Is Montana ready to believe in Bob Stitt?
Bob Stitt returns for his second season as the head coach of the University of Montana. The Griz finished 8-5 in his first year, including a playoff appearance and playoff win, and most importantly, a win of the Bobcats. Can he improve upon last season and should Griz fans believe in Bob Stitt?
Z-Train (Griz Fan): We are going to find out if we can believe in Bob Stitt early on, and we’ll be able to tell by the play of this new crop of WRs. That will be the true test of if Stitt’s system can work at this level. Last year we had two or three WRs that rank in the top 10 of all-time Griz history. Because of their special talent, a banged up offensive line, and a rotating QB situation, Stitt scrapped his system and relied on two or three plays that worked, which were usually get it to Jamal or Ellis. It’s like the kid that plays with Phoenix in NBA Live 95 and just uses Majerle to rain threes and you can’t stop it. But that works just to a point.
This year is an interesting mirror image: we don’t have any boldfaced names but we have what’s actually probably closer to what Stitt intended.
Besides WR, I’ll be looking at the defense to see if Stitt is for real. Stitt’s gambling lessons (minimize time between snaps, go for it on 4th, etc.) rely heavily on a capable defense ready to play well. We have three linebackers that have never taken a defensive snap for us. Strahm is going to be a big guy in the middle and Banks has experience at UAB, but that’ll be a position to watch. I really like Yamen at safety and think he’ll be all-league. The two new guys on the outside make me nervous when our top league competition (Northern Arizona) has a great passer in Cookus.
Coach (Cat fan): Stitt did some great things in his first year. He’s pulled some good recruits and brought in a sexy offense, but if he wants to stay he’ll have to win chippers (Big Sky Conference and at least play for Natty Titles) because that’s what your fan base requires. Anything less and he’ll be on his way out and into an OC job at the FBS level sooner rather than later.
So far, he’s talked a big game and backed it up about half the time. He’s shown he can beat great teams (NDSU, MSU) as well as be beaten by solid teams (Cal Poly, Liberty) AND allow shitty teams (Idaho State, Weber State) to beat them (or come close). They finished 8-5 which isn’t bad. But think if NDSU played to their potential in the first game and ISU doesn’t mess up that FG. I get he was great at his last job at the School of Mines, but a couple things go different last year and the Griz would have been 6-7.
Hot Take Nate (Cat Fan): Hate to break it to you, but Stitt didn’t do that much at the School of Mines. Why do you think he was down at D2 so long? Where does everyone get this fairy tale story of Bob Stitt? He spent 15 years at the School of Mines, and finished first in the conference just three times! He made the playoffs three times, but never past the second round! The Cats won more Big Sky Conference championships during the time that Stitt was at Mines than he did in his D2 conference.
Jasper Moonshot (Griz Fan): Stitt has discussed the difficulty of recruiting kids to the School of Mines. It’s an academic-first institution. He did wonders with sub-par talent by being an offensive savant.
Hot Take Nate (Cat Fan): Did you read my last paragraph? He didn’t do wonders. At all.
Z-Train (Griz Fan): Stitt is a Master Chef. The guy’s been cooking up masterpieces with expired spam down at the School of Mines. Now UM has given him a proper kitchen and some filet! Filet!
I’ve bought the hype on Stitt and am ready to go Full Stitt for an entire season. One of my favorite 30 Rock episodes involved Jack telling Liz that sometimes, to escape the crevasse, you have to climb deeper down into the darkness, fighting every natural instinct in hopes of finding a way out.
Stitt is the first to acknowledge that Montana’s reputation, while deserved, was built years ago by other teams. We want to be that Montana again. To get there, we just may have to cut that rope and enter the Stitt abyss, giving ourselves to the dark terrors of going for it on 4th, whipping the ball around to 40 different receivers, and leaving our defense out to dry when needed.
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