The Badlands Bowl is a great time. This article by Josh Samuelson of the Miles City Star is a good read.
Several future Griz played well. Russell Schey, Josh Harris, Beau Donaldson and Sam Gratton stood out.
The Badlands Bowl has always been a fun week for me – watching football is always a pleasure. But this year it has been quite a bit better.
I was asked to join the Montana Committee, and from what I’ve been able to figure, I was asked for two distinct reasons: 1.) Because I’m young and still strong enough to do some heavy lifting and 2.) Because I’m young and dumb enough to agree to help entertain the coaches every night throughout the week.
Other than that, I’m really not sure why I’m around. Although I now have an inside look at how the game is put on, and let me tell you, it’s not an easy process.
At this point, 99 percent of the work is done, and it’s just filling in the pieces. But there was a lot of work, mostly done by our fearless leader Kelly Reid, that went into the game in the last few months.
The game is in its 15th year now, and now the committee pretty much knows how to get the job done. There are a few wrinkles every year, but the general idea is still the same: Put on a high-class football game, and make it more than a game, make it an event.
And this really has turned into a great event. The actual game is still the main event for the week, but the week leading up to the game is just as fun, just as exciting.
I’ve had a chance this week to get down and watch a few practices (although Mavs games and Babe Ruth practice have cut into some of those practices) and I’ve gotten to know this team fairly well.
It’s tough in a week to get to know a group of football players from across the state. With everyone wearing different practice jerseys and their helmets decorated with dozens of different logos, it’s tough to figure out who’s who.
But watching practice this week, there are a few things I’ve been able to figure out about this team.
1. Watching an all-star team is a lot different than watching a regular team.
This seems obvious, and it is. But it’s hard to quantify the difference until you see it right in front of you. Every single one of these players is a very good football player. They wouldn’t be here if they weren’t.
So watching practices is a joy. The balls are thrown well, they’re caught well. The running backs hit the holes hard and the offensive and defensive lines do their jobs right. It’s a pleasure watching these kids work out.
There are some kinks – the Wing-T will do that to you. But these are smart, athletic football players who know and love the game. And it shows.
2. Casey McMillan is a beast, but he’s been given a run this week.
Having watched Mr. McMillan over the past few years at Billings Central, I knew he was a good football player.
Ask Cowboy quarterback Jordan Bryant and the entire Cowboy offensive line.
But I didn’t know he was this good until seeing him every day. The quickness and size are unbelievable.
He hurt his finger earlier this week and was taken to the hospital to have it looked at. While there, they weighed him in full pads, and it came up 331. So he’s weighing in around 310, 315 pounds right now, and when you watch him play, he plays closer to 220. It’s remarkable. The University of Iowa is going to love this kid.
But while he’s clearly the biggest guy on the team, he’s had to work. Offensive linemen are a curious group. They don’t get the limelight as much as their defensive counterparts, and don’t even talk about quarterbacks.
Offensive linemen live and breath for the every-down battles that go on in the trenches. It’s what gets them up in the morning.
So the Montana offensive line wasn’t just going to sit around and let Mr. McMillan run over them all week (which he did on many occassions anyway.)
In one of the early week practices, I watched the offensive and defensive lines doing their one-on-one drills. It’s a basic drill that’s done on every football practice field in America. The defensive lineman tries to get past the offensive lineman, and the offensive lineman does whatever he can to not allow that to happen.
It’s a straightforward, mono y mono drill that can be fascinating to watch.
In this particular drill, McMillan was going against Tucker Hoge of Frenchtown on a couple of occassions. Hoge more than held his own against McMillan, earning the praise of the dozen or so on-lookers.
3. Tyzer Cady may be the fastest guy in Montana, but he can’t handle Miles Gaub.
At practice (especially the evening practice) there’s typically a good group of the Montana Committee members who come down and see how the team’s doing.
On this particular night, I think it was Monday or Tuesday, the offensive skill positions were going against the defensive backs. On this play, Cady was running a deep post into the end zone, right in front of where we were standing.
There had a been a close call two plays earlier, but on this play Cady made a nice catch over his shoulder for the touchdown. But standing in his way just outside of the end zone was Miles Gaub.
With everyone else scattering, Gaub stood his ground (whether he meant to or not is up for debate), and Cady hit him full speed. Gaub did all Terry Terriers proud when Cady, who is going to Montana to play football and run track, hit him at full speed and Gaub hardly flinched.
He was knocked out of his shoes (and for the record, they were not Birkenstocks.) Of course everyone got a good laugh out of the deal, and Cady obviously felt bad. But the quote just after that play was priceless. I don’t know who said it first, but somebody said, “If we can’t knock Miles to the ground, we could be in trouble.” Or something to that effect. Obviously it was said as a joke and shouldn’t be taken that we’re in trouble Saturday night.
4. Hanging with the coaches is awesome, but painful in the mornings.
One of the greatest parts about this week, at least for me, is getting to know the coaching staffs.
Over the past few years I’ve been able to meet the coaches, but didn’t spend a lot of time with them. This week was different. Now, as a member of the committee, I had an excuse to follow them around all week like a hound dog.
The great thing about this group is that for the most part, they’re eastern Montana guys. Obviously the three Stantons are from Baker and have ties to Miles City. Jim and Rob Stanton are still in Billings, and of course Dan is the Cowboys’ Head Coach. Randy Chilton is a Billings Central grad (we won’t say what year) and Kalispell’s Russell McCarvel is a native of Glendive. Fairfield’s Les Meyer is close by and played Baker for the state championship last season and Ed Burke of Sheridan (that’s Montana, not Wyoming) is making his first trip to Miles City, and he might not leave.
One thing that this committee does very well is take care of the coaches and the players.
One of the biggest complaints (if you can call it a complaint) is that there’s too much food, too much fun.
It’s been a great week getting to know these guys. It’s been interesting hearing the stories (most of which won’t be printed here), we’ve solved a lot of the world’s problems (including how to fix the Class A playoff system; much more on that later) and I’ve even learned a few things about Billings Central (did you know that they don’t recruit. I know, I was surprised too.)
So once again, thanks, Kelly, for all your hard work, even at the field, and thanks to the coaches and players for a great week. Now let’s go beat the tar out of North Dakota.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Josh Samuelson is the Sports Editor for the Miles City Star. He’s wondering if he needs a new file cabinet too.
