Griz begin season with familiar foe

With a new coaching staff in place and a horde of new players donning jerseys that are hot off the press, it may be the Grizzlies' opponents who are more recognizable to fans when Montana opens its season against Western State on Saturday.

This year will mark the second consecutive time the Griz open their season against the Western State Mountaineers.  The Mountaineers represent a Division II school located in Gunnison, Colo.

On paper, the Griz throttled the Mountaineers a year ago for an emphatic 38-0 opening- day win. 

However, to those who remember the actual game, it's hard to forget that the Mountaineers fought tooth and nail against the Griz, giving up only 10 of those points in the first half.

"Offensively, they're somewhat similar to what we are," Head Coach Robin Pflugrad said at Tuesday's press conference. "They're wide open. Last year, in that first quarter, they moved the ball downfield and got close to the red zone a couple times in the first quarter and we didn't play particularly well, especially in the first half. "

The slow start by the Griz would become a theme through the 2009 campaign, and at least this Saturday starting center Alex Verlanic is keen to the type of fight the Mountaineers can muster.

 "They're going to be fired up and ready to play," Verlanic said.

Going into the contest the Grizzlies have the edge over the Mountaineers in skill position players, history and a home field that annually boasts the largest attendance in the Football Championship Subdivision.

Quarterback Andrew Selle and running back Chase Reynolds are 2010 Walter Payton Award candidates, cornerback Trumaine Johnson is a candidate for the Buck Buchanan Award, and there are bound to be at least 25,000 football-starved fans looking to see the Griz pursue a third consecutive title game appearance.

Despite the potential for another blowout, the Mountaineers have the Grizzlies' undivided attention going into this year's clash.

"Obviously, you always want to play better," Selle said. "Coming into my senior year, after I haven't played for a year, you always challenge yourself to be better than the game before and obviously our last game was the national championship against Villanova, so if you're going by that number I'm going to try to be the very best I can be and be better than I was in that national championship game."

If there's one advantage that the Mountaineers have, it's that they've alleviated their opening day anxieties.  "I think it's a terrific advantage for them," Pflugrad said. "Those first-game jitters and all those issues they've already gotten out of the way. They've already traveled and that's a plus for them, there's no question about that. So I think they're going to play much better than they played last weekend."

Last weekend Western State opened up their season with a 45-20 loss to Fort Hays State.

Selle, Reynolds and top wide-out Jabin Sambrano must be licking their chops after the Tigers racked up 543 total yards on the Mountaineers in the win. The yard total is dwarfed only by how coldly efficient the Tiger offense was throughout the contest.

Fort Hays State averaged 7.9 yards per play and had their best offensive output since October of 2004.

The only chance the Mountaineers really have is to take advantage of an offensive line that features four new starters and somehow find a way to beat new defensive coordinator Mike Breske's multitude of blitz packages.

"We're fast," said senior defensive tackle Tyler Hobbs. "We like to play fast. We're                going to be coming from all angles. It's a fun style of defense to play. It's a little bit new."

It's been nearly nine agonizing months since the Grizzlies fell to Villanova 23-21 in the national championship game, and new coach Robin Pflugrad is well aware of the monumental task that awaits him after the ball is kicked off.

On top of having to replace 19 seniors and construct a new staff, he had to make sure the people he brought in can handle the sometimes outrageous expectations that surround the Grizzlies each year.

"Expectations in Missoula and in the state are unreasonable. I explained that to them – you're not coming into a situation that you're rebuilding. You're coming in basically to the University of Texas of the [Football Championship Subdivision]. So those are tough expectations."

Outside of just being the season opener, the game against Western State will mark Pflugrad's debut as the 34th head coach at UM.

While it will be his first time on the sidelines in this new position, Saturday's game isn't Pflugrad's first rodeo with the Griz. 

Pflugrad was the wide receivers coach under former head coach Bobby Hauck in 2009 and has brought with him a new spread offense that hopes to move the ball quickly and neutralize teams that like to put pressure on the quarterback.

For eight years, he was an assistant under the legendary Don Read before taking assistant positions at Arizona State, Northern Arizona, Washington State, and Oregon.

With all the hubbub about what is new and different with the 2010 Grizzlies, securing a win over Western State is the oldest and most traditional thing they could do.

"For me, this game is my championship game," Reynolds said. "Every week, we prepare for a championship game. For me -being a senior-  each Saturday you go out there could be your last Saturday.  It doesn't matter who we're playing we're going to give it our all."

troy.warzocha@umontana.edu