Bound to Brawl

Whether it's Big Sky championships, FCS playoff berths, the Divide Trophy, or simply state pride and bragging rights, when Montana and Montana State meet on the football field on the third Saturday of each November, emotions are always going to run high. It's that way for the players, the coaches and the fans.

Put another way, the Cat-Griz game is just like all the other great college football rivalries - no matter what's at stake, it's a really big game.

And yet, just when it looked like Cat-Griz couldn't get any bigger, it has.

When No. 25 Montana State (4-3, 6-4) visits Montana (4-3, 6-4) Saturday in Missoula, the stakes will be sky-high for both teams. With a win, the Bobcats will have their longest winning streak against the Grizzlies in more than three decades, and will secure their first berth in the FCS playoffs in five years.

On the other side, Bobby Hauck is back at the helm for the Grizzlies, and he's trying to snap a two-game UM losing streak in the series. With a win, the Griz could also lock up a playoff berth for the first time in three years.

Oh yeah, there's also the little matter of bragging rights for the next 364 days too.

Yes, the stakes are high in Missoula with the 118th Brawl of the Wild set to kick off at high Noon inside sold-out Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

"It's a rivalry game. That ups everyone's excitement," Montana senior linebacker Josh Buss said Monday. "Honestly, right now, I think every player's just taking it day by day, get better, focus on the assignments, what the coaches have for us. When it comes Saturday, then it'll be game time.

"Growing up I watched this game," said Montana State DL Tucker Yates, who hails from Colstrip. "My dream was to play in the game, obviously. And now it's just a dream come true."

Yates and the Bobcats can fulfill another dream with a second straight win in Missoula. If the Cats beat the Griz they're certainly in the playoffs, and it would cement their first three-game winning streak in the series since they beat the Griz from 1983-1985.

And to fulfill that dream of getting back to the playoffs in head coach Jeff Choate's third year in Bozeman, MSU will rely on Yates, and its stingy defense, aided by defensive end Bryce Sterk, who has 14.5 tackles for loss, linebacker Grant Collins, who has come on strong in his senior year, and safeties Brayden Konkol and Jaqhue Allene, who have been tackling and ball-hawking menaces in the secondary this season. Konkol has a team-high 71 tackles and Allene has a Big Sky best five interceptions for an MSU defense which ranks in the top five in the Big Sky in scoring, total defense, rush defense and pass defense.

All eyes will also be on a star-studded Montana defense Saturday. That's because the Grizzlies, who also rank among the top half of the Big Sky in scoring, total defense and rushing defense, will try and do something no team has really been able to do thus far: slow down, or flat-out stop Montana State sophomore quarterback Troy Andersen.

While the Bobcats rank 12th in the Big Sky in passing, they are third in the conference in rushing offense averaging 230 yards per game. Andersen has carried a big part of that load, as he's fourth in the conference in rushing at just over 100 yards per game, while he's scored 16 touchdowns on the season. Add in freshman sensation Isaiah Ifanse, who has over 700 yards and six touchdowns thus far, and the Cats' ground game certainly has the Grizzlies attention.

"He's a really good athlete, he's a good football player," Hauck said of Andersen. "But we have to go out and play hard and hopefully play well."

While MSU averages 30 points per game, and the Cats are an exceptional running team, Montana's defense is no slouch either.

Buss, and junior linebacker Dante Olson, who is the leading candidate for the 2018 Buck Buchanen award with his FCS best 131 tackles, are the heart and soul of a Griz' defense that allows 29 points and just 174 yards rushing per outing. Add in veterans Jesse Sims, David Shaw and Reggie Tilleman on the DL and safeties Josh Sandry and Robby Hauck, and Montana's defense is certainly built to stop what the Cats do best; which is something the Griz haven't done in the last two brawls - games MSU won by scores of 31-23 last year and 24-17 in 2016. In those two games, the Cats rushed for over 300 yards in each outing.

"Throw the last two games out the window," Choate said "It's a different coaching staff, a different defensive scheme. They're a well-coached team. They'll have their guys ready to go. And they'll have answers for what we're doing in the run game, and clearly we'll have to be able to respond to that."

Indeed, the Grizzlies will make stopping, or at least slowing down the potent Bobcat rushing attack priority No. 1 on Saturday. But, they'll also make continuing what they've been doing on offense the last two weeks a priority as well.

While both MSU and UM come into the brawl on two-game winning streaks, Montana has seen an absolute revival of its offense in blowout wins over Southern Utah and Idaho. The Griz average 35 points and 450 yards of total offense, with much of that coming on the shoulders of star QB Dalton Sneed, who is second in the Big Sky in total offense and fourth in passing. Sneed has an array of weapons to throw to as well, led by sophomore Sammy Akem and his league-leading 12 touchdowns. Jerry Louie-McGee is as electrifying as well, and Montana is back to using old-school tight ends. Montana will be without the services of senior RB Jeremy Calhoun, but Sneed is the Griz's leading rusher, and, in his first Cat-Griz game, the intensity of the rivalry is not lost on the transfer from UNLV.

"It's a very important game as far as for the whole state of Montana and for the university here," Sneed said. "That's what everyone's been telling me. For me, I know I'm just taking it as just like any other game and just want to go out there and play."

Going out and playing is the biggest thing. The hype, the intensity and emotion, are always there when it comes to Cat-Griz, but, at the end of the day, it will come down to execution.

Montana State wants to run the football, and control the narrative with time of possession on offense and control things on the other side with a physical, veteran defense.

"I know they'll have a good scheme for us," Choate said. "But I'll say this, we all are kind of who we are after 10 games. They're not gonna invent a new defense to stop what we do. We can't invent a new defense to stop what they do. We've got to execute what we do at a high level, and it's probably going to come down to the things games always do ... turnovers, special teams, momentum swings, explosive plays, who is going to handle the elements, who is going to be most excited to play and who it is going to mean more too."

Hauck doesn't disagree on the execution part either. When Montana doesn't turn the ball over, the Griz are extremely hard to beat, so, on both sides of the ball, it's the same; the game will come down to execution.

"(For us) it's not complex," Hauck said. "Take care of the ball and play a little better."

And while no one knows better than Hauck how big the rivalry is, especially with so much at stake once again, he also noted that, even though it's the Cats who are coming to town, the Griz have no intentions of changing who they are at this point.

"My opinion is any time the Grizzlies play, it's a big game," Hauck said. "So, our preparation is uniform through the season. It won't differ any this week. But, the difference is everybody's attention in our home state is focused on Missoula, Montana, this Saturday."

And while the Griz and the Cats will prepare for Saturday's game, the latest in a series that dates back to 1897, and one Montana leads 72-39-5, the same as they have done all season, there's no denying this game is different, it's special and it just flat-out means more to everybody, Hauck, Choate, the players, the fans, the whole state.

"I've been watching it my whole life. My family, my grandparents, (we) all always watched the game and we made it a point to watch it every year," Yates said. "Now playing in it, it's so special to me. Being from Montana and having my family and friends watch me is real special.

"Clearly, it's a game that's very meaningful to the state of Montana, to both programs, both fan bases, to everybody, so I think it's going to be a very exciting game. Montana is playing their best football right now, I feel like we've built some momentum as well. So it's exciting.

"Growing up here, you don't really understand tradition until you're actually here," Sims said. "There's always the Griz-Cat rivalry, but I didn't really understand it until I came to school here and how much it means to the people that are Griz fans; how much it means to the players that have played here before; the players that are playing now and the players that are gonna be here in the future; it means a lot to all of us."

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

The 118th Brawl of the Wild will kick off at 12 p.m. Saturday inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on Root Sports.

Brawl of the Wild

#25 Montana State Bobcats (4-3, 6-4) at #24 Montana Grizzlies (4-3, 6-4)

Saturday, Noon

Washington-Grizzly Stadium

TV: Root Sports

Twitter: Twitter/Havredaily