SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Montana Grizzlies are 20-1 all-time against Sacramento State.
But it’s fair to say, they’ve never faced a Hornets team this good.
We’ve heard a lot about the resurgent Hornets this week, who have ascended to No. 15 in the country after being picked to finish near the bottom of the Big Sky.
They will assuredly be a tough match-up for the Grizzlies.
But don’t lose sight of the fact that life is pretty good for Montana fans right now.
The Griz own the No. 1 scoring offense in the Big Sky, a top three scoring defense, a 2-0 conference record and an undefeated mark against FCS opponents. The “Return to Dominance” is seemingly well under way. But as Bobby Hauck, and, well, any coach in the world will tell you - there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
“We got to execute better in all three phases of the game, I think we can play harder for longer,” Hauck said. “I think we can be sharper in certain situations. A few games we’ve been really good at certain things and other games not. We just need to be A-Z better.”
“We don’t start out too well, and we finish pretty good as a whole team,” said All-American linebacker Dante Olson. “We want to continue that as a whole unit, not just a defense going into Saturday. The bye week was good for the team, and we got to keep momentum going.”
You can catch some familiar faces on the sidelines for the Hornets on Saturday. Sacramento State defensive coordinator Andy Thompson played for the Griz in the early 2000’s, and was a part of that 2001 national championship team. And the Hornet defensive line coach is none other than Kraig Paulson, who started the vaunted No. 37 jersey tradition as a player - 37 seasons ago.
