Another Missoulian Article by Frank:
The Montana football team fell far short of expectations in 2024.
The end result of the Grizzlies' inconsistency was a 9-5 record and an unceremonious
second-round playoff exit. They had
come into the year ranked No. 3 in the FCS Top 25 poll following a national runner-up finish.
Over the final several weeks of the season, multiple players brought up the need to put together a complete game. It was something they thought could return them to the championship caliber they were at last year.
It was also something that eluded them week after week. They never put together that all-around performance against a scholarship opponent.
By the midpoint, the Griz had become an improving offensive juggernaut that seemingly forgot how to play defense. After the bye, they became a maturing defensive unit that seemingly lost its memory of how to play offense.
The offense performed one final disappearing act against
South Dakota State in the second round, being held to 10 points until garbage time. In the regular-season finale, the Griz managed just 11 points in a
loss to Montana State. Two weeks earlier, they put up only 14 in a
loss to UC Davis.
The defense came to play all three of those days and kept the team in the game in the early going. That side of the ball then broke while trying to carry a vanishing offense on its shoulders.
The offense had also disappeared for a good portion of the
first-round win over Tennessee State. Junior Bergen and the special teams came to the rescue to prevent another embarrassing home loss. The Griz finished 6-2 in Wa-Griz after going into the season at 30-2 over their previous 32 home games.
The offense had hit its crescendo in Weeks 4-6. The Griz
won a shootout over Western Carolina, 46-35. They won another high-scoring affair
at Eastern Washington, 52-49, the next week. It was the most points ever given up in a win in program history.
Then it was a
55-48 overtime loss to Weber State the week after that. It was the most points Montana ever allowed inside Wa-Griz and tied for the second-most points scored in a loss in school history.
The offense had carried the load in that stretch while the defense sputtered with tackling woes and miscues from veterans while a spattering of new starters were being worked in.
The loss to Weber State, which finished with a 4-8 record, was a backbreaker for the Griz in terms of
playoff seeding, which could've prolonged their season maybe one more week. That loss was the impetus for switching from man coverage in the secondary to playing more zone coverage, which improved the defense, although they went back to man at times and got burned.
Both offensive and defensive successes and struggles were on display in Week 2. The Griz put together what wound up being arguably their most complete half all season when they took a 24-7 lead
at North Dakota, which finished the year with a 5-7 record.
They then were outscored 20-0 in maybe their worst half of the year. Whether it was Logan Fife or Keali'i Ah Yat at quarterback, neither could get the ball moving with a trio of three-and-outs until the final drive as they totaled 34 yards. The only way the defense got off the field was by allowing points.
The Griz had gone through another early season shocker in 2023 at Northern Arizona as they were still rotating quarterbacks. They then picked and stuck with Clifton McDowell and went on a 10-game winning streak.
They didn't make that choice this year, instead rotating Fife and Ah Yat for the vast majority of the season. The moves were based on what Hauck called "feel" for when to play a specific guy from series to series, leaving the quarterbacks looking over their shoulder to see who would take the field. Perhaps that's why it felt like a leader never emerged on the offense.
Injuries to Ah Yat led to Fife getting more playing time and being named the Big Sky offensive player of the week after his first start. Fife threw for 1,890 yards, 14 touchdowns and two interceptions. Ah Yat finished with 1,121 yards, seven touchdowns and six interceptions.
Fife didn't play against SDSU as Ah Yat got the whole game, a decision that surprised both coach Jimmy Rogers and Jackrabbits players after the game. He then
entered the transfer portal the day after the season ended.
The calamity of the
quarterback carousel isn't the only thing that appeared to derail the offense. Play calling is a factor in putting them in the proper position. The variability in that aspect left the Griz without an offensive identity.
They went from taking and hitting deep shots in their early shootouts into becoming allergic to that, often settling for short passes. That was highlighted in a puzzling game against MSU, throwing mainly horizontal passes. They took more downfield shots against SDSU, but it couldn't salvage their season.
Montana wide receiver Junior Bergen (5) returns a punt against Tennessee State punter Mark Shenouda (39) during first round of the NCAA FCS Division I Playoffs between Montana and Tennessee State at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. Bergen tied the NCAA record and broke the FCS record for punt return touchdowns.
Keelan White,
Junior Bergen and
Aaron Fontes — which opposing coaches had called the best receiver room in the Big Sky and possibly the FCS — had worse seasons in 2024 than 2023. That trio totaled 2,206 yards and 14 touchdowns on 161 catches last year. That dropped to 1,577 yards and eight scores on 146 catches this year.
Xavier Harris and
Sawyer Racanelli saw their stats increase, but the Griz struggled to get their best players the ball, especially in space.
The same could be said of the run game. The Griz went from a team that ran the ball at will to one that struggled. They totaled 1,096 yards on the ground over a three-game stretch (365.3 per game) in Weeks 3-5. They then totaled 1,318 rushing yards over their next nine games (146.4) to close the season. Montana Grizzlies running back Eli Gillman (10) runs the ball down the field before scoring a touchdown during a college football game between the Montana Grizzlies and the Weber State Wildcats on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Washington Grizzly Stadium.
Eli Gillman has played in 31 games at UM but didn't have a 20-carry game until his 30th outing. His 1,104 rush yards are the most by a Griz since Jordan Canada had 1,195 in 2014 and his 15 TD runs are the most since Marcus Knight had 23 in 2019. Those stats came despite his carries falling from 194 in 2023 (12.9 per game) to 167 in 2024 (11.9 per game)
He spent the first half of the season among the top three players in all of college football at around 10 yards per carry. That dropped off, although he did still have big performances to help the Griz earn
wins over Portland State and Tennessee State. SDSU bottled him up for the second year in a row as he had 17 carries for 30 yards in those two games.
The ability to run the ball or get time in the pocket to deliver the ball starts at the line of scrimmage. The play of the offensive line in primetime matchups showed the disparity between the Griz and other elite teams, and it's seemingly a larger gap than anticipated. Winning in the trenches should be a primary focus moving forward — even more than who's playing quarterback.
Those performances echoed on the defensive line as Montana struggled against top-tier O-lines.
Hayden Harris did have 17 tackles for loss, 9.5 sacks and three forced fumbles, all of which are the most since Patrick O'Connell had 21.5 TFLs, 14 sacks and four forced fumbles in 2021.
A lack of pressure up front forced the secondary to stay in coverage longer.
Trevin Gradney did finish with 10 pass breakups, which are the most since Justin Ford and Omar Hicks Onu each had 11 in 2021.
Montana cornerback Trevin Gradney (37) intercepts a deflected pass during the college football game between Montana and Western Carolina at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024.
Montana never did flip a game with a defensive score. It was the first season since 2014 the Griz failed to score a defensive touchdown.
Montana did have to replace a lot of sixth-year seniors from last year's team. Gone were stalwarts like nose tackle Alex Gubner, linebacker Braxton Hill, safeties TraJon Cotton and Nash Fouch, cornerback Corbin Walker and center AJ Forbes. It was seemingly too much experience to replenish at once.
They then lost key pieces to the transfer portal. McDowell helped turn McNeese State from a 1-10 team into a 6-6 team. Quarterback Sam Vidlak became an All-Southland second-teamer at Stephen F. Austin.
Defensive end Kale Edwards went to FBS New Mexico State, taking away UM's top pass rusher on the D-line from 2023. Linebacker Vince Genatone left for FBS Nebraska, depleting an already thin group when he could've started.
The Griz tried to plug some holes with transfers. They found success stories with newcomers like center Cade Klimczak and punter/kicker
Ty Morrison.
But Montana maybe didn't hit on as many plug-and-play transfers as it hoped and at the high level that it had wanted, especially on the defensive side, where it can take time to get in the flow with UM's unorthodox 3-3-5 defense.
"I hope we're remembered (as) just a bunch of hard-fought kids, love the game, love to compete, love each other," Gradney said. "I think we did a good job exemplifying that."
White added: "Tough-ass football team that no matter who we play, where we play, we're going to fight all the way to the end."
As much as they tried, the Griz could never get in sync and put it all together. That lack of being able to play a complete game left them looking like an incomplete team. Montana was full of potential but was ultimately flawed.
