Things I wish I’d written, Sac State edition

Alarms set for 5 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. on Friday and Sunday have hurt my sleep cycle; apologies for this late post. In case you missed it, Sacramento State’s first-ever win over the Montana Grizzlies came in convincing fashion; the game wasn’t as close as the score (42-28) indicated. I wrote two stories that pretty much belabored the [...]

Game day, I mean evening, in Sacramento

Can you believe Charles Burton played running back in high school? Me either, but the 315-pound right tackle for the Griz originally tried out at running back as a freshman at Long Beach Milliken. I can’t get over that, or the fact that he’s 20 — that’s TWENTY — and a senior for the Montana Grizzlies, [...]

Which is the real Sac State?

Here’s my weekly “Who’s Next” story concerning the Sacramento State Hornets, who play host to the No. 10 Grizzlies Saturday evening. It’s hard to tell which version I’ll see Saturday — the Hornets who were 13 points from going 8-0 in Big Sky play a year ago, or the ones who took it on the [...]

Things I wish I’d written, Eastern version

Time and opportunity ran out on now-No. 21 Eastern Washington Saturday in its 17-14 loss to No. 10 Montana, and it won’t get any easier for the Eagles, who have No. 4 Montana State this Saturday. As noted earlier, it was a bizarre game full of big plays that threatened to turn the tide either [...]

Heating up the Greenferno

It’s about 60 minutes to game time on Saturday for the Big Sky showdown between No. 10 Eastern Washington and No. 12 Montana, and Washington-Grizzly Stadium will no doubt be rocking. Among the many subplots will be how the Grizzlies’ back end — their linebackers plus a fairly green secondary — deal with an Eagles offense [...]

The Champs are coming to town

Here is Wednesday’s Griz Tracks about Eastern Washington, 0-2 but still ranked No. 10, and still the national champion for the FCS as it heads into Saturday’s game at Washington Grizzly Stadium (1:05 p.m. kickoff). You’d probably feel better about an 0-2 opponent if a) you hadn’t lost three pretty dang good secondary players (Jimmy [...]

I think I saw Josh McDaniel in my scrambled eggs

If you follow the Griz and the Denver Broncos, you may know where this is going. McDaniel is the offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams and he spent Thursday trying out running backs for an open roster spot because the Rams could be missing Steven Jackson (sore quad) Monday night against the Giants. One of [...]

Things I wish I’d written, Cal Poly edition

There was a lot to like about the Montana Grizzlies’ 37-23 victory over Cal Poly Saturday, from Jabin Sambrano’s 96-yard return of the opening kickoff to Dan Moore’s win-clinching touchdown, his second of the game. Bill Speltz mused that sophomore quarterback Jordan Johnson quite possibly “arrived” with his play in the second half Saturday. We [...]

Home opener time

How early do you have to set your alarm to read all the Griz copy before kickoff? I’m thinking 8-ish… Here is Bill Speltz’s feature on Griz great and artist Karl Stein, and my preview and Griz Tracks for today’s game with Cal Poly. Thought it was interesting that UM coach Robin Pflugrad said about [...]

More TIWIW and an NFL count

The Griz are concentrating on Cal Poly this week, but it’s not too late to include this snippet KECI’s Kayla Anderson took of Jabin Sambrano’s run-in with the foundation of Neyland Stadium. Pretty good concentration. I’d also like to add that Mike McCord made an NFL-caliber hit (the TV commentators’ words) on a UT receiver [...]