George Ferguson Column: Hauck plus Choate brings new fuel to the Cat-Griz fire

The Cat-Griz rivalry doesn’t need more spicing up. It doesn’t need more flare, more drama or more hate.

But need it or not, the 2018 Brawl of the Wild got some gasoline dumped on the fire that is the Cat-Griz rivalry when one Bobby Hauck was hired back as Montana’s head coach last December.

Similarly, the Bobcats got that same flame added to the rivalry when they hired Jeff Choate three years ago.

From the get-go, Choate understood the rivalry. He played at UM-Western, so he was around the state on the third Saturday in November for his college years, and while he was a Bulldog, he knew Cat-Griz, he got it.

And it’s been awfully clear just how much Choate gets the rivalry because his first two Bobcat teams have gone into the Brawl as underdogs and assured of losing seasons, and yet the Cats have beaten the Grizzlies in each of the last two games.

Now, I will be honest and say, all of my eggs are not in the Cat-Griz game basket. But you do hear fans in all of the big rivalries say it: “As long as we beat them, the rest of the season doesn’t matter.”

You hear that mantra when it comes to all of the great rivalries, Michigan/Ohio State, Alabama/Auburn, North Carolina/Duke, ect. Fans are so wrapped up in the bubble of those rivalries, that that game becomes, in essence, all that matters.

For a bulk of both the Griz and Cat fan bases, it seems to be the same. Many fans on both sides of the rivalry live in that bubble, the one where the first 10 games of the season are pure window dressing for the third Saturday in November when Montana and Montana State go head-to-head.

Now, that’s not to say that fans don’t care about the other 10 games, that they don’t care about making the playoffs or winning Big Sky titles, but at the end of the day, the Cat-Griz rivalry is no different than any of the others — Cats, Griz, fans of both lust for a win against the other, they expect it, they demand it, the literally hold their breath in anticipation of it.

And now, the rivalry has two coaches who mirror those feelings.

The last time the Cat-Griz rivalry truly had two coaches who really got the rivalry, at least at the same time, was when Hauck was first at Montana and Mike Kramer was at MSU. Oh, make no mistake, in those days, there was some serious heat on this rivalry.

That’s not to say other coaches in the rivalry since didn’t have feelings for it, but it was never simultaneous. I think both Montana head coaches Robin Pflugrad and Mick Delaney got it. After all, Delaney coached at both UM and MSU. But after that, Rob Ash, Bob Stitt, I don’t know how much they truly embraced it. Sure, when they won, they both said all the right things, but I don’t know that either coach really ever bothered to immerse themselves into the rivalry the way Hauck and Choate do.

And let’s be honest here, the Cat-Griz rivalry, in one way or another, is probably the biggest reason why neither Ash, or Stitt is coaching in it anymore. It’s just that simple.

But whatever frustrations Cat and Griz fans had with the rivalry during the tenures of those last two coaches, they don’t have to worry about that anymore.

Bobcat fans, you have Choate, you have an ex-Griz in Ty Gregorak and a bunch of guys from Montana on your coaching staff who detest the Griz, who love the rivalry and who want to win this game as much as you do.

Case in point, Choate took Gregorak away from the Grizzlies in his first year as Bobcat head coach. Then, he blocked Bobby Hauck on Twitter only a few weeks after Hauck’s celebrated return to Missoula.

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say, Choate gets it.

“(The game) means everything. It’s a huge game for our program, our university and the state of Montana. It’s a very, very significant and important game,” Choate once said of the rivalry, and he added this little quip prior to last year’s Brawl. “There’s a lot on the line for them and their program. We’re just little Montana State.”

No question, when Choate got to MSU he willingly added fuel to the Cat-Griz fire.

Now that Bobby’s back, it’s more like pouring a two-ton tanker of pure gasoline onto the that fire.

No one loves the rivalry more than Bobby Hauck. With all due respect to anyone who has ever coached in it, Bobby Hauck is more passionate about the rivalry than any coach in its long and storied existence.

Let’s review.

During Hauck’s first run as Griz’ head coach, he never once referred to Montana State as Montana State. He doesn’t call them the Bobcats. And he won’t this week. When the Griz travel to Bozeman for the Brawl, they never stayed in Bozeman, and they won’t when he returns to Bozeman in 2019 either. Those are just a few of the mild examples of what kind of love Hauck has for the rivalry, and perhaps, what kind of disdain he has for the other side.

Even at Hauck’s introductory press conference back in December, he made note of the fact that one of his relatives who was at the press conference was wearing a blue jacket. He said “We’ll save ‘them’ for another press conference.”

Yes, if anyone gets it, Bobby Hauck does. And fans eat it up by the spoonfuls.

"I'm not fit to be around the week of this game," Hauck said after last week’s win at Idaho. "I have a love-hate relationship with this game. I love winning it and I detest losing it."

Griz fans are absolutely loving life this week, with Hauck back in the Cat-Griz fold. And Bobcat fans, well, they get to start hating the guy they’ve always hated the most again. I highly doubt Cat fans hated Pflugrad, Delaney or Stitt, even if they said they did. But I firmly believe, no I know for a fact that they hate Hauck, and I’m quite sure that’s OK with Bobby. I doubt he’d want it any other way.

So here we go, it’s time to Brawl.

It’s kind of funny. Each year, I try to kick off Cat-Griz week with a different column on the rivalry. Last year, I wrote a column apply titled “I want my Cat-Griz game back.” I was talking about the fact that, in recent years, there hasn’t been a lot on the line in the Brawl, and the passion had seemed to diminish somewhat.

Well, fast forward one year, and I think I just got my Cat-Griz game back. I think, with Hauck and Choate across the sidelines from each other, it’s safe to say, the Cat-Griz game is going to be returned to the kind of rivalry we all know and love.

Add to it the fact that, the Cats will go to the FCS playoffs if they beat the Griz for a third straight time, and the Griz might just sneak in if they win, and now you have a Cat-Griz game that really means something.

In actuality, though, the minute Bobby Hauck was thrown back into the mix, with Choate on the other side, Cat-Griz was going to mean something anyway. That’s just the way those two guys are wired.

So fans get ready because Cat-Griz 2018, yeah, it’s going to be the type of rivalry game we all love. Like I said, gasoline on the fire.