Montana
Junior Bergen does it again as Montana survives playoff scare from Tennessee State
MISSOULA — Junior Bergen put on another virtuoso performance Saturday night and Montana is moving on in the FCS playoffs.
Bergen returned two punts for touchdowns — the FCS record-tying seventh and eighth of his career — and the Grizzlies eluded Eddie George-coached Tennessee State 41-27 in a first-round game at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
UM, the No. 14 seed for the playoffs, will now hit the road for a second-round game against No. 3 seed South Dakota State next week.
Three turnovers on offense helped keep Tennessee State in the game, but Bergen returned punts for 52 and 54 yards to the end zone. The first helped give the Grizzlies a 27-6 lead in the third quarter. The second made the score 34-20 in the fourth.
PHOTOS: 14TH-SEEDED MONTANA HOSTS TENNESSEE STATE IN FCS PLAYOFFS
Bergen has now returned five punts for touchdowns in the playoffs alone, adding to those he had against SE Missouri in 2022, and versus Furman and North Dakota State last year.
Montana’s offense struggled to find consistency and turned the ball over three times to a Tennessee State defense that is coordinated by former Griz linebacker Brandon Fisher.
James Dobson / For MTN Sports
Thankfully for the Grizzlies, special teams played a huge role.
After going three-and-out to start the game, Montana got on the board on its second possession when Ty Morrison booted a 39-yard field goal. Tennessee State put together a drive of its own, though, and knotted the score at 3-3 with a 37-yard kick by James Lowery in the final seconds of the first quarter.
On Montana’s first drive of the second quarter, freshman running back Malae Fonoti had 36 yards on the ground, but Morrison was wide right on a 39-yard field goal try and the Griz came up empty.
Later, an Eli Gillman run on fourth down moved the chains, and then he capped the possession with a 7-yard touchdown run to put the Grizzlies back in front 10-3 with 4:35 left before halftime.
The Griz got more breathing room as Morrison hit consecutive field goals, one from 31 yards and the other from 50 — his career long — to go into halftime ahead 16-3.
Early in the third quarter, Montana quarterback Logan Fife coughed up a fumble near midfield, but TSU couldn’t capitalize other than a 26-yard field goal by Lowery to make the score 16-6 with 6:44 on the clock.
The Griz got those points back later in the third as Morrison banged home his fourth field goal of the night, a 30-yarder.
After Bergen’s first punt return touchdown, Tennessee State benefitted from a 63-yard kickoff return by Craig Cunningham and got a 3-yard TD pass from Draylen Ellis to Karate Brenson with 1:02 left in the third to cut Montana’s advantage to 27-13.
Fife lost a fumble for the second time at the start of the fourth quarter, which eventually produced an 11-yard touchdown run by Ellis to make it 27-20.
Xavier Harris responded with a long kickoff return for the Grizzlies, and Keali’i Ah Yat relieved Fife at quarterback. Stevie Rocker Jr. took a shovel pass from Ah Yat to the 3.
But Gillman fumbled an exchange from Ah Yat on the next play and Tennessee State recovered. The Tigers went backwards, though, and Bergen then scooped up a bouncing punt on the far sideline and took it back 54 yards for his second TD of the night.
The Grizzlies needed it, too, because the Tigers didn’t go away. Ellis hit Brenson with a touchdown pass for the second time, making the score 34-27 with 3:03 left.
On Montana’s next possession, Gillman refused to go down on the sideline, cut back against the defense and scored for a 59-yard touchdown run to extend the lead again.
The Grizzlies sealed the victory on a Trevin Gradney interception at the 2-yard line with 1:19 remaining.
Turning point: Bergen’s second punt return was a huge difference-maker because it came at a critical moment with Montana leading by just one score. It returned a sense of order to the game.
Bergen’s eight punt-return touchdowns tie the FCS record initially set by Leroy Vann, who played at Florida A&M from 2006-09.
Stat of the game: With his 7-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, Gillman achieved his first career 1,000-yard season. Gillman — last year’s Jerry Rice Award winner as the top freshman in the FCS — finished with 136 yards on 20 carries.
Grizzly game balls: RB Eli Gillman (Offense). It was an up-and-down offensive night for the Griz, but Gillman’s steady running, and his two touchdowns, were key.
LB Riley Wilson (Defense). Again, Wilson stood out on defense for the Grizzlies. The linebacker finished with seven tackles, 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss as UM held the Tigers to minus-19 rushing yards.
PR Junior Bergen (Special teams). Who else? With another outstanding playoff performance, Bergen further cemented his legacy as the best return man in the history of the Griz program.
What’s next: With the win, the Grizzlies (9-4) drew a second-round matchup with two-time defending national champion South Dakota State (10-2) next Saturday at 12 p.m. Mountain time. It will be a rematch of last year’s title game in Frisco, Texas, which the Jackrabbits won 23-3.
It will be the fourth playoff meeting between Montana and SDSU since 2009. The Griz haven’t faced the Jackrabbits in Brookings, S.D., since Nov. 14, 1970, a 24-0 Montana victory.
WASHINGTON ― Montana Republican Senate nominee Kurt Alme, who previously served as his state’s U.S. attorney, cut a plea deal in 2020 that allowed a tribal police officer who sexually abused a 6-year-old girl to serve less than a year in prison and avoid being registered as a sex offender.
Alme, who has President Donald Trump’s backing in his bid for Senate, served as Montana’s U.S. attorney in two stints. Trump appointed him both times; Alme served in the role from September 2017 through December 2020, and then again from March 2025 through March 2026.
Alme oversaw the case of Mychal Thomas Damon, who was indicted in June 2019 by a grand jury on one count of abusive sexual contact with an individual under 12, which carries a maximum punishment of a lifetime in prison, a $250,000 fine and no less than five years to a lifetime of supervised release. The average sentence for this crime is less severe, but still significant: 62 months in prison, no fine and 143 months of supervised release, based on an analysis of 2025 data provided by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Damon, 28, had admitted he touched the 6-year-old’s genitals. But in February 2020, Alme’s office filed a plea deal in his case that reduced his charge to felony child abuse.
The changes in the plea deal raised the alleged age of the victim from below 12 to below 14, stripped out the language of sexual intent and moved the offense out of the federal sex crime framework, meaning Damon would no longer be required to register as a sex offender. It jointly recommended Damon be sentenced to the time he’d already served of 324 days, and required only a sex offender evaluation. Alme’s name appears on the bottom of the document, along with a signature by his assistant U.S. attorney, Cassady Adams.
In June, Alme filed a sentencing memorandum that described Damon’s conduct, which included details of him touching the child’s vagina with skin-to-skin contact, and the adverse effect it had on her mental health. Local reporting at the time said the victim had told a therapist “Mychal touched me” and hurt her by putting his fingers in her “hoo hoo.”
Ten days later, Alme announced Damon was being sentenced to time served of 324 days and two years of supervised release. As of June 2026, Damon is not listed in the national sex offender registry or in Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registry.
It’s not clear why Alme reduced the charges against Damon as significantly as he did. During part of his tenure as U.S. attorney, his office declined 64% of sexual assault cases. He conceded in a 2019 interview that this “is something that has to be worked on,” and noted that a lot of these cases are declined due to “weak or insufficient evidence.”
Asked what happened in Damon’s case, an Alme campaign spokesman on Thursday lashed out at unnamed Democrats for trying to make him look bad.
“Kurt’s liberal opponents are twisting the facts to manufacture a fake narrative that exploits crimes against women and children,” said Alme’s spokesperson. “Department of Justice policy required defendants to plead to the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence. Kurt strongly supported the Multi-Disciplinary Teams on our Native American reservations, led by his office, to support investigations of crimes against children and to support victims.”
His spokesperson also pushed back on the idea that Alme unreasonably declined a large number of sexual assault cases during his tenure as U.S. attorney.
“Kurt’s office prosecuted every viable sexual abuse felony referred to it and pursued the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence,” the spokesperson said. “Many ‘declined’ cases were to allow more appropriate tribal prosecutions ― they were not dropped. Kurt will bring his years of experience prosecuting criminals and working with the Sexual Assault Response Teams on our Native American reservations to the U.S. Senate to strengthen investigations, support victims, and better protect women and children.”
The campaign pointed HuffPost to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office that found the most common reason for U.S. attorney’s offices to decline sexual abuse cases referred in from Indian country was “weak or insufficient admissible evidence.” It also highlighted statements of support for Alme in an October 2025 press release by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), when he celebrated Alme being confirmed as U.S. attorney.
Alme is currently running for Daines’ Senate seat, and Daines went out of his way to clear the path for him. In a stunning and orchestrated maneuver, the two-term senator in March abruptly withdrew from reelection as Alme filed to run for his seat, minutes before the state’s filing period closed. Daines’ last-minute change-up was an effort to block potential Democrats or any major Republican challenger from jumping into an open Senate race.
Alme is taking on Democrat Alani Bankhead and independent candidate Seth Bodnar in the November election. Bankhead and Bodner have been duking it out for weeks, with each appealing to different factions of the Democratic party and calling on the other to drop out.
Bankhead, a retired Air Force officer, unexpectedly won the Democratic primary earlier this month, boosted by grassroots supporters and more than $2.5 million in outside money from a progressive veterans’ PAC. But Bodnar, a former University of Montana president who did not appear on the primary ballot, has bipartisan endorsements from prominent establishment figures, including former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot. He’s also significantly outraised Bankhead and Alme.
This Senate seat is rated “solid Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook’s Political Report, meaning Alme is well-positioned to win the general election. But this race would be more competitive if Bodner and Alme were going head to head, without Bankhead in the running.
Where Khloe Kardashian Stands With Ex French Montana More Than 10 Years After Breakup
French Montana is done keeping up with reality TV.
In fact, he only agreed to appear on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Kourtney & Khloé Take the Hamptons over a decade ago as a favor to then-girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.
“She said to get on the show,” he exclusively told E! News at the BET Awards on June 28. “And I got on the show. Shout out to Khloe.”
The “Ever Since U Left Me” rapper, who split with Kardashian in December 2014 after eight months of dating, said the experience was “fun” because her family kept it real.
“They filmed their real life,” he continued. “And we were part of something together that one time. So it felt great. It didn’t feel like work because they film what they do everyday.”
As for his future in reality TV, the 41-year-old said those days are over, shutting down any prospective offers with a simple, “Negative.”
Although the “Unforgettable” artist—whose real name is Karim Kharbouch—may not be returning to television anytime soon, he has no problem hanging out with his ex-girlfriend these days.
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