FRANK GOGOLA
406 MT Sports
MISSOULA — The Montana football team hits the road for the first time this season by making a trip to a former conference foe.
North Dakota was a Big Sky member from 2012-17 and shared the league title in 2016. The Fighting Hawks played a full Big Sky schedule in 2018-19 as an independent team and moved to the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2020.
UM and UND will face off for the first time since 2018 when they kick off at 5 p.m. MT on Saturday in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Fighting Hawks will return to Missoula on Sept. 13, 2025, to complete the home-and-home agreement that was signed in 2017.
“Last time we were there was 2018, they beat us, so we know it’s a tough place,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said, referencing a 41-14 loss on Oct. 13, 2018. “We’ll have our hands full trying to go in there and get a win.”
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Bubba Schweigert was North Dakota’s head coach in that last meeting between the programs. He’s still in charge as he’s in his 11th season leading the Fighting Hawks, 25th season at UND and 38th year in college football.
He’s posted a 61-51 record since 2014, the fourth-most wins in program history, and a 35-26 mark in conference games across both the Big Sky and MVFC. UND has qualified for the playoffs in four of the past five seasons, making it one of only seven FCS teams to achieve that feat.
“Coach Schweigert does a great job,” Hauck said. “They’re always good up front. They’re always fundamentally sound. They do things to keep you off balance. He’s been at it a long time. His teams are always ready.”
The Fighting Hawks are ranked No. 23 in the FCS Top 25 poll entering this week’s matchup. They’re coming off a 21-3 loss at Big 12 Iowa State and were driving at the end of the half with a chance to force a halftime tie.
A veteran defensive coaching staff helped make it a relatively competitive outing even though UND returned only three starters. The offense brought back six starters but couldn’t finish drives with a new quarterback, four new offensive linemen, a new offensive coordinator/QB coach and a new OL coach.
“I thought they played really well last Saturday at Iowa State,” Hauck said. “If the ball bounced their way a couple of times, then that outcome might have been different for them.”
The Fighting Hawks ended last year ranked No. 16 after they went 7-5 overall and 5-3 in the MVFC. They were upset in the first round of the playoffs at home, a 42-35 loss to Sacramento State, a team Montana beat 34-7.
That was one of four common opponents. The Griz lost 23-3 to South Dakota State, which UND lost to 42-21. UM lost to Northern Arizona 28-14 while UND won 37-22. The Griz beat NDSU 31-29 while UND won 49-24, the latter being a game that Hauck said was “eye-opening” when he rewatched it on Monday.
“I have some familiarity with them just because they beat my brother last year when he was at NDSU,” Griz senior safety Ryder Meyer said. “I know they’re a good team, they got good skill.”
None of the players on the Griz roster played in the 2018 game at North Dakota. Defensive end Andres Lehrmann, who transferred in this offseason from MVFC team Youngstown State, played a game at UND in 2021.
Several members on the staff have coached in the Alerus Center. First-year offensive line coach Joe Pawlak coached at UND for the previous five seasons.
“I actually walked into coach Pawlak’s office and watched a couple plays with him and he was kind of giving me the breakdown of a few of their players,” UM senior running back Nick Ostmo said. “They look pretty good. They kind of fly around. They got big dudes up front. We’re excited for another challenge and hoping to get off to a good start this week.”
This will be the 26th meeting between UM and UND. The Griz lead the series 15-9-1 since they first matched up in 1915. They’re 6-5-1 in Grand Forks.
Home sweet dome
Montana won its 13th consecutive home game on Saturday. That’s the third-longest active streak in the FCS behind South Dakota State and Florida A&M, which are both at 21, according Stats Perform/The Analyst.
UND has also had a decided home-field advantage recently. The Fighting Hawks are 25-3 in their dome going back to their final home game of 2018. They haven’t lost more than one home game in any season since 2019.
UND has gone 10-3 against ranked teams at home going back to the start of the 2019 season. Montana will be the first opponent ranked inside the top five to play inside the Alerus Center since No. 1 South Dakota State in 2022.
The Fighting Hawks are also riding a 37-game winning streak in home openers, last losing in 1986. Meanwhile, Montana has won 13 consecutive regular-season nonconference games dating back to 2019.
“It’s going to make a difference to be at home,” Schweigert said. “We play well at home. We want to see that Alerus Center packed with an electric crowd out there because I think it’ll help us in this game.”
The Alerus Center seats a capacity of 12,283, is located minutes from UND’s campus and opened in 2001. It’s one of four domes in the MVFC; the others are North Dakota State’s Fargodome, Northern Iowa’s UNI-Dome and South Dakota’s DakotaDome.
The three other domes in the FCS are all in the Big Sky: Idaho’s Kibbie Dome, Idaho State’s Holt Arena and Northern Arizona’s Walkup Skydome. The Griz played in two of those last year. Players who have been on the team since 2022 have played in all three plus NDSU in the playoffs.
“I don’t know if it’ll be anything out of the ordinary for our guys,” Hauck said. “It’s indoors and the football field is the same size. I do think that they will have a nice crowd on Saturday night. I think that they support well and all that, so you have to manage that noise piece as best you can.”
There are two more domes in NCAA Division I football, both at the FBS level, for a total of nine. They are Syracuse’s JMA Wireless Dome (previously the Carrier Dome) and Texas-San Antonio’s Alamodome.
Morrison honored
Ty Morrison was named the Big Sky special teams player of the week on Monday after his debut with the Griz.
He had joined UM in the summer after he spent the past two seasons at College of the Canyons, a California junior college. He didn’t play in 2023 but was an all-conference first-team pick in 2022.
“I saw him down at San Diego State’s camp a year and a half ago,” Hauck said. “He sat out last year. He had some schools that were paying attention to him, including us. He weighed his decision out and what he was going to do and he ended up being here.
“He did a nice job obviously on Saturday. That was something excellent by him.”
Morrison made all three of his field goal attempts: 35, 22 and 38 yards. He also went 2 of 3 on extra points as he made five consecutive kicks after he doinked his first PAT off the left upright in his first time kicking inside Wa-Griz.
Morrison also averaged 45.3 yards on four punts. He pinned two punts inside the 20-yard line and boomed a 61-yarder. Bears punter Grant Burkett, a three-time All-American, averaged 42.3 yards on four punts with a long of 52.
The one thing he didn’t do was kicking off. Grant Glasgow handled that.
“It would be great to have one guy that could do everything,” Hauck said. “Ty’s probably one of those guys even though he’s not kicking off for us right now. It would be great for travel numbers and such to just bring one guy and save some seats on the plane for guys that are playing more at positions.”
Missouri State junior safety Todric McGee was named the MVFC defensive player of the week for his performance against Montana. He totaled a game-high 11 tackles, including three solo stops and 0.5 tackles for loss.
Frank Gogola is the Senior Sports Reporter at the Missoulian and 406 MT Sports. Follow him on X @FrankGogola or email him at frank.gogola@406mtsports.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-04 02:00:00
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