MISSOULA — While there’s no doubt it takes a complete team effort to shut out an opponent on their home turf, Montana safety Jaxon Lee’s seven tackles and a highlight-reel interception early in the second half went a long way toward making it happen.
Lee, a senior from Missoula by way of Philipsburg, helped lead a Grizzly defensive charge against Northern Colorado in Greeley on Saturday, as Montana blanked the Bears 24-0 at Nottingham Field to improve to 6-2 on the season.
As such, Lee was named the Big Sky Conference defensive player of the week by the league on Monday. It’s the first weekly honor of his career and the first for the Grizzly defense so far this season.
Saturday’s win wasn’t just one shutout, however. The road victory marked nearly a half-decade of dominance over UNC with the Griz recording their third-straight shutout of Bears, and Lee has been part of them all.
In 2021 Montana beat Northern Colorado 35-0 in Greeley and followed that up with 40-0 home drubbing of the Bears in 2023. As if two shutouts weren’t rare enough in college football these days, Lee and the Grizzly defense pitched another this week to make it three in a row.
Montana stymied the UNC rushing attack and held the Bears to just 65 yards on the ground, forcing the home team to turn to the air for yards. Jace Klucewich, Caleb Otlewski and Lee made them pay for it, with UM hauling in a season-high three interceptions to keep Northern Colorado off the scoreboard for a third-straight game.
The three turnovers were the most for the Griz against a single opponent since 2023 at Idaho where Lee recorded his first career interception. He followed that up a week later with a second-straight pick … against the same Northern Colorado Bears.
UNC has not managed to score a point against the Grizzlies since head coach Bobby Hauck returned to Montana in 2018, with UM leading the Bears 99-0 in that three-game span. UNC is also the only Big Sky team to have never beaten a Hauck-led Grizzly team, with UM sitting at 8-0 in his two terms as head coach, having outscored the Bears 310-74 in those contests.
In his first years a full-time starter for the Griz, Lee has been productive once again this season as UM’s fifth-leading tackler. He now has 39 stops to his name and needs just 10 more to pass his junior season total. In addition to his third career pick, he’s also logged a fumble recovery and two QB hurries this season.
He’s been a catalyst for a surging Grizzly defense that has allowed just one offensive touchdown in the last two games, and that came on a trick play three weeks ago against NAU.
Lee and the Grizzlies return to the road this week on their quest for a second-straight conference championship, looking to improve to 4-1 in Big Sky play at Cal Poly on Saturday.
