I fully agree with ILTC that MSU won the in-state recruiting battle. And I think several of those Montana kids are going to be outstanding football players for the Bobcats. Not all, but several. However, I do not feel like I got my ass beat in any way. Actually I feel pretty good. I can't find any bruises or broken bones of any kind tonight so ya. But, no doubt that MSU won that particular battle. I know Chase Benson and Balue Chapman are the two guys that Stitt really, really would have liked to have landed.
Having said that, and maybe this makes me a "bad Montanan" to some, but I just don't care that UM didn't win the in-state battle, for several reasons, and maybe they're just my own reasons and even a lot of Griz fans don't like me saying this, but, for every Marc Mariani (who obviously is very important to me) there was also a Joe Douglass or Matt Wells. For every Chase Reynolds, there was a Yohance Humphrey or Jordan Canada, for every Zack Wagenmann, there was a Tyrone Holmes. And while some aren't Montanan's by birth, they were all Griz legends and UM needed all of them to win games. I might be different than a lot of other Griz and Cat fans, but once they put on the Griz jersey, they are all Montanan's in my book.
The other reason I don't put as much emotion into the in-state recruiting battle as others do is, I don't by the whole "fans are turned off by the Griz recruiting less Montana players" thingy anymore. MSU has had more Montana-born kids for quite a while now and yet, Montana continues to lead the FCS in attendance, year-after-year-after year. Season tickets are still being purchased by folks from Sidney to Hamilton. It's not declining, and less Montana kids won't cause that decline, losing would, but not where kids are born. The attendance figures don't lie.