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why? their OL is around 300 pound average. (don't have the exact number just looking at the roster) I think all of griz nation is taking this team for granted.They still play football the same way...just like us. They have all the ability in the world to come shock us. If the team is taking this game like our fans...we could see a close game. That being said, I know first hand that they are not and that the players are itching to erase that last game form their mind. Its almost gameday! Hope everyone made the trip safe and hope to see a bunch of you valpo fans in the tailgates!

There will probably be 25K there for the game. it will not sell out I imagine but it is an FCS game and week 1 with an away game next week. I assume the stadium will be pretty packed everywhere other than the south endzone which will be more spaced out. So if thats where your seats are as Valpo fans or would like better seats than the visiting section. Also the south endzone might get some shade during the game so that might be nice too.

PS. if you would like to look at the ticket sales at this moment griztix.com lets you see all the seats available still. There is about 500 tickets give or take still for sale. I imagine that will probably be 200ish by gameday. so 25.5k or 25.3k could be pretty accurate

Montana is pay valpo a flat fee around 200k I do believe. I think we encorperated travel and such into the deal.

2004 was NDSUs first season in 1-AA. I remember that time very well. Two years prior they beat the griz in missoula too. I love what you mentioned. There is no reason to think that on the right day valpo could couldn't beat Montana. You never know what will happen when player put on the pads. Playing infront of 26k will be a blast and can bring players to new heights. Hope every player enjoys the trips and the fans that come enjoy the atmosphere as well

We will see. I'm thinking 38-10 type of range. We do have very good WRs but our D should be our strong unit. We scored 42 in our final scrimmage yesterday so we are capable but... you never know. That's why we play the game

Haha that's probably true!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. Yes our main fan forum is egriz.com and there is a another called maroonblood. I dont recommend either...haha joking but Egriz you will be able to access for free and is by far the best site in my opinion. Im glad to hear a few of you making the trip! You should have a wonderful time. I will link some pictures and videos below my comment so that people can see what everything looks like and what to anticipate. If you do make it over to egriz, I would recommend reading anything bwahlberg writes on the site. He is bar none the best fan we probably have. He writes up info on every game, pre and post game, scrimmages and he does get some inside info in on the team. On egriz fans are a little disappointed about the last couple of years and are eager to get this year going.

A little info on our team for you who may want to know:
Our head coach is Bob Stitt. He will be topic of many discussions in griz country. He is a different style of coach and now in his 3rd year here. Excellent recruiter and offensive mind. He is known all around the country for creating plays such as the fly sweep (where the QB actually passes the ball forward to the WR crossing on the motion). enough of him. The University of Montana pride is usually the griz football team. We had a wonderful streak of playoff appearances that put us on the map. We play in the big sky conference and should compete for a title every year. I say should because we failed to do so last year and finished at 6-5 which is unacceptable for griz football. Washington Grizzly stadium holds just over 26,000 fans and I anticipate it will be full for game 1. 

now for the actual team:
We play a high spread offense that coach stitt created. His vision is to run about 90 plays a game when functioning well. It's not a true hurry up offense but it is fast paced. We pass....a lot. We don't however pass deep as much as the normal spread does. Many plays have a run/pass option and the QB makes those choices at the line of scrimmage.

QB: we will start Reese Phillips in game 1. There has be a QB battle this year as our senior last year graduated. Reese is a senior who transferred as a junior to us from Kentucky university. He is mobile but not a true runner. He will make plays with his feet when he has too but would rather deliver the ball in air. He is a read option threat and most of our runs come out of the read option type set.

RB: We return our highest scoring RB this year in Jeremy Calhoun, he is an agile runner who is very balanced. He has a nose for the endzone and even as an underclassmen used to find TDs often. He can catch out of the backfield and we expect our RB to do so often! Behind him, we have multiple players looking for time. a transfer from Wash. state and a few up and coming R.Fr could look for time. we should be deep at RB.

WR: by far our best position on O. We have all our main WR threats back and while still young they are now experienced too. Justin Calhoun (Jeremy's brother) is our outside threat and he should be an all bigsky player this year. We also have JLM, he is a small slot WR but he has the moves. he broke some ankles and turned a ton of heads last year when he had 21 catches in a game last year. he was also HM for all bigsky last year as a redshirt freshman.  I could bore you with our other WRs but there is too many to really get into detail with. because we don't use a TE, we use big H-back WRs who have size and speed. look for 10+ WRs to get good time and rotate in and out.

OL: Our line has been our problem child for about 5 years now and has been the reason we struggle at times. First and foremost, this year we will start 3-4 seniors on the o-line and we have a few Soph. and redshirt freshman biting at the bit to get playing time. We had a HUGE Oline class 2 years ago and it is paying dividends. Our Oline has been great in the scrimmages, we will wait to see what happens when game time hits, but we are so glad to feel solid on the line again as running and pass blocking has been poor the last few years.

Defense: To say we run a multiple type D would be an understatement. We can play with 3 down, 4 down, 2 down or none down sometimes. we had a jail break formation we used a lot last year where all 7 players will be at the line moving around and standing when the ball gets snapped. We blitz from LBs, S, FS, Corner, just about everywhere. Last year we did get caught not playing zone well and some teams picked on that and ate us alive. This spring and Fall we have seen a lot of work in zone schemes and we are much better in the secondary than last year.

Dline: I would like to say this is our best area on D but it would have to tie with the LBs. Our D line is very deep right now and we have all sorts of types of players to fit the schemes. We have players on the D-line that are 300 and can eat the inside. We have rover DE/LBs and we have pass rushers. It will be interesting how they all get used. We had a few big transfers the last year from maryland and Juco's and the depth is deep. we average in the high 200's for dline weight. David Shaw you will see alot at 319 pounds he will be our 3-4 anchor guy as well as Davidson at 295. Chris Favaroso is our Juco transfer that could have gone FBS but chose us. He will be our pass rushing end for sure and is a monster on the edge. Lastly you will hear #37 a lot as well, Tucker Schye. We have a legacy number #37, this number gets passed down from player to player, it has to be someone from montana and it has to be someone who emphasizes the spirt of griz football. Tucker does just that. He is a quick DE that will get to most plays before they end. We raise the #37 flag every home game at the beginning with an old griz player.

LBs: This is like our WR group of the Defense. our LB core is deep and strong. we return all 3 starters from last year but regrettably one of the players will miss game 1-2 for a suspension. That being said, many worry if he will be able to get his job back on week 3 as the kids behind them are pushing hard. we will rotate 5-6 LBs and stay fresh. If i had to pick 1 i would say look for James Banks, he came to us after FBS UAB got rid of football and he will be a force this year. Our LBs like to blitz and like to hit.

CB: This is the area of hope and concern. We dont have good CB depth this year, But we do return the players from last year and we have some senior leadership at the position. Ryan Mckinley is a SR starter and has the size and skill to be a shut down on deep threat WRs. He can be over physical at times and have bad positioning but he really has toned up for this year. Markel Sanders will be the other CB. He is a junior and transfer from Washington state a few years ago. His side is avoided when on the field. He likes to play at the line and has great positioning. He does not have the top end speed it seems and can let WRs get a step but he has great technique that usually will make up for it. Behind them its a toss up, we have talent but unproven players at CB and a WR convert that is also starting to show out on D. we will see what CB is like.

Safety: Should be another strength of the team. We have both Starters returning and another pair pushing for playing time. Justin Strong is just that...strong and will hit and hit HARD. he is a transfer from Oregon State and really flys to the ball. Got beat deep a few times but as he has matured he has been better on the deep end. Josh Sandry should be the other big time S. He had 3 INTs in the spring game and has showed out this fall.  He is only a R-Soph but came on the scene big, once again he is young and could be suspect vs good WRs but he is very strong and has good vision for the field.

Special Teams: Who knows, to be honest this is a huge ?. Last year our ST were not that great and lead to a lot of good positioning for other teams. this year our kickers are back again and older. we have seen pretty good consistency in fall, but we did that last year too until the season. Stitt has pushed ST players hard this year, even holding some ST only practices. On the other hand, our Punter is legit. Williams has been hitting 50 yard punts on the regular this fall and has been a great story. He should be very solid as a Junior.


Other notes: We like going for it on 4th down. if we are between our 40 and your 25, expect us to go for it. Stitt likes playing the odds. He will go for it on 4th a lot, even though he did tone that down some last year. It will be interesting to see our Redzone O, as last 2 years that has been a major struggle. With improved Oline and some power back options, hopefully we will see more TDs this year than last. Our Redzone D was top in the bigsky last year and I expect that to stay with our Dline and LBs. Anyways, thats a brief look at the Griz this year. Below I will add some links just to picks and videos of what a game is like at wa-griz. Hope to see you all in a week!

Go Griz


Videos:

Hello, Greetings from Montana fans to you. I just was reading up on Valpo and figured i would stop in to chat football and help anyone on info who is coming up for the game. I hope many of you can make the trip as it truly a wonderful place to watch college football. First of all, Missoula Montana is a very place but it may be a bit smokey for game one as we have had some terrible fires this year. Hopefully it will clear out before then. Missoula is a very friendly town and especially so to visiting team fans. Wear your Valpo gear and you will get people to stop and welcome you and probably offer to buy you a beer or two.

-If you guys have a few days around, I would recommend Glacier national park, as was mentioned earlier. It is an amazing place about 2.5 hours from Missoula. You can also take in the rivers in and around the area as they are beautiful and filled and are great for fishing or floating.

- When it comes to where to stay, there are many options. I would recommend the double tree as mentioned above as well. It is right on the river and within walking distance to the stadium. There are other great options around town a little further from the stadium if you are going to have a car as well.

- When it comes to food there are some great options. If you want to get a nice dinner you could try the lolo creek steak house, its about 15 minutes away in Lolo MT but it is about as good of a steak dinner you can have. If you prefer to stay around Missoula, great places include: The Tamarack brewery, The Iron Horse and The depot. If you want to try something quick for lunch I suggest Notorious PIG, it is a BBQ place that has great food and was on Food Network (as was the lolo creek steakhouse). For a burger stop into the MO-Club for the best burger in town and to chat with griz alumni and fans, its a pretty great place on friday or after the game.

-GAMEDAY!! Make sure to be up early. The Pressbox is the usually the best place for breakfast on gameday but be their early as it is a fan favorite. Once you have breakfast walk over the river bridge to the campus and the tailgating starts right at the end of the bridge and continues all the way around the stadium around campus drive. You will be asked to join many so have your drinking face on. There will probably be around 100 ish tailgates for the game. Take your time and walk around the stadium. The marching band will walk campus drive and be playing as well. Then venture on into the stadium for the pregame. I recommend the north endzone entrance or the the west side entrance for easy access. Find your seats and enjoy the pregame and it usually is one of the favorite things for visiting fans to see. Enjoy the game and you can take part in the halftime tailgating experience as well. most the stadium empties at halftime and wont return until the 3rd quarter has started.

-other great things to do in the area of course are hiking the M overlooking the stadium and venturing down to caras park downtown, watching the surfers and grabbing a beer at one of the breweries. We have the second most breweries per capita in the US.

if you guys have any questions about the area or need any help, feel free to ask!
HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY THE GAME AND HAVE A GREAT TIME! GO GRIZ!