MOSCOW, Idaho – The Montana Grizzlies celebrated with the Little Brown Stein trophy Saturday, their prize for a rivalry win against the University of Idaho. But the party was short-lived.
Immediately after that they showed what has been on the minds of Griz football coaches, fans and players all year long. They broke with a chant that it’s Cat week, even if they don’t want to talk about it yet.
“We’ve got one rivalry game down. We’ll enjoy this one until Tuesday,” said head coach Bobby Hauck, who became the all-time winningest coach at Montana on Saturday. “And then we’ll get on that other one. Obviously that’s a big game on the schedule.”
“Obviously a big challenge at hand with the neighbors next week,” said linebacker Dante Olson. “But right now just celebrating this win and getting ready for next week.”
When he was asked about the upcoming game against Montana State, Griz quarterback Dalton Sneed sighed and simply said, “We’ve been looking forward to it a long time. So I’ll leave it at that.”
Montana’s last two huge wins on the road have added some more importance to what is already the biggest week of the season. Now at 6-4, the Grizzlies are clinging to very small FCS playoff hopes. They must beat Montana State to have any shot at getting into the bracket. The Bobcats have created that exact same scenario the last two weeks.
