Montana
'Playoff tradition': Punt return TDs solidify Junior Bergen's legacy as Montana marches on
MISSOULA — Saturday was likely the final home game of the season at Washington-Grizzly Stadium, and this year’s No. 14 Montana Grizzlies football team made sure to go out with a bang.
And it all started with Junior Bergen doing what he does best, and that’s show up when the lights are brightest with a pair of punt return touchdowns to help spur the Grizzlies into the second round of the FCS playoffs as they defeated the Tennessee State Tigers, 41-27.
PHOTOS: NO. 14 MONTANA HOSTS TENNESSEE STATE IN FCS PLAYOFFS
“Super blessed. I thank God every night, every morning for it,” Bergen said. “These guys trusted me, and they look to me in some of these moments, and I’m just so grateful to be able to kind of capitalize in that. And, yeah, I’m just super grateful.”
“It’s a playoff tradition,” UM head coach Bobby Hauck added. And those words couldn’t ring more true as once again Bergen was called upon with the season on the line, and the senior from Billings delivered once again.
His first score — one that was blocked to perfection — came in the third quarter to make it 27-6. The second was desperately needed which gave the Griz 34-20 advantage in the fourth on a play where Bergen caught the ball running and had to make a lot of magic happen on his own to find his way into the end zone once again.
GRIZ POSTGAME: HAUCK, BERGEN, GRADNEY BREAK DOWN WIN OVER TENNESSEE STATE
That makes it eight career punt return touchdowns for him — five in the playoffs — as Bergen tied the FCS record with that mark.
“I mean, the kid’s unreal,” said UM senior cornerback Trevin Gradney, a childhood friend of Bergen’s growing up in Billings. “There’s not much else you can say about it. In the big moments, he shows up, and you can always count on him to do his job, and the other guys that do their jobs around him. He’s a playmaker, man.”
“It’s become so regular and done so regularly around here that we forget how hard that is to do,” Hauck added. “And these guys, sometimes they make it look easy. You know, you’re talking about doing two in one game three years in a row in the playoffs. Yeah, it’s pretty it’s pretty special. And I think it builds upon itself.”
Special teams was a savior for Montana (9-4) on Saturday, as kicker Ty Morrison went 4 for 5 on the day, providing most of the scoring early on through the third quarter. Kicker Grant Glasgow also had a kickoff recovered by Tyson Rostad just before half that set up Morrison for his third field goal of the day, a 50-yarder, that put the Griz up 16-3 heading into the break.
Offensively the Grizzlies were led by a big game from Eli Gillman who sealed the win with a late nail in the coffin 59-yard score and who finished the day with 136 yards and two touchdowns, but turnovers hurt the Griz with three second-half lost fumbles that allowed the Tigers to get back into the game.
Quarterback Logan Fife lost a pair of them while Gillman coughed up another as the Griz were on the doorstep of scoring in the fourth quarter.
Montana’s defense stood firm. The Griz held the Tigers to 3 for 14 on third down and only 277 total yards, and even as Tennessee State found some life to climb back in it, the Grizzlies stood tall and came up with timely stops, and ended it with an interception from Gradney.
“I think we did a good job handling them,” Gradney said. “We knew they’d like to throw the ball. I think we took that away early. They kind of got to us late a little bit, but we kind of kept the big one off of us when we when we needed to. And yeah, I was really proud of our guys.”
The game was all over the place Saturday night, but in the end, the Griz did everything needed to advance to the next round with their ninth win of the year. Next up for them is a rematch of last year’s FCS national championship game as UM hits the road to Brookings, South Dakota to take on two-time reigning national champ No. 3 South Dakota State (10-2) at noon on Saturday.
“It’s always hard to win this particular weekend,” Hauck said. “So thought our guys had a lot of juice all week long, and it showed they had that in the game tonight. And I was just proud of the way they they kept competing, and when they got a chance to to put it away, they did. So good by our guys.”
Everyone makes mistakes, even experienced professionals; a good reminder for the rest of us to learn from those mistakes. The motion in State v. Stroup starts off well in its initial pages (no case law hallucinations), but is then followed by several pages of two other motions, which I don’t think the lawyer was planning to file, and which appear to have been AI-generated: It begins with the “Below is concise motion language you can drop into …” language quoted above.
Griffen Smith (Missoulian) reported on the story, and included the prosecutor’s motion to strike that filing, on the grounds that it violates a local rule (3(G)) requiring disclosure of the use of generative AI:
The document does not include a generative artificial intelligence disclosure as required. However, page 7 begins as follows: “Below is concise motion language you can drop into a ‘Motion to Admit Mental-Disease Evidence and for Related Instructions’ keyed to 45-6-204, 45-6-201, and 4614-102. Adjust headings/captions to your local practice.” Page 10 states “Below is a full motion you can paste into your pleading, then adjust names, dates, and styles to fit local practice.” These pages also include several apparent hyperlinks to “ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws,” “ppl-ai-fileupload.s3.amazonaws+1,” and others. The document includes what appears to be an attempt at a second case caption on page 12. It is not plausible on its face that any source other than generative AI would have created such language for a filed version of a brief….
There’s more in that filing, but here’s one passage:
While generative AI can be a useful tool for some purposes and may have greater application in the future, when used improperly, and without meaningful review, it can ultimately damage both the perception and the reality of the profession. One assumes that Mr. Stroup has had, or will at some point have, an opportunity to review the filing made on his behalf. What impression could a review of pgs. 12-19 leave upon a defendant who struggles with paranoia and delusional thinking? While AI could theoretically one day become a replacement for portions of staff of experienced attorneys, it is readily apparent that this day has not yet arrived.
The Missoulan article includes this response:
In a Wednesday interview, Office of Public Defender Division Administrator Brian Smith told the Missoulian the AI-generated language was inadvertently included in an unrelated filing. And he criticized the county attorney’s office for filing a “four-page diatribe about the dangers of AI” instead of working with the defense to correct her mistake.
“That’s not helping the client or the case,” Smith said, “and all you are doing is trying to throw a professional colleague under the bus.”
As I mentioned, the lawyer involved seems quite experienced, and ran for the Montana Public Service Commission in 2020 (getting nearly 48% of the vote) and for the House of Representatives in Montana’s first district in 2022 (getting over 46% of the vote) and in 2024 (getting over 44%). “Его пример другим наука,” Pushkin wrote in Eugene Onegin—”May his example profit others,” in the Falen translation.
Thanks to Matthew Monforton for the pointer.
HELENA — You probably have goals and plans for 2026—the Montana Department of Agriculture does too.
“We’re really focusing on innovative agricultural practices,” Montana Department of Agriculture director Jillien Streit said.
It’s no secret that agriculture—farming and ranching—is not easy. There are long days, planning, monitoring crops and livestock, and other challenges beyond farmers’ and ranchers’ control.
(WATCH: Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026)
Montana Department of Agriculture focusing on innovation in 2026
“We have very low commodity prices across the board,” Streit said. “We still have very high input prices across the board, and we have really high prices when it comes to our equipment, and so, it’s a really tough year.”
But innovation, including new practices, partnerships and technology use, can help navigate some of those challenges.
“We can’t make more time and we can’t make more land, so we need to start putting together innovative practices that help us maximize what our time and land can do,” Streit said.
Practices range from using technology like autonomous tractors and virtual fencing—allowing rangers to contain and move cattle right from their phones—to regenerative farming and ranching.
“It is bringing cattle back into farming operations to be able to work with cover cropping practices to invigorate the soil for new soil health benefits,” Streit said.
The Montana Department of Agriculture is working to help producers learn, share, and collaborate on new ideas to work in their operations.
The department will share stories of practices that work from farms and ranches across the state. Also, within the next year or so, Streit said the department is hoping to roll out technology to help producers collaborate.
“(It’s) providing a communication platform where people can get together and really help each other out by utilizing each other’s assets,” she said.
While not easy, agriculture is still one of Montana’s largest industries, and Streit said innovating and sharing ideas across the state can keep it going long into the future.
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