eGriz
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Joined: 27 Mar 2002
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Location: Missoula, Montana
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Blocked FGs no accident for Griz (Great Falls Tribune).
Hilliard breaks loose for career bests vs. Eagles (The Daily Inter Lake).
Monte gets into trouble protecting bears (Missoulian).
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I-AA powers press for changes to NCAA rules (The Daily Pennsylvanian).
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Blocked FGs no accident for Griz
Great Falls Tribune
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20 041021/SPORTS/410210342/1006
After blocking field goals to preserve gut-wrenching victories the past two weeks, the Montana Grizzlies deserve a bit of a break.
With no game scheduled Saturday, UM head coach Bobby Hauck is giving his team a three-day holiday over the weekend. But that doesn't mean the Grizzlies will ignore what has worked so well for them.
"We practice blocking field goals every day," Hauck said Tuesday. "We're only going to practice Tuesday through Thursday, but we'll work on blocked field goals, just like we do every other day."
Hauck supervises special teams, so he devised the schemes that allowed tackle Jonny Varona to block a potential game-winning field goal by Idaho State on Oct. 9, and freed up linebacker Shane McIntyre to thwart a potential game-tying field goal by Eastern Washington last Saturday.
But it's Hauck's uncle, Tom, who oversees the punt-block unit.
"It's his job to get those guys ready and he's doing a great job," said the second-year head coach, who has a long history of working with special teams.
While the Grizzlies get the weekend off, the coaching staff won't be idle. Seven UM coaches will hit the road Friday on recruiting trips. Bobby Hauck probably won't be on the road, snce he has some speaking engagements planned.
UM will use the short week to watch film on Portland State, the next Griz opponent Oct. 30 in Oregon. The Vikings are coming off a disappointing 31-24 loss in overtime to Montana State in Bozeman last weekend, and they must play at Northern Arizona this Saturday.
Hauck sees that as a big advantage.
"That's a tough trip to Flagstaff and we get to rest up," he said.
There was some talk last spring about taking buses to Portland to save money, but the Grizzlies have decided to take a charter flight to Oregon next Friday. That will allow them to get their usual week of practice in, while avoiding more than 20 hours on the road.
While UM could use a week's rest after playing seven straight Saturdays, the Grizzlies don't need the layoff as much as they might have a few weeks ago. Montana has more healthy players now than at any point this year.
Starting center Jay Green is back in the lineup, allowing the offensive linemen to return to their best positions. The oft-injured secondary has its best depth of the season, and starting quarterback Craig Ochs is back to 100 percent physically.
UM senior wide receiver-kick returner Levander Segars broke a little-known NCAA Division I-AA record last week when he returned the 124th punt of his career. Chuck Calhoun of Southwest Missouri State had the old record of 123 from 1990-93.
Now, Segars has his sights set on a more important record - total yards gained on punt returns. He currently has 1,325 yards and the I-AA record is 1,488, set by Delvin Joyce of James Madison in 1997-2000.
Segars is averaging 7.3 yards per return this season, and has brought back only 11 punts in seven games because teams are kicking the ball away from him, or out-of-bounds. He averaged 12.2 yards per return a year ago when he brought back two kicks for touchdowns.
Saturday's nonconference clash in Bozeman between Montana State and South Dakota State is significant for both teams, and perhaps overly meaningful for the visiting Jackrabbits.
Officials at South Dakota State, in its first season as affiliated with NCAA I-AA after many years in the Division II North Central Conference, would love to join the Big Sky Conference.
"The most popular question this week is, how will this game play out in terms of us getting accepted in the Big Sky?" admitted SDSU head coach John Stiegelmeier. "I would expect the Big Sky wants good programs so we need to make a good showing on Saturday. It all goes hand in hand."
South Dakota State and North Dakota State, now members of the Great West Conference, are among a handful of schools that are interested in joining the Big Sky.
Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said the league presidents will consider the issue at their Dec. 13, but stressed that expansion is not necessarily imminent.
"It's not a done deal at all," said Fullerton. "One thing the presidents are not interested in doing is taking in schools that would cause others to leave the conference. So I think the presidents will listen long and hard to people who have real strenuous objections for any reason."
Travel, of course, is the key stumbling block for schools such as SDSU and NDSU. The closest Big Sky school to South Dakota State is Montana State, and Bozeman is about 700 miles west of Brookings, S.D.
Fullerton said the issue of expansion will be resolved soon.
"It's a good-faith attempt on the part of our presidents to take a look at these institutions," Fullerton said. "We think we owe (a decision) to them, up or down, so that they don't hang onto these hopes. And then we'll move on."
The last time the South Dakota State Jackrabbits visited the Treasure State for a football game, it produced a lasting memory.
"I still have nightmares about that one," said SDUS head coach John Stiegelmeier.
Back in 1993, an SDSU team that included Stiegelmeier as defensive coordinator visited Missoula to take on the Grizzlies in a season opener.
The Jackrabbits, then affiliated with NCAA Division II, grabbed a 38-7 lead in the third quarter against a Grizzly team being quarterbacked by sophomore Dave Dickenson, making his first college start.
Dickenson, the Great Falls native who developed into a fine pro quarterback, led the Grizzlies to 32 unanswered points and capped the rally with a 42-yard touchdown pass to Scott Gurnsey. Montana won 52-48 in what was the greatest comeback in school history.
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Hilliard breaks loose for career bests vs. Eagles
By ANDREW HINKELMAN, The Daily Inter Lake
http://www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2004/10/20/sports/sport s03.txt
Montana's Lex Hilliard had a breakout performance at Eastern Washington on Saturday.
The ex-Flathead star carried the ball 19 times for a career-highs of 116 yards and three touchdowns. Together with Justin Green's 49 yards, the Grizzlies had one of their better rushing games of the season.
"At halftime, Justin and I talked to each other," Hilliard said to the Missoulian after the game. "And we said, 'You need me, I need you, let's go out and blow these guys off the line,'
"And our line did a good job of taking control."
The true sophomore had gotten off to a bit of a slow start this season, much like the entire Griz running game. He entered the game with just 180 yards and two touchdowns on the season.
But the quick and powerful Hilliard found his groove against the Eagles, averaging over six yards a carry and scoring on runs of 16, 8 and 2 yards.
-- FOR REAL: After some confusion and incorrect information last week, Levander Segars broke the Division I-AA punt return record against Eastern Washington with his 124th.
Segars needs just 124 more return yards to break Delvin Joyce's record of 1,448, compiled from 1997-2000 at James Madison.
-- MORE RED ZONE REJECTIONS: The Grizzlies bend-but-don't break defense broke a little more often than they probably would have liked against the Eagles, but they did shut down three Eastern Washington red zone possessions.
Twice the Eagles converted field goals and a potential game-tying third was blocked by Shane MacIntyre with 18 seconds to go.
-- SHARING THE BALL: Montana quarterback Craig Ochs continues to spread his passes among his talented receivers. Six players caught passes Saturday, four of them more than one.
Tate Hancock led the sextet with five grabs for 61 yards. Tight end Willie Walden made the most of his one catch -- a 2-yard touchdown.
-- CLIMBING THE CHARTS: Montana moved up one spot to No. 4 in the latest I-AA poll, even receiving a first place vote.
After three straight weeks of upheaval at the top of the poll to start the season -- including a loss by Montana -- Southern Illinois has remained a solid No. 1, followed by Georgia Southern and defending champion Delaware.
All four teams have one loss. Montana is the only Big Sky team in the top 25, though Montana State is poised at No. 26 and Eastern Washington is 27th.
-- RECORD BOOK WATCH: Ochs is now less than 400 yards behind Brent Pease for eighth on the Montana career passing list with 3,266 yards. ... Green needs 37 yards to move into 10th on the rushing list. ... Jon Talmage will take over 14th on the receiving chart with 23 yards and with 787 more yards Hancock will crack the top 20. ... Lance Spencer moved into a tie for ninth place with his 21st career tackle for a loss Saturday and needs one more sack to tie Jay Turner for fifth.
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Monte gets into trouble protecting bears
By DARYL GADBOW of the Missoulian
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/10/21/news/local/news0 4.txt
Monte, the University of Montana's grizzly bear mascot, is in a heap of trouble.
First, he ransacks a garbage can in an urban neighborhood, spilling trash all over the street.
Then he wanders into someone's yard and raids the bird feeders, greasy grills and dog food.
Still full of mischief, he sneaks into a hunting camp and tries to make off with the hunters' game meat and food cache.
And, worse for Monte, all three of his illicit escapades are caught on TV.
Maybe you've seen them.
Monte is the star of three public service television ads that have aired on western Montana stations recently.
The 30- and 60-second TV ads were produced by a group called the Western Montana Living With Wildlife Working Group, representing state and federal natural resource management agencies, conservation organizations, and BFI, the company that owns Missoula's landfill and garbage collection operation.
The group was formed, said Sterling Miller, a Missoula biologist for the National Wildlife Federation, to find ways to reduce the incidence of conflicts between people and bears.
"The best way to do that," he said, "is to educate people about how to avoid problems with bears. If you can educate people, the bears will educate themselves. It's a chronic problem, because bears - particularly in years when the berry crop is short - move out of their natural habitat and into urban areas."
Each of the three ads addresses a different component of bear awareness, said Miller, who designed the TV spots, along with Bill Thomas, information officer for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks in Missoula.
One ad is aimed at home garbage management. Monte is shown easily opening the lid of a garbage container and diving in head first. The message is to secure household garbage, either inside until collection or in bear-proof trash bins, to avoid attracting bears.
Chad Bauer, operations manager of BFI, appears in the film as a garbage collector.
"Chad Bauer has been strongly supportive of ways to sanitize garbage and avoid attracting bears," Miller said. And, he added, BFI has been instrumental in providing bear-proof Dumpsters in many urban areas around Missoula.
Another ad zeroes in on household bear attractants, such as bird feeders, greasy barbecue grills, fruit and pet food, and how to make them less available to bruins.
The third ad, which has yet to be aired, concentrates on backcountry bear problems, and how to avoid them, especially by keeping a clean camp. With hunting season opening Sunday, Miller said he hopes TV stations will begin to air that ad. The ad is about hunters, he says, but applies to all backcountry activities.
The desired result of the ads, Miller says, "means a lot fewer dead bears. The best thing you can do to keep bears alive, is to eliminate situations that cause people - including agencies - to have to kill them."
The mischievous Monte in the ads is played by Barry Anderson, who retired from his mascot duties last year after three years wearing the bear suit. He earned mascot of the year honors in a national contest in 2002.
"He contributed a great deal" to the production of the ads, Miller says. "He made comments, and was full of ideas, most of which we adopted. He was great."
The ads were filmed in sweltering heat last July, Miller says.
"Poor Monte," he says. "That suit was just roasting. It was near 100 degrees."
UM has shown one of the ads on the scoreboard at Grizzly football games this year, according to Miller, who says the ads have been distributed to all television stations in western Montana.
Because of a particularly poor berry crop this year, bear problems have been especially frequent in urban areas of western Montana, according to Miller.
The ads were "written so they're not specific to one year," he says. "But we hope TV stations continue to run them."
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I-AA powers press for changes to NCAA rules
Ivy League watches as other I-AA schools try to increase revenue
By jonathan tannenwald, The Daily Pennsylvanian
http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/10/ 21/41774a23486a3
It seems that every year at about this time, questions are asked about the health of Division I-AA football.
As big schools across the country play to six-figure crowds and network TV audiences each week, even the mightiest I-AA superpowers play on regional sports channels, with stadiums at best one-fifth the capacity of the nation's biggest.
The debate over I-AA football's status was taken up anew in a recent article in the NCAA News, a publication of college sports' governing body. In that story, a number of administrators of I-AA football schools and conferences expressed their desire to tinker with the current system -- specifically the post-season championship tournament.
One big question is how much money teams that participate in the I-AA playoffs should receive from the NCAA. Schools are reimbursed for the cost of transporting 100 people to a game, although that number is often exceeded by schools that bring large rosters, cheerleaders and a band. So schools can actually lose money as a result of their on-the-field success.
"When you make the playoffs, there should be a financial reward, and there's not," Western Kentucky University President Gary Ransdell said to the NCAA News. "You should not have to compromise the institutional budget when you're rewarded for NCAA success."
But while that might help Western Kentucky, the Ivy League would not benefit because its schools do not participate in the post-season.
Penn Athletic Director Steve Bilsky said that "if you are just measuring it by that one small criterion, then you could, but that's dwarfed by all the other reasons that you want to play in it."
Bilsky noted that Penn often records a financial loss traveling to the NCAA basketball tournament, as its party is usually bigger than the reimbursement maximum of 75 people.
"We will bring more people than that, and since we don't share in any of the revenues, we lose money by making the NCAA Tournament in basketball," Bilsky said. "But that wouldn't stop us from wanting to be in it."
Many I-AA football officials would like to see an increase in television exposure for the division, especially in the playoffs.
"I think the NCAA should leverage its other contracts in order to secure a more attractive television and marketing contract for the I-AA playoffs," Ransdell said to the NCAA News. "In other words, as it negotiates the NCAA basketball or other contracts, part of that negotiation should be a better package for the I-AA playoffs."
The situation improved last year, as ESPN2 carried a I-AA first-round playoff game and regional coverage of both semifinals. College Sports Television also carried a first-round game, and ESPN televised the quarterfinals on its GamePlay pay-per-view system.
This season, Penn's game at Princeton will be televised on CSTV. The game against Dartmouth was, and the game at Cornell will be, televised on the YES Network, which is distributed on satellite TV platforms including DirecTV.
The primary regular season change would see an increased allowance in the number of games against I-AA opposition that a I-A school can count toward bowl eligibility. The current rules allow for one such game to count every four years, and the new rule would permit one game to count each year.
Danny Morrison, commissioner of the Southern Conference, told the NCAA News that such a change "would be good for the health of college football in general."
"Not only does it give the I-AAs the opportunity to play and get the exposure and the revenue from I-A games, but it has the tendency to filter throughout college football," he said.
Bilsky said Penn would not play a part in such a change.
"We're playing some of the scholarship I-AA schools, like Villanova, and that's probably where our focus would be," he said.
The allure of the football postseason is stronger for Bilsky, even if it is not for some other presidents and athletic directors in the Ivy League. It is the Ancient Eight's decision to not participate in the playoffs, and discussion of that question has also become an annual tradition.
"If you look at last year, the championship game was played between Colgate and Delaware, two teams in our region, two teams that if we would have played against them, I think it would have drawn a lot of interest and fan attendance," Bilsky said.
He added that "you can make a good case that we would have been able to compete with them athletically."
But the situation does not look to be changing any time soon, allowing the Ivy League to leave most of Division I-AA's football problems to the rest of the country.
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