Just a note to Missoulian readers that I will be taking over for Fritz Neighbor as Griz football beat writer in 2013. I look forward to bringing you the best Griz coverage in the area with the help of my good friends in the Missoulian sports dept. It should be a fun-filled fall with the [...]

The trip to Ronan on Saturday reminded me of any other trip I’ve made up 93 to watch a Montana Grizzlies’ football scrimmage. Cold. Windy. Little offense. I mentioned in my story notes that two other trips north netted some pretty dismal passing numbers. The exception was 2008 in Polson: Cole Bergquist, Andrew Selle, Jeff [...]

One of the more dangerous words in the sports is “potential,” but after a couple handfuls of Griz spring football practices, I see a team that is potentially much better in all three areas than the one that went 5-6 in 2012. I’m not the only one. “I really do,” said Mick Delaney, whose first [...]

While the Montana Grizzlies gear up for their final spring football practice before spring break, here’s a story about how a young but capable group of receivers has looked so far. In my mind the Griz haven’t had so many unproven wide outs in maybe 25 years. This may be a reason Coach Mick Delaney [...]

Saturday’s scrimmage, coming as it did on the fourth practice of spring drills, ended with the Montana Grizzlies’ defense ahead of their offense. That’s normal. But there is a chance that this defense, with 10 starters back from a group that got better as the season went on – and I’m including the record-setting North [...]

Man, this was a long day, but enjoyable. I find all days get better once you are done transcribing interviews. Here is the 2013 Montana Grizzlies football recruiting class. Final-final. Jamaal Anderson, 5-11, 180, CB, Fontana, Calif. Recruited by UM a year ago, Anderson spent an extra year at San Bernardino Valley College. In 2011 [...]

With the loss of Gunnar Brekke I’m guessing the Griz had to go out and find another DB (which is what I suspected Brekke was going to play at UM), and they found one – Chris Parker, a hard-hitting corner out of the same high school that gave the UM Matt Hermanson.* Highlights are easy [...]

An alert reader pointed out that while I wrote Friday that Marquin Russell was the 10th verbal commitment for the Montana Grizzlies’ 2013 football signing class, I didn’t name the other nine. Below is my list so far, with whatever detail I was able to dig up on each player. Some of these guys are [...]

News flash, Griz fans. You didn’t have Johnny Manziel out there. In fact, Jordan Johnson was no Johnny Manziel — at least not after that Sac State loss in 2011, am I right? But in 2012 there was no Jordan Johnson, either, and so the Montana Grizzlies came at the world with Trent McKinney and Shay Smithwick-Hann [...]

While some hold out hope that a big Montana Grizzly victory in Saturday’s Brawl of the Wild will mean an FCS playoff berth, this is likely the last game of UM’s season. The Sports Network’s Craig Haley notes there will be many 7-, 8- and even possibly a 10-win team that won’t make the 20-team [...]