At Washington Grizzly Stadium on Saturday, December 7, the Griz football team went up against the South Dakota Jackrabbits in their second-round playoff game. The Griz fell to the Jackrabbits with a score of 18-35. This was the second time the teams met, with the first in January at the NCAA championship game, where the Jackrabbits also won with a score of 23-3.
This loss ended the team’s season with a record of 9-5 and only one playoff win.
Season Recap
The Griz season started with a home game on August 31 against the Missouri State Bears. The Griz won their home and season opener with a score of 29-24. This gave hope to Griz fans that this could be another season run to the NCAA championship.
For the next four weeks, the Griz only had one loss which was against the North Dakota Hawks, and had a final score of 27-24. The Griz won all their other games, with a stand-out game in week three against Morehead State Eagles with a score of 59-2.
The next two games were high in score but still close together in score. Week four was against Western Carolina Catamounts, which ended in a win for the Griz with a score of 46-35. In week five, the Griz had another tight win against the Eastern Washington Eagles with a score of 52-49.
In week six, the Griz had their second loss of the season to the Weber State Wildcats. The game went into overtime and ended with a close score of 48-55. The Griz won all of their games by over ten points over the next three weeks. Week seven was against the Northern Colorado Bears, where the Griz stopped all of the Bears’ offensive plays that led the game to end with a score of 24-0.
Week eight was also a good game for the Griz defense as they blocked all but seven points by the Cal Poly Mustangs. The game ended with a score of 42-7. Week nine was against the UC Davis Aggies, and they handed the Griz their third loss of the season. This game kinda got away from the Griz, with the score not being as close as it had been in the last few weeks. The final score was 14-30.
The last four weeks of the Griz season, they had two wins and two losses. In week ten, the Griz defeated Portland State Vikings by eleven points with a final score of 28-17. Week eleven was against Montana State Bobcats for the brawl of the wild. The game was hosted in Bozeman, and the Griz lost the trophy with a final score of 11-34.
Week twelve was against the Tennessee State Tigers for the first-round playoff game. The game was close in score until the fourth quarter when the Griz offense took off. The power also went out in the middle of the fourth quarter, so anyone who watched the game at home didn’t see the rest of the game until the last three minutes or so. The Griz won with a score of 41-27.
In the final week, and round two of the playoffs, the Griz lost to the South Dakota Jackrabbits in their championship meet rematch. The final score of the game was 18-35.
Coach Oliver
Sentinel High School has produced some great Griz players over the years. As of right now, there are ten players from Missoula on the roster and eight of those players are from Sentinel.
Dane Oliver has been the head coach of Sentinel’s football program for the last seven years. Under his guidance, two teams have been state championships with the last two of these victories being back in 2020 and 2021.
Oliver is originally from Monmouth, Oregon, and in high school, he wasn’t thinking about playing football in college. In an interview done with him, he said, “[It was] after my Junior year of high school. I really loved basketball and thought I was going to be a basketball player. I started getting interested from Portland State and it opened up my avenues”.
The University of Montana was Oliver’s first choice. He played for the Griz from 2000-2003 as a wide receiver. He said it was like a “dream school” and “Joe Dugoules had come from Oregon, where I grew up. I followed him and that is how I found out about Montana”.
In the four years that Oliver played for Montana, he learned a lot from the coaches that he took into coaching his team. “Coach Glenn was very much a people person, knew everybody’s name, and coach Hauck was definitely organized, disciplinarian, [and] very special teams based”.
Next Season Predicted Roster
There are 24 seniors on the Griz roster and 39 freshmen, of which 27 are redshirted. Redshirted means that a player sits out there freshman year, but remains eligible to compete for four years.
The two Griz quarterbacks will be coming back for another season, Logan Fife and Keali’i Ah Yat. Both of these players had a fine season with Fife throwing 14 touchdowns and only two interceptions. Keali’i Ah Yat threw seven touchdowns but six interceptions.
Wide receiver Senior Junior Bergen is known for returning 30-plus yards on opponents’ kick returns. His shoes might be filled by freshman wide receiver Lekeldrick Bridges. Bridges played the last three games of the season giving him a total of six rushing yards.
There are two college freshmen on the roster right now from Sentinel, number 35 is Grady Walker and number 89 is Danny Sirmon. Both Walker and Sirmon’s fathers played for the Griz as Travis Walker is one of Montana’s top 30 all-time leaders in rushing yards, and David Sirmon was on the 95 national championship team.
Walker and Sirmon have also made impressive achievements so far in football as Walker earned all-state and first-team all-conference honors last year, and Sirmon also earned all those honors and caught 38 passes for 480 yards.
It’s most likely that both Walker and Sirmon will play next year as a wide receiver for Walker and a tight end for Sirmon.
