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Kent Haslam, the director of Grizzly Athletics, did not shy away from how he felt during Monday’s press conference.
“We need to get that toughness back, that swagger,” he said after announcing the decision to fire Griz football coach Bob Stitt.
As the athletic director of such a successful football school, Haslam understands what is expected from the fans — what they expect year after year is to make the FCS playoffs and, most importantly, to beat the Montana State Bobcats.
In Stitt’s latter two seasons at the helm of the Griz, he did neither.
There were glimpses that showed promise. He routinely beat up on lesser FCS schools, went blow-for-blow with Eastern Washington this season and defeated the would-be national champion North Dakota State Bison in his inaugural game. Stitt just began to reap the benefits of the new faces he recruited, and the team is loaded with star talent. No doubt, the decision to cut ties with Stitt so early was difficult.
But at Monday’s press conference, Haslam laid out the facts. He said he tried to block out the wave of frustration from Griz Nation and made the decision on an overall evaluation of Stitt and the program over the past year. The result, apparently, was not good.
Haslam did not mean to say the Stitt-era Griz lacked toughness. He praised the student-athletes for consistently proving to be tough and to be winners. Unfortunately, the latter isn’t always in the hands of the players.
Stitt didn’t quite fit right from the beginning. His offense-first mentality contradicted the years of strong defensive tradition Montana established. The heavy reliance on the quarterback that propped up his goal of 90 plays per game inevitably came back to bite him after one suffered a season-ending injury and another, freshman Gresch Jensen, was banged up in the second half of the season.
His bend-don’t-break defense snapped against a simple college option offense in Montana State. Even the last play of his prized game against North Dakota State, in which Joey Counts took a handoff out of a strong I-formation, proved to be an anomaly to his play-calling tendencies through the next two seasons.
One could throw in the fact he was an outsider and largely naive of Montana’s football tradition, but, then again, the longer he coached in Montana, the less he seemed to understand Montana.
Several player sources, and Haslam, raved his ability to bring the team together. Stitt always looked on the bright side of tough losses during post-game press conferences, even the two to Montana State, and never stepped out of line. He just wasn’t what the Griz needed.
But that statement begs its own question: What do the Griz need? As the second head coach to emerge from the slew of scandals that dogged the program for the better part of a decade, the new guy needs to go back to basics. Perhaps that’s why it’s rumored (not confirmed) that we could see the return of Bobby Hauck, who went 80-17 with three national title appearances during his seven seasons with the Griz.
The fact remains that whoever takes over will need to understand the ruthless expectations Griz Nation have.
“We need to be winning conference championships, we need to be going to the playoffs,” Haslam said. “Those are things that are critical to us as an athletic department. They’re valuable to this University, and valuable to this community and valuable for those people who are so passionate about us.”
“We need to get that toughness back, that swagger,” he said after announcing the decision to fire Griz football coach Bob Stitt.
As the athletic director of such a successful football school, Haslam understands what is expected from the fans — what they expect year after year is to make the FCS playoffs and, most importantly, to beat the Montana State Bobcats.
In Stitt’s latter two seasons at the helm of the Griz, he did neither.
There were glimpses that showed promise. He routinely beat up on lesser FCS schools, went blow-for-blow with Eastern Washington this season and defeated the would-be national champion North Dakota State Bison in his inaugural game. Stitt just began to reap the benefits of the new faces he recruited, and the team is loaded with star talent. No doubt, the decision to cut ties with Stitt so early was difficult.
But at Monday’s press conference, Haslam laid out the facts. He said he tried to block out the wave of frustration from Griz Nation and made the decision on an overall evaluation of Stitt and the program over the past year. The result, apparently, was not good.
Haslam did not mean to say the Stitt-era Griz lacked toughness. He praised the student-athletes for consistently proving to be tough and to be winners. Unfortunately, the latter isn’t always in the hands of the players.
Stitt didn’t quite fit right from the beginning. His offense-first mentality contradicted the years of strong defensive tradition Montana established. The heavy reliance on the quarterback that propped up his goal of 90 plays per game inevitably came back to bite him after one suffered a season-ending injury and another, freshman Gresch Jensen, was banged up in the second half of the season.
His bend-don’t-break defense snapped against a simple college option offense in Montana State. Even the last play of his prized game against North Dakota State, in which Joey Counts took a handoff out of a strong I-formation, proved to be an anomaly to his play-calling tendencies through the next two seasons.
One could throw in the fact he was an outsider and largely naive of Montana’s football tradition, but, then again, the longer he coached in Montana, the less he seemed to understand Montana.
Several player sources, and Haslam, raved his ability to bring the team together. Stitt always looked on the bright side of tough losses during post-game press conferences, even the two to Montana State, and never stepped out of line. He just wasn’t what the Griz needed.
But that statement begs its own question: What do the Griz need? As the second head coach to emerge from the slew of scandals that dogged the program for the better part of a decade, the new guy needs to go back to basics. Perhaps that’s why it’s rumored (not confirmed) that we could see the return of Bobby Hauck, who went 80-17 with three national title appearances during his seven seasons with the Griz.
The fact remains that whoever takes over will need to understand the ruthless expectations Griz Nation have.
“We need to be winning conference championships, we need to be going to the playoffs,” Haslam said. “Those are things that are critical to us as an athletic department. They’re valuable to this University, and valuable to this community and valuable for those people who are so passionate about us.”
