UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA GRIZZLY FOOTBALL National Champions 1995, 2001 2015 Griz Shedule (1-1 overall, 0-0 Big Sky) @ DATE OPPONENT TIME/RESULT 8/29 North Dakota State W 38-35 9/5 Cal Poly L 19-20 9/19 @Liberty 5:00 PM (MT) Game 3 - #7/8 Montana (1-1) @ #14/15 Liberty (1-1) 9/26 Northern Arizona * 2:00 PM September 19, 2015 - Williams Stadium (19,200) 10/3 @UC Davis * 2:00 PM (MT) Lynchburg, Va. - 7:04 p.m. - ESPN 3 10/10 Weber State * 2:00 PM 10/24 North Dakota * 1:30 PM 10/31 @Portland State * 3:00 PM (MT) #7 Montana hits the road to face #14 Liberty 11/7 @Idaho State * 2:30 PM 11/14 Eastern Washington * 1:30 PM 11/21 Montana State * Noon The Montana Grizzlies hit the road for the first time this season, traveling east of the Mississippi River for only the seventeenth time in program history, and for the sixth time in regular season history to face the Flames Quick Facts of Liberty University (14,500). THE GAME: #14 Liberty hosts #7 Montana in a nonconference, top-15 President: Dr. Royce C. Engstrom showdown. Kickoff is set for 7:04 p.m. ET on Sept. 19 at Williams Stadi- Founded: Feb. 17, 1893 um, a 19,200 seat facility that ranks among the tops in FCS. Tickets to the Enrollment: 13,952 (Fall, 2014) game are well on their way to being sold out. Athletic Director: Kent Haslam Nickname: Grizzlies, Griz Liberty defeated No. 1 ranked Coastal Carolina in the final game of the Colors: Copper, Silver, Gold 2014 regular season; going 9-5 on the year and advancing to the FCS playoffs for the first time. The Flames head into the game against Mon- Head Coach: Bob Stitt (Doane College, 1987) tana 1-1, coming off a 41-17 loss to FBS West Virginia in Morgantown. Stitt Record at Mines: 108/62 - 15 years The Flames opened their 2015 season with a 32-13 win over Delaware Stadium: Washington-Grizzly (25,217) State in Lynchburg. WGS Press Box Phone: 406-243-4167 WGS Attendance Record: 26,472 versus SERIES/LAST MEETING: Flames quarterback Josh Woodrum made his North Dakota State, 8/29/15 college start as a freshman in 2012 when Liberty fell to Montana 34-14 in All-time WGS Stadium Rec.: 181-26 (.874) Missoula. That game was the first-ever between the two schools, and Sat- urday marks the first-ever visit by a Big Sky Conference team to Williams Conference: Big Sky (Inaugural, 1963) Stadium. Division: 1 (FCS for football) All-Time Record: 574-475-23 (.541) TV/STREAMING: Griz fans can watch Saturday’s Montana vs. Liberty Big Sky Record: 227-122-1 (.647) game on ESPN 3 and on ESPN College Extra. Head Athletic Trainer (FB): J.C. Weida Head Equipment Manager: Rob Stack ESPN College Extra is a new pay-per-view college sports service that Conference *Titles (19): 1969, 1970, 1982, replaces the old ESPN GamePlan. ESPN College Extra is available to customers of AT&T U-verse and DIRECTV (Channels 788-799), Bright 1993, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, House Networks, Cox, Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS and select 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009. NCTC members. *Includes shared titles FCS Playoffs (22): 1982, 1988, 1989, 1993, In late August, ESPN exercised its option with the Big South Conference 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, to carry the Montana/Liberty game exclusively on ESPN 3. ESPN rolled 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, out its new College Extra platform on September 5. 2008, 2009, 2011!, 2013, 2014. (!=Vacated wins). 2014 Record: 9-5 (6-2 BSC-2nd) Previously, Cowles Montana Media was scheduled to carry the game. With ESPN exercising their option with the Big South Conference in Au- 2014 Starters Back: 23 gust, Cowles became unable to show the broadcast. 2014 Lettermen Back: 35 PAGE 2 GRIZ FOOTBALL 2015 Preseason Big Sky Polls GRIZ RADIO: Veteran play-by-play man Mick Holien takes the mike for his 23rd season as “Voice of the Griz”. Greg Sundberg moves into Media Poll the booth this season along side Holien after four seasons as sideline 1. Eastern Washington (17) 553 reporter. Adam Painter will be on the sideline. Live broadcast can be 2. Montana State (17) 541 heard statewide on the Grizzly Sports Radio Network, and worldwide 3. Montana (5) 446 on gogriz.com. 3. Idaho State (5) 446 5. Cal Poly (1) 433 LAST GAME: Two weeks ago, kicker Alex Vega broke Montana 6. Northern Arizona (1) 399 hearts, kicking a 49-yard field goal with four seconds to play that 7. Sacramento State 278 gave the previously unranked Cal Poly Mustangs a 20-19 victory at 8. Southern Utah 255 Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Montana had taken the lead over the 9. North Dakota 226 Mustangs with 3:43 remaining when Derek Crittenden sacked Cal 10. Weber State 160 Poly quarterback Chris Brown in the end zone for a safety to put the 11. UC Davis 145 Griz up 19-17. 12. Portland State 133 13. Northern Colorado 127 Bye-week: Montana took its first of two bye weeks last week after two physical games to open the season. The Griz put in three extra Coaches’ Poll three days of practice with the Liberty game plan last week, and 1. Montana State (6) 134 giving the players time to rest over the weekend. 2. Eastern Washington (6) 133 3. Montana (1) 121 Montana gets the luxury of having two bye weeks this season due 4. Cal Poly 111 to its participation in the ESPN “FCS Kickoff” game against North 5. Northern Arizona 95 Dakota State on August 29th, a full week before the rest of college 6. Idaho State 90 football started around the country. Montana’s next bye week comes 7. Sacramento State 66 the week of October 17. 8. Southern Utah 64 9. Portland State 51 GRIZ CLIMB THE RANKING: By virtue of Eastern Washington 9. North Dakota 51 falling to 0-2 on the early season, the Grizzlies have climbed the 11. Weber State 43 national rankings to No. 7 in the FCS Coaches’ Poll, but stayed put 12. UC Davis 33 on the bye week at No. 8 in the SATS FCS media poll. 13. Northern Colorado 22 Montana picked up 450 points in the Coaches’ poll to put them 10 points ahead of South Dakota State. In the STATS FCS media poll, 2015 Big Sky Football Standings the Griz have 2650 points and are the top-ranked school in the Big Sky Conference. The Big Sky has six different teams in the top 25, SCHOOL CONF PCT OVER tied for the most representatives of any conference with the Missou- Portland State 1-0 1.000 2-0 ri Valley Conference. Northern Colorado 0-0 0.000 2-0 Northern Arizona 0-0 0.000 2-0 OFFENSE IN THE RANKINGS: Two games in to the FCS season, North Dakota 0-0 0.000 2-0 and UM Quarterback Brady Gustafson leads the nation in two differ- Montana State 0-0 0.000 1-0 ent passing categories. Idaho State 0-1 0.000 1-1 Montana 0-0 0.000 1-1 “Gus” is ranked first in the FCS in passing yards per game with Cal Poly 0-0 0.000 1-1 393.5, and total passing yards with 787. Gustafson also ranks sec- Sacramento State 0-0 0.000 1-1 ond nationally in total offense with 410 yards per game of produc- Eastern Washington 0-0 0.000 0-2 tion. UC Davis 0-0 0.000 0-2 Weber State 0-0 0.000 0-2 VAN ACKEREN RANKED: Kendrick Van Ackeren is listed as one of Southern Utah 0-0 0.000 0-2 the nations top five tacklers this week as well, with 15 total tackles, tying him for fourth place in the national ranking. Van Ackeren also leads the Big Sky Conference in total tackles (30). PAGE 3 GRIZ FOOTBALL 2015 FCS Coaches’ Poll THE GRIZ BREAKDOWN Last Updated - September 14, 2015 Keys to the game RANK SCHOOL RECORD POINTS PREV. 1 Coastal Carolina (14) 2-0 620 1 Defense 2 North Dakota State 1-1 592 2 3 Villanova 1-1 574 2 4 Jacksonville State (5) 1-1 553 6 Montana will get the services of Defensive Tackles Caleb Kidder 5 Sam Houston State 0-1 545 4 and Zach Peevey back for this weekend’s matchup in Virginia. 6 Illinois State (1) 1-1 538 5 An intimidating 6-5 presence in the middle of the line, Kidder 7 Montana 1-1 450 8 8 South Dakota State(2) 2-0 440 10 started against NDSU, tallying seven tackles before sitting out 9 Montana State 1-0 434 9 against Cal Poly with a leg injury. Also back from injury is 6-7 295 10 James Madison 2-0 409 11 11 Northern Iowa 1-1 403 14 R-Jr. Offensive Tackle McCauley Todd. 12 Chattanooga 1-1 343 12 13 New Hampshire 1-1 287 15 The Griz secondary will need to contain Flames QB Josh Wood- 14 Liberty 1-1 285 13 15 Eastern Washington 0-2 270 7 rum, the FCS active career passing leader who only needs 38 16 Youngstown State 1-1 240 17 passing yards to surpass the 8,000 yard mark. 17 S.E. Louisiana 2-0 208 18 18 Cal Poly 1-1 195 20 19 Fordham 1-1 183 16 Just as the fans at Washington-Grizzly Stadium act as another 20 Portland State 2-0 123 NR player on the field for the Griz, the Montana defense will need to 21 McNeese State 1-0 121 23 22 Eastern Kentucky 1-1 120 19 contend with a hostile environment at Williams Stadium.