#4 MONTANA GRIZZLIES (2-1, 0-0 BSC) @ #1 NDSU Bison (3-0, 0-0 MVFC)
Saturday, September 20, 2014 - 1:30 pm MT
Fargodome (19,000) - Fargo, ND
TV: The Grizzly-Bison game will be televised by Cowles Montana Media stations, and SWX KULR-TV in Billings. Brian Shawn calls the play-by-play, Kevin Feeney and Lee Timmerman serve as the color analysts, and Jamal Spencer and Beth Hoole are the sideline reporters. The game will be available on Charter channels 11/511; DirecTV channel 23, and Dish Network channel 23.
STREAM: ESPN3 - http://espn.go.com/watchespn/index/_/id/1963888/College-Football-Montana-vs-North-Dakota-State" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
RADIO: Mick Holien is in his 22nd season as the voice of Griz football and his 30th year overall. Scott Gurnsey is in his 17th year serving as the in-booth analyst, while Greg Sundberg is the sideline reporter for his fourth season. (FB Radio Network is on add 6).
SERIES: The series is tied at 3-3.
LAST GAME: Sept. 6, 2003 - North Dakota State won 25-24 in Missoula, MT
GAME PREVIEWS:
Bison Video Blog: NDSU vs Montana Preview
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz9QK1etTk0[/youtube]
Griz Tracks: Daunting North Dakota State Next Up for Montana
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3w3SuYQfuk[/youtube]
Grizzlies faced with tall task at No. 1 NDSU
Getting past the Wow Factor is the first order of business for the Montana football team.
Top-ranked North Dakota State is the undisputed king of the FCS jungle. When the fourth-ranked Grizzlies invade the Fargodome Saturday to face the unbeaten Bison at 1:37 p.m. Mountain time, Montana will be a decided underdog.
Why?
North Dakota State has won three straight national championships and is riding an FCS-record 27-game win streak. Earlier this month the Bison won 34-14 at Iowa State, an FBS team that bounced previously-unbeaten Iowa on the road last Saturday.
If that’s not enough, consider this: NDSU has faced South Dakota the past two seasons and swept by a combined score of 96-0. That’s the same South Dakota team Montana outlasted 31-27 last season and 28-20 on Saturday in front of a record crowd.
Gulp.
“They’re going to lose a game at some point in time,” Montana coach Mick Delaney said of the Bison. “I’m telling the guys, ‘Why not this week?’
“We’ll go there with our guns loaded and they’ll obviously do what they do at home and on the road and that is embarrass people. Every time they get an opportunity they’re going to put 40 or 50 (points) on you if they can. We’re going to try to keep them from doing that.”
One thing the Grizzlies (2-1) can pretty much count on is NDSU (3-0) will not come out sluggish the way it did at Weber State two weeks ago. On that afternoon the Bison, who had a hard time getting up for the Wildcats coming off a win at Iowa State, escaped with a 24-7 win.
“I think it’s the biggest nonconference game we’ve had here in a long time, so we’re pretty excited for it,” North Dakota State senior defensive end Kyle Emanuel said of Saturday’s showdown. “It’s really going to be a fun atmosphere.”
There’s nothing fancy about North Dakota State’s game plan. The Bison enter each contest intending to overpower the opposition with a smash-mouth running attack and physical 4-3 defense.
North Dakota State’s defense is allowing an average of seven points per game. The Bison shut out Iowa State in the second half of their contest on Aug. 30 in Ames, Iowa.
This past Saturday NDSU shut out FCS Incarnate Word in Fargo, 58-0. The visitors managed just 150 total yards.
“It was a great performance by our players and coaches getting an excellent game plan,” Bison first-year head coach Chris Klieman said. “I’m excited any time you can shut an opponent out.
“We’ve got a lot of seniors on the defense that are leading that group and playing at a really high level. We’ve got to continue that moving forward because we’ve got obviously a huge challenge this week with Montana coming into town.”
The good news for Montana is starting left tackle Jackson Thiebes, who sat out Saturday’s game with a minor injury, will be ready Saturday. He will join a line that includes fellow sophomores Devon Dietrich and Ben Weyer and seniors Logan and Jordan Hines.
The group is hoping to perform better than it did in its last road test when the Grizzlies were held to 42 rushing yards in a 17-12 loss to FBS Wyoming. Since then the offensive line has come alive, with Montana surpassing 200 rushing yards in its last two home outings.
“(Saturday) was a good game for us up front,” Logan Hines said, alluding to Montana’s 207 rushing yards against South Dakota. “It was good to have Ben (Weyer) back (from an injury) and kind of get more consistency up front to really get the offense going and see what we can do.
“Our offense is built to run. To see that really work and us guys working up front and the running backs and quarterbacks making calls on what we’ve got to do and where we’ve got to go, it was just a whole team effort and worked out well.”
Another piece of good news coming out of Tuesday’s press conference at UM is that wideout Ellis Henderson is feeling better. Saddled with ongoing health issues stemming from a bacterial infection, he had just two catches for six yards Saturday.
When Henderson is healthy, he is one of Montana’s most dangerous weapons.
“It seems like since Saturday, after the game, he’s improving,” Delaney said. “It’s a day-by-day thing.
“Just his strength and being able to eat normally, get three meals a day and be able to get some sleep, he hasn’t felt good enough to do that for a long time now. There’s two or three good days it seems like, then it’s a setback a little bit. It’s something I think he’s learning to manage better.”
A healthy Henderson would help Saturday, as would a dependable place-kicker. After giving Harrison Greenberg and Chris Lider a shot at the No. 1 spot, Delaney is going with former Wyoming kicker Daniel Sullivan in Fargo.
Sullivan has been handling kickoff duties all season but he will take the field for extra points and field goals this weekend. He has shown more leg strength than Montana’s other kickers in practice. Now he needs to show he can produce in a game situation.
“We’re going to give Dan an opportunity this week and then evaluate the whole thing,” said Delaney, whose team went 0 for 3 in field goal attempts Saturday. “We’ll come out next week in our first conference game with a kicker and whoever it is will be the guy.
“That’s not an easy decision sometimes but we will make it. We’re not going to bounce back and forth with three guys once we get into the conference.”
Quick kicks: The Fargodome holds 18,700 fans ... Over the past three years the Bison are 7-0 against FCS top-10 teams in games played in Fargo ... Delaney reported Tuesday that wideouts Chase Naccarato (ankle) and Sean Haynes (leg) will be sidelined at least one more week ... NDSU has designated Saturday as its 24th annual Trees Bowl game, sponsored by the North Dakota Forest Service.
http://missoulian.com/sports/college/montana/football/grizzlies-faced-with-tall-task-at-no-ndsu/article_f4afd7f6-3df5-11e4-8047-7b3705393806.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;