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Published on November 23rd, 2016 | by Hot Take Nate

2016 Cat/Griz Reaction

After a months-long ride on an emotional rollercoaster, the season is over for both Cats and Griz. The Montana State Bobcats prevailed over the University of Montana Grizzlies, 24-17. The last time the Big Sky State hasn’t been represented in the playoffs was 1992! This week the Montana Mint Squad tries to figure out what happened and what lessons we learned from the 116th Brawl of the Wild.

Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): That was a weird game. The Griz looked like they had no fire for the Brawl. The Cats were definitely up for it. Choate came into the Cat-Griz with energy like we haven’t seen since Kramer.  The whole team looked like Tom Hanks in Cast Away after he creates fire on the beach. Chest puffed out, dancing around…LOTS of excitement.

Minty Coach (Cats fan):  MSU wanted it more. Because MSU is Montana.

Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Did you fellas see that graphic on the breakdown of Montana born players on each team? I didn’t think the disparity was that high!

bobcatsgriz-mt-kids-copy

Z-Train (Griz fan): Maybe having more Montana born kids helps in that game? But how do Cat coaches look so great that game but not in other games? It’s a weird game–anything can happen—in fact, I literally heard a Sirius XM commercial for their college football station that said, “College football—where anything can happen!” It was said in a tough guy announcer voice, so I believe it.

Scotty Mint (Cats fan): There has to be more to it than Montana born players. How did Saturday happen?

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): I think they key was how Bobcat defense owned the 2nd best offense in the Big Sky Conference. After the Griz went up 7 points on the first play from scrimmage, MSU allowed only 10 points! Uncovering why UM’s offense sputtered like an ’89 Ford Tempo is complex, and it’s hard not draw a line from Ty Gregorak’s intimate knowledge of Bob Sitt’s offensive scheme to his ability to stop that offense. You have to give MSU credit.

Z-Train (Griz fan): I think UM’s defensive coordinator, Jason Semore, had a scheme that was bad because it was too afraid of the pass at times.

Minty Coach (Cats fan): You know what didn’t help? That first quarter taunting penalty on 3rd down that ended up erasing a MSU false start. Unless you want to say that it helped Chris Murray tie the game with a touchdown 4 plays later!

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): You’re an ass, Minty Coach. I will forever be vexed by how a team beat the Griz at home with a QB who throws like Uncle Rico.

Scotty Mint (Cats fan): Ahem, Jasper, watch your mouth when talking about Chris “JumpMan” Murray, the Big Sky Conference Freshman of the Year!

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): I have to admit, JumpMan’s 142 yards was impressive. And the 368 total rushing yards certainly helped MSU control the game. Did you guys note Choate getting real candid in his post-game interview when he threw shade UM’s defensive weaknesses? He’s right. This would have never happened under Legi Suiaunoa’s watch.

Z-Train (Griz fan): I think Choate is playing the media to a certain extent with that comment.  If just noticing simple things like pad level wins games, they would have beat a few more shitty teams.  The pad level comment is the type of comment designed to play to the North End Zone Kool Aid-Guzzlers.

Winning Cat-Griz makes you look like a savant.

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): I think small things like pad level explain other issues. It’s symptomatic of large trends in failing to do little things right. The last 5 weeks have felt different. I think we’re seeing markers of a more serious trend.  I find it interesting that the Griz seemed to get worse as the season progressed. Their first 4 games were awesome. The only loss was a tight game to Cal Poly, who in their own right is a solid football team. Then UM slaps around 2 lousy teams and goes on to nose dive in the last 5 games. Their only win in that time frame was at home against Idaho State where they still have up 44 points!

Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): Choate is a FBS line coach. This isn’t some NAIA or DII coach that noticed pad level. This is a guy who recruited and coached what the University of Washington is doing as a top 5 program in the country right now.  Choate isn’t playing to media, but I’m assuming he’s over simplifying. He saw something and they exploited it. There’s not another head coach in the Big Sky Conference with his FBS pedigree at such successful institutions.

I said this earlier this year and caught shit from Griz fans: Bob Stitt really didn’t do much at Colorado School Mines & Irrelevance. All other schools in DII had the same resources and recruiting challenges, and he never got past the second round of the playoffs! He’s DII but gets a fly sweep shout-out after a BCS Bowl and everyone thinks he’s revolutionary. Don’t feel fooled by Stitt’s early success. I’d like to point out that Stitt is 14-10 as Griz coach, a mediocre 9-7 in the Big Sky and 1-1 against MSU. Choate out-coached Stitt on Saturday and I don’t see Stitt ever getting the best of Choate.

Z-Train (Griz fan): This perfectly illustrates my point: Choate is now a genius that can never be beat solely because he salvaged an otherwise terrible year with a win at UM. Before the last two weeks of the year, Choate’s FBS experience was beating ONE other FCS team. Let’s not let these blue and gold colored glasses completely rewrite the year. If Choate is a genius, how’d he get outfoxed by almost every other team? If Stitt is a dolt, how’s he lead a team to the second round of the playoffs in his first year and go toe to toe with NDSU in his first game? 

Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): I’m fairly certain Choate didn’t get outfoxed by every opponent and the Cats weren’t actually borderline horrible. They played to the level of their talent on the team. They improved over the last month. They grew up. They got coached.

Z-Train (Griz fan): All I’m saying is let’s not oversimplify everything because of one game.  Good teams have down games and underdogs with nothing to lose routinely over perform.  I’m not a chicken little after this loss.  Just last year UM won 54-35 in the litter box with the same coach! Let’s not put Choate on the $20 bill because he won one Cat-Griz.  I think they played a helluva game, but they were still borderline horrible for 90% of the year.

Minty Coach (Cats fan): I think for the first time in a long time the Cats finally trended UP to end the season. With Ash we started hot and then cooled off and failed in November. The Griz have had slow starts before and then heated up and made deep playoff runs. This year the Griz tailed off in October and November, but they were one goal line stand away from potentially winning the Cat-Griz game. If they win we’re looking at this whole season through a different lens and preparing for a home playoff game for UM.

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): “If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” — Mahatma Gandhi, probably talking about the MSU’s 2016 football team.

Z-Train (Griz fan): Here’s what’s amazing about this Cat-Griz game: It may have completely changed the trajectory of a program by Men in Black style “pen flash-lighting” the memories of an entire state as to what occurred the previous year. The entire narrative of the year has changed.  For example:

Montana State fires its winningest head coach, fires its Athletic Director, hires one Athletic Director only to see him back out at the last minute, loses probably a top 3 player in program history (Dakota Prukop) after a run of failing to live up to expectations, and goes 4-7 with two of those wins coming over Bryant and Western Oregon (and the third coming over horrendous—or not?  They beat UNC after all—UC Davis) and, then solely due to a win in Cat-Griz, they’re considered to be on the upswing. 

Montana program goes 6-5, doesn’t fire a head coach, doesn’t fire an Athletic Director, or lose a top player (but forces out a Defensive Coordinator that then goes to the rivals), but plays probably B-minus level football on average, and is considered a failure and in trouble because they lose Cat-Griz.

Minty Coach (Cats fan): It’s amazing what this one game can do in respect to the whole season; good or bad. With the win the Cats take momentum into the off-season and have a recruiting pitch with in-state recruits. I’m excited to see what Choate does this off-season. I see quite a few guys that will be shown the door for various reasons. I believe guys like Tavon Dodd, Trevon Strong, Bruggie, Khari Garcia, etc might be packing their bags. They didn’t produce and lost playing time over it. Choate, like Stitt, isn’t going to waste scholies on guys that can’t produce or follow directions.

Hot Take Nate (Cats fan): I think all fans in the state see there’s a shift coming. Cat-Griz is like a bowl game in FCS – if you win a bowl game your fans forget they didn’t win a chipper. Fans will forget about the losses.  This win is SO EFFING HUGE for our program and I don’t want that to get lost in a lazy view that we were just happy to beat the Griz and we don’t care what else happened during the season.  We want a successful season – playoff season – AND a Cat Griz win.  This win went a long way in getting us ready for that.

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): The Griz lose their last 2 games to inferior opponents and the Cats win their last 2 games to superior opponents. If you believe in momentum, this matters. The situation also reminds me of this all-time clip, and I really hope Choate sounds just like Lou Brown.

For the Griz, there a lot of uncertainty moving forward. Are there critical flaws in Stitt’s offensive game plan? Why did Jason Semore fail to adjust to MSU’s run-heavy (run-exclusive) attack? Who will play quarterback next year? Our top QBs, Gus and Chaz, are graduating and the third stringer, Reece Phillips, has maybe 20 total snaps under his belt. There’s no reason to believe a new Phillips will be better than Gus or Chaz—guys who had 2 years in Stitt’s system and real playing experience.

Z-Train (Griz fan): It is really strange why Stitt played Chaz over Phillips, and why Chaz was then kicked to the curb for Cat-Griz. Phillips must not be ready yet?

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): That’s what I’m thinking. And until questions about the QB are answered, I really think all other questions are mute. If I were a gambling man, next year I forecast about a similar record from UM.

Minty Coach (Cats fan): If UM posts a similar record next year, will Stitt get a 4th year? Will Stitt even get a 3rd year?!

Z-Train (Griz fan): I think Engstrom is safe giving Stitt at least one more year.  If he fires him now it throws the program into turmoil and confirms suspicions that Griz are on decline that at this point aren’t really proven.  It also sets a horrible precedent that a 6-5 year with a loss to the cats is a fireable offense, which gives all future in coaches zero room for error.  But maybe we want that?  That was certainly the expectation under Hauck–but oh how the Griz faithful hated Bobby’s sterling record, trips to the chipper, and conveyor belt of players into The League.

Maybe UM will back itself into a corner where no coach can be successful.  Will UM value consistency and the creation of an airtight, no-nonsense culture, or do they want a coaching roulette, hoping to haphazardly land on Mr. Right who can win right now. MSU certainly has had a different mindset, or at least until they got the itchy trigger finger (poor Ash). I do think UM’s hastiness will be encouraged since Choate won Cat-Griz. I say if Engstrom keeps him around one more year he lets Stitt make the decision for him.  Two years of missed playoffs and or loss to the cats and a firing is expected and uncontroversial–opposite of what it would be this year.  Or, if Stitt turns it around, you get a program that has some consistency.  One more year is a win-win for Royce.

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): Stitt is already on contract for a 3rd year. UM has too much financial trouble to think about buying him out of a contract. And I don’t think Engstrom cares a whole lot about football, other than when he acknowledges—in private moments—that football success correlates strongly with enrollment. And enrollment correlates strongly to Engstrom keeping his job (sarcasm).

The call on hiring and firing is with the Athletic Director, Kent Haslam. I think Haslam would look bad firing a coach he hired just two years ago. It signals he made the wrong decision. I’m heart broken over the season, but I don’t think Stitt will be fired—nor do I think he should be fired. Next year we should be able to tell if Stitt can hack it at this level. It’s possible he’s mostly a system guy. At this level, you need coaches who can develop players. All the athletic, mostly developed football players are in the FBS. It’s possible to recruit athletes to the places like Bozeman and Missoula, but to win, coaches must have the ability to mold athletes into players and teach them the fundamentals—things like pad level.

Minty Coach (Cats fan): I’m sorry to hear about your heart break. I know exactly how you feel. However, imagine going through that as a non-adult for 16 DAMN YEARS! This game has scarred me in ways I can’t even explain. I get anxious and nervous and have developed a hatred for all things UM as a result. It’s amazing what a football game can do to your life.

Jasper Moonshot (Griz fan): Thanks Coach. Do you know what makes my heart feel better? Seeing our awesome student-athletes doing good work in the community. Look, it’s my boy Joey Counts!


Minty Coach (Cats fan): Come on Jasper, this doesn’t count if it’s court-ordered!

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About the Author

Hot Take Nate

Hot Take Nate now resides in Northern California but still calls Montana his home. It'll always be home.


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