By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
For only the third time in the last quarter of a century the Montana Grizzlies have less than five wins after eight games. in 1992 the Grizzlies roared to wins in their last 5 games and finished 6-5. In 2002 The Griz won 2 of their last 3 but still finished with a losing record at 5-6.
The Griz travel to Pocatello this week to meet the Idaho State Bengals . The Bengals are last in many Big Sky defensive stats, but are still scary on offense.
The Griz have won 18 of their last 19 against ISU datiung back to the mid 1990’s.
Idaho state is coached by a Big Sky legend in Mike Kramer. Kramer spent six years teaching and coaching at Helna High, when one his student was future Montana Governor Steve Bullock. Kramer faced the Grizzlies 8 times as an assitant coach and saw his teams go 6-2. As a head coach Kramer has gone 4-15, but three of those wins over UM were as coach of the MSU Bobcats. Kramer did make the trip to Missoula in 2012 serving a one game suspension for some rules infractions.
The Bengals top offensive weapon is quarterback Michael Sanders who is 5th in the Big Sky in total offense. Before he was a Bengals Sanders was an artichoke having spent a season playing for Scottsdale Arizona Community College, the fighting Artichokes.
Bobcat fans should be aware that the Thunderbirds of Southern Utah feel quite comfortable playing in Montana. As a matter of fact the T-Birds have won in their most recent visits to both Bozeman and Missoula.
For Halloween last week Grizzly running back John Nguyen dressed as an Angel with his girlfriend in a devil costume. Maybe having been an angel might help him float above defenders.
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Chris Walterskirchen has been an observer of Montana sports for nearly half a century. A Kalispell native, Chris has worked in various capacities for professional and college sports organization of at various times: ranging from announcing and statistical work to the concessions and even a stint as a costumed mascot.
Chris has academic degrees in communications and elementary education. His style of sports trivia involves more than just who won and who lost, but also focuses on the obscure or human side of sports. In this blog you will learn things like the Grizzly football team has won 210 games over the 19 seasons since they have had Monte as their mascot or that UNLV is the only school that both the Griz and Lady Griz have both faced in the NCAA basketball tournament
When not following sports Chris enjoys taking care of animals of all kinds (a peacock rescue?) and reading to pre-schoolers.