While I am pretty new Cat's HC Jeff Choate will have success in Bozeman as the helm of The Shi##y Kitties and that, yes, Brian Armstrong, formerly Rocky's HC, and BJ Robertson, formerly Western's HC, will help The Shi##y Kitties recruit Montana kids, I don't think Coach Stitt and his staff are peeing down their collective leg in Missoula.
Despite getting a late start on recruiting last year--he was hired on Decd. 16, 2014, Coach Stitt beat the Cats for the services of players such as Holden Ryan, a big 6-3, 220 lb WR from right here in Billings ( Billings Central), Colin Bingham, a 6-3, 220 lb WR from Missoula Big Sky, Josh Sandry, a 6-1, 190 lb safety from Big Fork, Jesse Sims, a 6-4, 235 TE/DE from Stevensville that de-committed from Oregon State once Mike Riley left The Beavers for Nebraska, and of course, Dalton Daum from Butte High, the State Class AA sprint champion in the 100 and 200 that had committed to The Shi##y Kitties and Coach Ash until Bob Stitt sweet-talked Dalton into playing for the grizzly bears, the apex predator of North America, instead of the bobcats, not at the very bottom of the food chain but not too far above it.
As for Ty Gregorak, yes it will sting losing him to The Dark Side, by maybe not as much as some think.
Ty, after being hired in Bozeman, lamented the fact that he was first hired as a position coach at UM in 2003 and 12 years later, he was still in Missoula. Well, two years before Ty came to Missoula, another young defensive-position coach at UM, Dave Doeren, left after our 2001 NC under Joe Glenn to spend 3 years in Lawrence as The Jayhawks LB coach, and then off to Madison to become The Badger's LB Coach and eventual DC before in 2011 taking over the helm at Northern Illinois, leading The Huskies to The 2013 Orange Bowl, a huge accomplishment for a MAC team to make a BCS Bowl, and then taking over the helm at North Carolina State's Wolfpack of The ACC in 2013.
Dave Doeren used The GRIZ 2001 NC to get the LB job at Kansas, The Jayhawks job to get The LB job at Wisconsin, the LB/DC job at Wisconsin to land the HC job at N. Illinois, and his success at The Husky's head man to land the top job at NC State. Coach Choate, similarly, went from Boise State, to Florida, to Eastern Illinois, back to UDub under his mentor Chris Peterson, before landing in Bozeman.
Ty is still in Missoula largely due to his strategy of attaching himself to Bobby Hauck and almost making it to Las Vegas, and now he has attached his wagon to Jeff Choate's rising star instead of making his own way, aka Dave Doeren or Coach Choate or former GRIZ DL Coach Lawrence Suianoua, Coach Legi, who like Dave Doeren, parlayed his experience at UM to a Mountain West job coaching the DL for Hawaii and in so doing, approximately tripling his salary. (Good thing--Hawaii is not a cheap place to live !)
As for recruiting Montana, we have a couple of native Montanans on staff, too. Griz OL Coach Chad Germer of Three Forks, Griz WR Coach Mike Ferriter from Helena, and Griz QB Coach Andrew Selle from Billings West. They also know a little about Montana geography and high-school FB, and while Coach Choate was interviewing and then putting together his staff, they were pounding the Montana pavement, not awaiting to learn who the new Shi##y Kitty HC was going to be or reading Mr. Foley's column awarding the best high-school players in Montana to The Shi##y Kitties before Choate's first recruiting class is even announced.
And we also have a deep bench of some former Griz and NFL players, such as Tim Hauck, Lex Hilliard, Caleb McSurdy, Thatcher Szalay, Cory Proctor, and Shann Schillinger that have already or may one day soon find themselves back in Missoula wearing a GRIZ cap, polo shirt, whistle and headset.
While I am sure Coach Choate will win some Montana recruiting battles, I think we will continue to win the majority of the best Montana high-school football players--complacent is not a good adjective to describe Bob Stitt !!!