Montana
Numbers crunch: Home dominance the new trend in Cat-Griz rivalry. Will it hold true again?
BILLINGS — Last season’s football clash between Montana and Montana State was perhaps the highest-stakes Brawl of them all, with the winner taking home the outright Big Sky Conference title and the league’s automatic bid to the playoffs.
The Grizzlies’ 37-7 blowout victory set them on a course to the FCS national championship game, while the Bobcats dropped their postseason opener at home to North Dakota State.
This year’s matchup doesn’t have quite the same surrounding drama. But it matters. Every year. Always. Regardless of the windfall.
The Cats and Griz — ranked No. 2 and No. 10 respectively entering last week — will kick off the 123rd Brawl of the Wild on Saturday at 12 p.m. at Bobcat Stadium in Bozeman.
Coming in, Montana State (11-0, 7-0 Big Sky) has already wrapped up the league’s automatic bid to the playoffs and clinched at least a share of the conference title thanks to a 30-28 road win at UC Davis. A victory over the Griz this week and MSU will be outright Big Sky champs.
The Bobcats want to stay in position to have the best chance to go where the Grizzlies went last year — Frisco, Texas.
Meanwhile, Montana (8-3, 5-2) has surely played its way into an at-large playoff berth, but a victory in Bozeman would enhance its credentials for positioning within the 24-team bracket, which will be released by the FCS selection committee on Sunday.
When last year’s game ended, Griz coach Bobby Hauck called it an “a** kicking” on live television. He wasn’t wrong. But that’s been the trend in this rivalry for the past five years on both sides.
Montana State dismantled the Griz at home in 2019 (48-14) and 2022 (55-21), an average margin of victory of 34 points in those wins. Montana, meanwhile, blew past the Cats 29-10 in 2021 in Missoula, a game that didn’t seem as close as the score indicated, then dominated last year’s game in Missoula, as Hauck not-so-subtly alluded to.
The Bobcats’ Brent Vigen has put together a glowing resume in four years as MSU’s coach. He’s 43-9 overall (.827) and 28-3 in the Big Sky with two league titles. He has yet to lose a home game to a conference opponent, and has not lost a regular-season home game period.
Vigen is looking to even his record against the Grizzlies at 2-2 on Saturday.
Hauck obviously has a much longer history against the Bobcats — “the neighbors,” as he calls them — in his two separate tenures at Montana.
Hauck is 7-5 all-time versus MSU. Overall, he is 137-39 (.778), 82-21 in Big Sky games and has taken the Grizzlies to four national championship game appearances, including last year’s.
But he doesn’t want to fall to 2-4 against the Bobcats since returning as coach prior to the 2018 season.
From a historical standpoint, Montana has the upper hand in the rivalry with a 74-42-5 series lead, a fact that’s not lost on the Grizzlies or their fans. The primary reasons for that were UM’s 36-3-4 record over the Bobcats from 1909-1955 and a 16-game Griz winning streak from 1986-2001.
But from a more modern perspective, the series sits at 34-32 in favor of UM since 1956. If you drill it down even further, it’s all square at 10-10 since the Bobcats finally got back on the winning side after 16 long seasons in 2002.
That’s what has made this conflict even better in recent years — the fact that both teams are keeping pace with each other head-to-head. That only enhances what is one of the best college football rivalries in the country.
Now it’s a matter of whether the recent trend of home-field advantage rings true again this year. And we’re about to find out.
HELENA, Mont. — Montana counties have accepted enough signatures for Seth Bodnar, running for U.S. Senate and Michael Eisenhauer, running in Montana’s 2nd Congressional District, to be on the November ballot, although counts are still unofficial.
County election officials are continuing to verify signatures submitted by Tuesday’s deadline as part of the candidate petition process.
The Montana Secretary of State’s Office has not yet verified, certified or accepted the petitions, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Counties must submit candidate petitions to the Secretary of State’s office by June 1.
The Secretary of State’s office will then conduct its “statutory review to ensure the petitions meet the necessary legal requirements under law.”
The deadline for the November general election ballot to be certified is Thursday, Aug. 20. By then, all qualifying candidates and any potential ballot issues that qualify for the general election will be officially certified.
The following was out by the Montana Secretary of State’s Office:
The attached report is unofficial. It includes totals that the county election officials have processed and entered in the system. These totals do not represent what the Secretary of State’s Office has received, reviewed, tabulated, or certified. The certified totals may differ from what is reflected.
Seth Bodnar, U.S. Senate
- 13,327 required
- 18,772 accepted
- 7,812 rejected
Kimberly Persico, MT-01
- 6,742 required
- 563 accepted
- 156 rejected
Michael Eisenhauer, MT-02
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- 7,274 required
- 7,754 accepted
- 4,720 rejected
Severe storms moved through parts of Montana on Thursday, prompting a total of 5 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings. Reports included strong wind gusts and hail in several communities, including Augusta, Choteau, Sunburst, Bigfork, Kalispell and Evergreen.
The strongest reported wind gust was 60 mph near Augusta, while hail up to 1 inch was reported near Evergreen and Kalispell.
STORM REPORTS:
12 SE Grant — 56 mph thunderstorm wind gust
7 NNE Augusta — 60 mph thunderstorm wind gust
5 ENE Choteau — 59 mph thunderstorm wind gust
Sunburst — 54 mph thunderstorm wind gust
Ennis — 59 mph thunderstorm wind gust
3 SSW Ennis — 52 mph thunderstorm wind gust
2 E Helena — 54 mph thunderstorm wind gust
19 E Swan Lake — 56 mph thunderstorm wind gust
2 NNW Yaak — thunderstorm wind damage – Multiple downed trees reported along Highway 2 between MM 3 and 8
3 WSW Blacktail — 53 mph thunderstorm wind gust
1 NNW Troy — 49 mph thunderstorm wind gust
5 ENE Choteau — 56 mph thunderstorm wind gust
Turah — 0.88″ hail
1 NNW Bigfork — 0.75″ hail
3 SW La Salle — 0.50″ hail
2 N Evergreen — 1.00″ hail
1 W Kalispell — 1.00″ hail
3 WNW Kalispell — 0.75″ hail
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LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A man from Las Vegas has been sentenced after stealing coins and precious metals from a Helena shop in Montana.
This comes after Bishop Lott, 47, pleaded guilty in January to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property.
A judge sentenced Lott on Thursday to 27 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $276,153.08 in restitution to the Helena business as well as five other theft victims.
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The government alleged in court documents that Lott, along with Ricky Rynell Rose, broke into Wayne Miller Coins in Helena and stole nearly $59,000 in coins and precious metals from a Helena business.
Rose pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to 39 months in prison.
The Helena Police Department received a call on March 3, 2024, reporting that Wayne Miller Coins had been burglarized earlier that day.
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As part of their investigation, Helena police officers reviewed surveillance footage from multiple businesses. They analyzed email account data, which led them to Lott and Rose, who had taken the stolen material to Nevada.
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