As I have said, MORE confident. Below is what I posted on Nov. 25. What I said was right then, and is right now.
"The Griz didn't play "extremely" well. Had they done that, they would have won the game. The Griz played fine, better at times, worse at times. The D in particular missed too many open tackles in the middle of the line, especially in the first half. About 5 or 6. Some on the QB. The Griz played better in certain other games and certainly in many halves.
The Griz made multiple errors and didn't play without many mistakes. Some big, many small. That started in the first drive.
A current Griz weakness is the secondary, and the inability to play alot of man without Loud (and the other injured players). This changes how the whole defense is played. The blitzing. The particular scheme/play call. You can't do certain things out of zone that you can do in man.
The Cats didn't run all over the Griz at all. Not even close. Yes, on the last drive. Good on the Cats, bad on the Griz. And the QB had a big game. Good on him and the Cats, bad on the Griz. That can be fixed by the Griz with changes in the scheme, and will also be helped by the return of Loud (I assume he's coming back) because his return will allow the D to do more things to combat the QB run.
Yes, again, the QB had a nice day and too nice of a day. But the two running backs had only 107 yards until the last drive, and then got up to 154 yards. Long runs of 25 and 15. The Cats had 268 on the ground for the day. Slightly over their average. But they averaged slightly less per rush than their season average. Cats averaged 5.7 per rush; Griz averaged 6.4 per rush.
Gillman was 15-132, or 8.8 per carry. Wortham was 3-40. So, 172 for the 2 UM backs. So, the Griz backs had more yardage than the Cat backs, on fewer carries. Yes, yes, I know the QB too.
Would you say the Griz ran all over the Cats? Or, at least that the Griz running backs ran all over the Cats. Again, they had more yards and yards per carry than the Cat RB's.
To me, the summary is that the Cat QB had a good running game, and the Griz lacked there. That was the running difference, and maybe the difference in the game. The Cats also had a very nice drive at end of game and a few other short periods of good running.
The Cat backs averaged 7.1 and 5.3 yards per carry. Considerably less than Gillman and the top backs did.
The Cats won't win against the Griz in Bozeman, and certainly not by 2/3 scores (unless you are talking extra points).
As I have said, the Griz should have Loud back, which will help the D and pass D significantly. The Griz will have a better scheme to stop the QB, and that will be helped by Loud's return. I'd bet that T. Hauck and Baer already have the new scheme drawn up. The QB isn't going to complete 90% of his passes again. It's hard to beat a team twice in a row. Hopefully, the Griz will make fewer mistakes and don't miss as many key tackles. Hopefully, the ball bounces more in the Griz direction than it did on Saturday.
I'm sure it will be good or great game."