George Ferguson Column: Switching sides certainly adds more emotion to the Brawl

From the minute the Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats stepped onto the chilly turf at Bobcat Stadium back on Nov. 21, the intrigue was high. No one quite knew what to expect in the 115th Brawl of the Wild that day.

In the end, the Grizzlies walloped the Bobcats 54-35, winning their third straight in the heated rivalry.

And while that game was yet another intriguing and interesting one in the series, everything that’s happened since has been 10 times as dramatic.

Two days later, Montana State fired head coach Rob Ash, while the Griz went on to beat South Dakota State in the first round of the FCS playoffs. Not soon after that, Montana State announced a new head coach in UM-Western alumn Jeff Choate, while Montana thoroughly got smashed by soon-to-be five-time champion North Dakota State in the second round of the playoffs.

All of that was intriguing too, but nothing could compare to what’s happened to the Cat-Griz rivalry in the last week.

Monday, Grizzly defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak announced he was leaving Missoula. That news wouldn’t have been to shocking considering Gregorak’s credentials as a defensive coach and his connections around college football. No, everyone at UM knew Gregorak wouldn’t be Montana’s defensive coordinator forever.

However, the shock was his decision to take the same position at Montana State. That’s something no one, on either side of the Brawl, ever saw coming. And because of the switch, the 2016 Cat-Griz game, set for late November, just got a lot more intriguing.

Upon Gregorak’s announcement, rumors swirled that his relationship with first-year head coach Bob Stitt was not a good one, and that was the main reason for his departure to Bozeman. Gregorak has since dispelled those rumors through interviews all week, and instead, he said that his philosophies align with Choate’s, and, he was even quoted as saying he would have moved on from the Griz to coach with Choate no matter where the new Bobcat head coach landed a job.

That’s fine, and I think we all can respect that — but Choate didn’t land a job elsewhere, he landed his first head coaching gig at a school that Gregorak has been passionately and intensely trying to beat for nine years as a football coach, and the last four as the Griz’ defensive coordinator. And that’s what will make his move to MSU go down in the annals of the Cat-Griz rivalry.

On a personal and human level, no one can really question Gregorak’s motives for leaving Montana, even to go to the Bobcats. He is doing what is best for him and his family, and he’s doing what he says is best for his career. No matter how diehard a Griz fan you are, you have to respect that. After all, there is more to life than football, and Gregorak made a life decision.

Gregorak is a highly respected coach and person, a coach that his now former current and former players all look up to and respect very much. He’s known as a genuine and caring individual too, and someone that just about everybody seems to like, and that won’t change either. Being a good person and a good football coach won’t change because he switched sides in this 365-day-a-year rivalry.

However, there’s no denying that this move, from the Maroon and Silver to Blue and Gold is a controversial one, in particular, with Griz fans and current Griz players, and no matter how good of a person Gregorak is, that controversy is unavoidable.

"You can say you try not to do things differently, but it's absolutely not another game. It's not," Gregorak said of the Cat-Griz game in an interview with the Missoulian Monday night. "The guys that try to make it just another game usually end up getting their butts kicked."

For many of his years as an assistant at UM, Gregorak did nothing but kick the Bobcats butts. And that’s why he, of all people should understand how upsetting his decision to leave Montana for the Bobcats would be to so many Griz fans, and to the Griz’ defensive players still on the roster. The fact that he understands, and has embraced the rivalry as much as anyone currently involved in it should mean he should fully understand why some Griz fans have taken to social media to use words like traitor or turncoat in reference to his decision.

In fact, no one should be surprised if the entire Griz’ fan base feels that way. After all, we all want this rivalry to be this big, this intense, this emotional. That’s why so many of us love Cat-Griz and that’s why Gregorak spoke so passionately about the rivalry.

And because he’s so passionate about this rivalry, he’s got to understand that passionate Griz fans aren’t one bit happy to see him go to Bozeman. And, while I don’t know Ty personally, I hope he won’t be surprised if he receives a chilly reception from Griz Nation, and a motivated Griz football team when the Cats come to Washington-Grizzly Stadium next fall. I think it would be pretty naïve’ for anyone who switches sides in this rivalry to think everything on your old side will just be roses.

On the other side of the coin, MSU fans darn well better understand that their program just got a great football coach, and one who is going to make the Bobcats very successful on that side of the ball – and it should matter none that he’s coming from what MSU fans generally refer to as “the dark side.” No matter how long Gregorak coached in Missoula, and no matter how many wins he helped the Griz to in the rivalry, Bobcat Nation needs to do nothing but welcome Gregorak in with open arms, because, he is that good.

So, even nearly a month removed from the most recent Cat-Griz affair, the rivalry certainly is still churning and it’s still emotional. Because when a coach of Gregorak’s stature decides to up and switch sides in this rivalry, it’s going to get emotional and it’s going to get intense. That’s just the way it is.

When it comes to Cat-Griz, we certainly weave a tangled web. And Ty Gregorak just spun an awfully big tangle into that web with his decision to leave the Griz in favor of the Bobcats. And in an age when the Cat-Griz rivalry just keeps getting bigger, and more intriguing, it makes me wonder … what’s next?