz
Well-known member
Here are some highlights from a more recent game that was also great. EWU had beaten Montana 4 times in a row at this point including beating the Griz in the playoffs the year prior. EWU came in to WaGriz ranked #10 in the country featuring multiple future NFL players. The Griz came out victorious 57-16 in a huge win.
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I was there for that one. Great moment. Side note: I watched that entire video. It doesn't feel like that long ago for the video quality to look so awful. Were we really watching games on TV that looked like that? I've noticed this phenomenon with other sports, too. Like, they'll play a flashback golf clip from 2005, and Tiger is 20 pixels hitting an invisible ball.5:47 mark of the link above... Griz fans were electric in Cheney that day, epic win and game!
Griz deny EWU
The difference between a team that has won or shared eight of the last nine Big Sky Conference football championships and one hoping to win its first since 1997 is timing. Montana continually made clutch plays, the last a blocked field goal by Shane MacIntyre with 18 seconds to play, allowing...www.spokesman.com
What I remember about that game is that Yo had fumbled in the second overtime and Eastern recovered for what should have been an EWU win. But the officials homered the call and said Yo was down before fumbling. That was before they did replay review.Found it! Although I cannot find any video.
Griz top EWU in overtime - University of Montana Athletics
The Griz are in the driver's seat. It's still early in the season, but the Montana football team won a major Big Sky Conference battle as they squeaked by th...gogriz.com
They had us dead to rights but missed a chip shot in OT that would have won them the game, then they made the same FG in the second OT, but ETU!!!!!
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We literally take everyone’s best shot in conference every game. PSU requested or was given us as a rival the previous schedule iteration which helps them have at least one well attended game every other year. Luke Woods made a fool of himself heading into our game to try and use us to buoy his FBS bid and exposure. We’ve seen antics from other teams and other coaches every year. It seems that every other conference team wants to consider us their rival.
It was cool to have a competitive EWU team for a decade and have some good back and forth when they took their program seriously. 2021 was fun too with the red turf loss and revenge playoff game. It’s a different game than playing most of the rest of the conference typically, but not up there with Idaho and far from up there with the cats.
For the staff and players to not give legs to those teams and point out that there is one rival above all, gives griz/cat the focus and importance it needs. I don’t think saying someone is a rival or not changes a damn thing, but to pretend that the brawl is not like any other game on the schedule would be crazy. We have one true rival.
There’s also only one fan base that is as passionate as we are and it’s just over the divide to the East. I was over in Spokane last week, was in Lewiston/Clarkston earlier this year. I saw zero people sporting EWU gear or Vandals gear or bumper stickers or vanity plates. Zero. Even on a down year, I don’t go around anywhere in the state of Montana without seeing Griz or Cats gear. Hell when we’ve traveled to say New York or Ann Arbor, Cancun, or California, we always run into Griz or Cat fans. Anytime I see a cat fan while wearing Griz gear, it spurns a reaction on them that I can only equate to the bitter beer face from the old Keystone commercial. Can’t say it’s not mutual either. Everything about the rivalry and how it extends to every other sport and past field boundary lines exemplifies what a true rivalry is. FTC
It was cool to have a competitive EWU team for a decade and have some good back and forth when they took their program seriously. 2021 was fun too with the red turf loss and revenge playoff game. It’s a different game than playing most of the rest of the conference typically, but not up there with Idaho and far from up there with the cats.
For the staff and players to not give legs to those teams and point out that there is one rival above all, gives griz/cat the focus and importance it needs. I don’t think saying someone is a rival or not changes a damn thing, but to pretend that the brawl is not like any other game on the schedule would be crazy. We have one true rival.
There’s also only one fan base that is as passionate as we are and it’s just over the divide to the East. I was over in Spokane last week, was in Lewiston/Clarkston earlier this year. I saw zero people sporting EWU gear or Vandals gear or bumper stickers or vanity plates. Zero. Even on a down year, I don’t go around anywhere in the state of Montana without seeing Griz or Cats gear. Hell when we’ve traveled to say New York or Ann Arbor, Cancun, or California, we always run into Griz or Cat fans. Anytime I see a cat fan while wearing Griz gear, it spurns a reaction on them that I can only equate to the bitter beer face from the old Keystone commercial. Can’t say it’s not mutual either. Everything about the rivalry and how it extends to every other sport and past field boundary lines exemplifies what a true rivalry is. FTC
2004 was before the days of widespread HD...it is amazing to realize how much technology has advanced.
Grizbballfan14
Well-known member
Fans and supporters fuel rivalries, not coaches and athletic department staff. This is a rivalry
AndrewGrizness
Well-known member
Agreed, just like the Cats are not really a rivalry. When one team dominates the all time series like Montana has it stops being a rivalry, it stopped in the 80s.
This was also favored by BH for two reasons. He likes Barnum and he thought it hurt UM to have to play the other two best programs every year. Getting weak PSU in gave better balance. That was before EWU fell to such current levels.
mthoopsfan
Well-known member
Oh BS. Griz-Cat has always been a huge rivalry and continued through the streak. You obviously aren't close to the situation.
5280Griz
Well-known member
Griz-Cat has been a huge rivalry based on the number of people who watch it. Something like 75% of the televisions on at the time in Montana have the game on and like 300,000 people watch it in a state with 1 million population but Andrew is finally right about something here, the Cats have been dominated in this series overall ever since Don Read was here, so much so that it shouldn't be a rivalry from the Griz perspective more like an annoying little brother situation.
AndrewGrizness
Well-known member
You are wrong, state is little brother and will always be little brother
Rivalries are not 74–43–5 You don't know what you are talking about. You probably think the Oklahoma Oklahoma St is a rivalry too don't ya
