Based on what I've seen on the Montana website, single game tickets go on sale late July with first dibs going to alumni club members. Does anyone know if Valpo will get an allotment of tickets that can be purchased through VU (I'd rather pay money to VU than Montana ;D)?
Good question. I'll check it out.
You're paying Montana either way (VU has to pay them for the tickets), it's just whether you choose to use an intermediary or not. :)
I was just planning on buying them from Montana's site, but would prefer to be by other Valpo fans.
Quote from: valpotx on June 27, 2017, 02:59:08 PM
I was just planning on buying them from Montana's site, but would prefer to be by other Valpo fans.
I checked with MLB.
There is no ticket allocation for Valpo fans -- you must go to the U of M site to purchase your tix. It might be worth a call to the ticket office to see if there is a section usually reserved for visiting fans and hopefully it is behind the visitor's bench.
It would be great to have a good Valpo fan group there. This is a special opportunity unlike most of these kinds of games -- it's Montana. The scenery is breath-taking and the Griz stadium is listed as the #1 FCS stadium in the country. But it's more than that -- with a 2-3 hours drive are both Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park.
Here is a pretty doable itinerary for anyone interested in combining the game with a little vacation time:
Fly into Bozeman, MT (BZN) and enjoy this cool town -- lots of good restaurants and shops on Main Street. If your area fly fisherman, the Gallatin River is a must stop. (parts of "A River Runs Through It" were shot along it). There is also some great white water rafting, but by late summer the water level might be too low for that.
The next day head south through the Gallatin gorge past Big Sky ski area (great place to stop for lunch) to a hotel in West Yellowstone, the west entrance to the park.
Spend all of the next day in the park and drive back to Bozeman by Friday night.
Early the next morning, hop on I-90 west and head to Missoula (3-hour drive) and arrive in time to tailgate near the stadium. Enjoy the game and then explore Missoula afterward.
Sunday, drive north to Kalispell and Flathead Lake.
Monday tour Glacier all day and be sure to take the Going to the Sun Road.
Tuesday, fly home from Kalispell - Glacier Park International Airport (FCA).
Any other suggestions, Tex?
Thanks for looking into this!
We're flying into Missoula on Thursday evening and staying at the Doubletree across the river from the Stadium. We're spending Friday poking around the city, hiking the M, drinking a beer or 2.
Then, gameday, find a bar for breakfast and an eye-opener, and then enjoy the scene. My understanding is that this is a great place to watch a game so I'm looking forward to it. I'll probably sport my 2003 ring. Walk around and find Montana fans to chat with and pick their brains about Montana football.
And then, if (IF), by some stretch of the imagination, Valpo pulls something out of their hind sides and upsets the Grizz, I'll go streaking through the quad.
Streak the quad win or lose!
Game time is still TBA as of today on the Griz website. Tickets go on sale for the game July 17.
Here is a link to the seating map -
http://www.umt.edu/griztix/imx/maps/WGS-Football.jpg
I am trying to find out which side is the visitors' side and if there is a "visitors block" that is usually set aside. I'll keep everyone posted.
Here's a link to an article about the stadium and how well they sell out. My recommendation is that anyone interested in attending should go on-line on the 17th or risk being shut out.
http://gogriz.com/news/2017/1/30/griz-football-tops-fcs-in-attendance-for-third-straight-year.aspx
Quote from: VULB#62 on June 28, 2017, 12:34:31 PM
Game time is still TBA as of today on the Griz website. Tickets go on sale for the game July 17.
Here is a link to the seating map -
http://www.umt.edu/griztix/imx/maps/WGS-Football.jpg
I am trying to find out which side is the visitors' side and if there is a "visitors block" that is usually set aside. I'll keep everyone posted.
Here's a link to an article about the stadium and how well they sell out. My recommendation is that anyone interested in attending should go on-line on the 17th or risk being shut out.
http://gogriz.com/news/2017/1/30/griz-football-tops-fcs-in-attendance-for-third-straight-year.aspx
Given the fact that only about 5,000 non-season ticket holder seats exist, it would be hard to imagine that a "visitors block" exists or if it does, I would think it would go up for grabs 30 minutes before kickoff.
Yeah, not holding out much hope for a block.
Quote from: VULB#62 on June 28, 2017, 12:18:41 PM
Streak the quad win or lose!
Losers and streakers just don't mix that well. ;)
I emailed Griztix and this was the reply I received the same day (Bold emphasis is mine).
All of the visitor's tickets are in the south end. The team and player parents are in West 103.
Our university president has seats in 103 and will probably not take them all and we could sell them closer to the game but that would depend on how many people are planning on coming.
As I said we usually put the visiting team in the south end. Tickets go on sale July 17, 2017. When fans call they should ask for the visitor's section.
You probably know that the visiting team gets a certain amount of tickets for player parents. Sometimes if they don't use all the player parent tickets they might sell them. That would be through the Valparaiso Athletic Department.
I followed up this reply with an email to MLB to find out what plans the athletic department has in this regard. I'll keep everyone posted.
Right now, a couple of things seem evident: 1) It's best to call the ticket office rather than trying to get tickets online so that you can request the visitor's section (end zone tix :( ). 2) You can wait until closer to the game day in hopes of snagging unused section 103 West tickets to be close to the players' parents seating (located between the 10 and the 20 yard lines) but that may be a bit of a gamble. And 3) Maybe the athletic department will have some good news for us in a bit.
Hmm...I think I may go best available. Call me a spoiled fan, but it's tough to justify traveling to a game and watching from the end zone.
My family has a house and cabin on Flathead Lake in Polson, so I usually just relax around that area (take the boat out, etc), and head up to Glacier for some hiking. I go to Ronin for horseback riding on occasion, as well as attending various fairs/events in the area. Big Fork is great for shopping in that area.
So o o o o ..... are we all invited up to your place after the game ? ;D
Quote from: VULB#62 on June 29, 2017, 07:50:23 PM
So o o o o ..... are we all invited up to your place after the game ? ;D
I tried that with StlVuFan and it didn't work. :( Good luck! ;)
Latest on UMT game tix:
MLB indicates that the athletic department won't know exactly how many of the family allotment tickets will be turned back until a couple of weeks before the game, so his suggestion is to go straight to Griztix (call them).
My new friend at Griztix, Anne, replied to my follow up email with..... "your fans should ask for anything in 103 or 102 and then the south end. That is a logical suggestion."
TICKETS GO ON SALE JULY 17.
I have set the reminder in my Outlook Calendar for July 17!
For anyone that wants to drive the 1 - 1 1/2 hours to Polson from Missoula, sure! Our property is lakefront, so you can go 20 yards from the cabin to our dock. Best view in the world :)
Just ordered my tickets and had an interesting conversation with the ticket agent:
Me: I need to purchase 5 tickets to the Valpo-Montana game.
Ticket agent: Okay...are you coming to watch Valpo or Montana?
Me: I coming to watch Valpo--I played there.
Ticket agent: Great. We'll put you in with the visitors in section 114. I'm not sure if they are bringing their band or not so we'll put you in Row 8.
Me: Who? Valpo? I'm pretty sure they don't have a traveling band.
Ticket agent: Oh, goodness. I better read up on this school.
Have things changed in the last 12 years to where Valpo's band joins the team on road trips?
Quote from: VUOR63 on July 18, 2017, 01:50:54 PM
Just ordered my tickets and had an interesting conversation with the ticket agent:
Me: I need to purchase 5 tickets to the Valpo-Montana game.
Ticket agent: Okay...are you coming to watch Valpo or Montana?
Me: I coming to watch Valpo--I played there.
Ticket agent: Great. We'll put you in with the visitors in section 114. I'm not sure if they are bringing their band or not so we'll put you in Row 8.
Me: Who? Valpo? I'm pretty sure they don't have a traveling band.
Ticket agent: Oh, goodness. I better read up on this school.
Have things changed in the last 12 years to where Valpo's band joins the team on road trips?
I presume he was thinking of a Marching Band, not a Pep Band. The Marching Band left the premises in about 1988.
Quote from: VUOR63 on July 18, 2017, 01:50:54 PM
Just ordered my tickets and had an interesting conversation with the ticket agent:
Me: I need to purchase 5 tickets to the Valpo-Montana game.
Ticket agent: Okay...are you coming to watch Valpo or Montana?
Me: I coming to watch Valpo--I played there.
Ticket agent: Great. We'll put you in with the visitors in section 114. I'm not sure if they are bringing their band or not so we'll put you in Row 8.
Me: Who? Valpo? I'm pretty sure they don't have a traveling band.
Ticket agent: Oh, goodness. I better read up on this school.
Have things changed in the last 12 years to where Valpo's band joins the team on road trips?
When you call,
specifically ask for section 103. That is where the Valpo FB program tickets will be. Those tix, to my knowledge, have not been sent to the Football team yet, but sitting in 103 will probably get you close to the Athletic Department people and the players' parents who are attending the game. There is no guarantee that UMT will give you tix in that section, but it's worth a try according to my contact at the Griz ticket office.
Quote from: VULB#62 on July 18, 2017, 06:11:45 PMQuote from: VUOR63 on July 18, 2017, 01:50:54 PMJust ordered my tickets and had an interesting conversation with the ticket agent: Me: I need to purchase 5 tickets to the Valpo-Montana game. Ticket agent: Okay...are you coming to watch Valpo or Montana? Me: I coming to watch Valpo--I played there. Ticket agent: Great. We'll put you in with the visitors in section 114. I'm not sure if they are bringing their band or not so we'll put you in Row 8. Me: Who? Valpo? I'm pretty sure they don't have a traveling band. Ticket agent: Oh, goodness. I better read up on this school. Have things changed in the last 12 years to where Valpo's band joins the team on road trips?
When you call, specifically ask for section 103. That is where the Valpo FB program tickets will be. Those tix, to my knowledge, have not been sent to the Football team yet, but sitting in 103 will probably get you close to the Athletic Department people and the players' parents who are attending the game. There is no guarantee that UMT will give you tix in that section, but it's worth a try according to my contact at the Griz ticket office.
Typically the team tickets which are provided for players family and friends are picked up at will call at the game facility on gameday. I think there's typically a set number of tickets available which I think is 4 per player which would be around 200 if all are taken (very unlikely). Not sure what the coach allocation is.
Just checked the UMT athletics site and the Football schedule has been updated for the Valpo game. Kickoff has been changed from TBD to 1PM Mountain Time.
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!
That's just awesome information and welcome to the board.
Mtgrizfrankb, thanks for the welcome. I am soooooo looking fwd to being in Missoula for the game. I am even dragging my daughter's MTSU family to the game (they live in Bozeman). They will obviously be yelling Go Valpo :)
Your thoughtful help is really spot-on. The people of the state are so friendly. Our fans have to be sure to get into it. The Missoula backdrop will blow us Mid-Westerners away.
IMO, this is THE game for Valpo fans to travel to. This place is spectacular.
Mtgrizfrankb,
I'll echo the gratitude for the information you posted. I will put it to good use. My family has been looking forward to this trip for about 10 months so it should be fun.
I did the same thing as you did and perused the Montana message board and I must say that I am very impressed with the level of intensity of your fans as well as the commitment to bashing your arch rival at every opportunity. Look forward to talking football with some Grizz fans before the game!
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:
Thanks for that writeup.
Now I'm going to have a good cry. :'(
The word 'doom' comes to mind
Nice videos but...YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY US IN...BASKETBALL!!!! ;)
Haha that's probably true!
Quote from: vu72 on August 25, 2017, 05:59:50 AMNice videos but...YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY US IN...BASKETBALL!!!!
70-58 Valpo was the final score the last time we played the Grizz...November 28th 1998... at the Big Island Classic in Hilo.
a Montana win 73-61 when we played in their Tournament in Missoula. We won the 3rd place game over Centenary the next day.... December 1988.
Yup, we need to get 'em in the ARC. We can compare atmosphere.
"Doom" did enter my mind but then I realized the one thing I didn't see listed at any of the positions was a player that puts his pants on two legs at a time. That's right, Montana players put their pants on one leg at a time just like Valpo players.
In all seriousness, I'm pretty far removed from playing at Valpo but it there are a few seniors on Valpo who have put the same amount of time into football as any other FCS or FBS school in the nation. Our guys play at high school level stadiums every Saturday so an opportunity to play in front of 26,000 people is special. I remember getting the snot kicked out of us when we went to NDSU in 2004 and I still talk about that game to this day. This game may be a prime set-up for getting waxed as Montana gets ready for their Week 2 match up against Washington, but hopefully our Valpo guys enjoy playing the game and, more importantly, enjoy the brotherhood they are re-building in the Valpo program.
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 :)
Quote from: vu72 on August 25, 2017, 05:59:50 AMNice videos but...YOU DON'T WANT TO PLAY US IN...BASKETBALL!!!! ;)
I would disagree, if you don't play the best you will never improve.
As far as tickets go for this game one will be able to show up on game day and be able to buy a ticket from the numerous individuals at the tailgates or get a free one as this game will not be sold out.