By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
Once again this season the Grizzly defense is among the top in FCS. Among Big Sky teams the Griz has given the fewest first downs and are the top defense against third and fourth conversions.
Brady Gustafson and Jerry Louie McGee are among the top 6 in the Big Sky in all-purpose yards.
In three weeks the Griz go to Cheney to face the Eastern Washington Eagles in what is shaping up to be an aerial circus. EWU is first in passing in the Big Sky and Montana is second. By contrast, the Griz are 12th in rushing in the league while Eastern is 13th.
On Saturday the Griz host the Delta Devils of Mississippi Valley State. The Delta Devils have had a Devil of a time getting wins, having lost 19 of their last 20 and have only 5 wins total since the start of the 2013 season. Once upon a time Mississippi Valley State had a scoring machine and topped the FCS polls, that was 1984. With quarterback Willie Toten and future Hall of Fame member Jerry Rice the Devils went undefeated in the 1984 regular session and were the top seed before losing in the quarterfinals to Louisiana Tech 66-19. Tech would reach the FCS title game only to lose to Montana State.
Kentucky Transfer Reece Phillips had a busy day along with being a defender on special teams and being in on a couple of tackles he also got in for a few snaps and a couple of pass attempts at quarterback.
Remember to wear pink Saturday as the Griz coaches and cheerleaders will join with the crowd in saluting those battling cancer.
If the ten teams in the Major League baseball playoffs only two have won World Series titles in the last 20 years, The Giants and Red Sox have each won 3 Series titles since 2004.
The Washington Nationals haven’t won a play-off series since moving to DC in 2005 and their former team the Montreal Expos won just one play-off series in their 36 years of existence.
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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.