DILLON — Montana Western's football team opened fall camp this past week as the Bulldogs look to make another push after coming up a win short of qualifying for the 2025 postseason, ending a two-year streak of playoff appearances.
"We have a lot of guys that have been part of teams that have made playoff runs and we know what it takes and we kind of got away from that," said junior linebacker Canyon Sargent. "We're just going to take it one day at a time, one game at a time. Can't look too far ahead."
HEAR FROM THE BULLDOGS:
Western put together a 7-3 campaign last season with its losses coming to ranked Montana Tech, Carroll College and College of Idaho teams. A win against any of those programs likely would have been enough for the Bulldogs to earn an at-large bid.
The 2024 season saw Western win its first playoff game since 1994 and advance to the quarterfinals.
The Bulldogs again want to be playing football in December.
"If you don't have a huge goal of winning a national championship I don't know why you do what you do just in terms of the day-to-day, week-to-week," said Western coach Ryan Nourse. "I think that's everyone's hope is to have that shot. But our guys do a good job of staying in the moment with the things that need to be done right now."
Western has a new offensive coordinator in former East Helena coach and former Bulldog Tyler Murray and one of the biggest items on the offense's agenda is finding out who will succeed All-American quarterback Michael Palandri.
"The new guys are fitting in real well," said junior wide receiver Seth Shook who hauled in 13 touchdown receptions last season. "They're all real nice, they love to compete. It's clear they chose a good school, they're all happy to be here. It's been great."
Western will open its season at MSU-Northern on Sept. 5 before returning home to face Montana Western on Sept. 12.
