GREELEY, Colo. — The No. 9 Montana Grizzlies are back in action this week when they travel to Greeley to take on Northern Colorado.
Montana (5-2, 2-1 Big Sky) is back in the top 10 of the FCS and coming off of a bye week where the team took a breather after it's first seven games.
"I think we utilized the bye week very well," senior safety Ryder Meyer said. "We got the bumps and bruises calloused up, and we're ready to get after it again. We're 5-2, and I don't think we've played our best football yet. I think that's still to come, and we're excited for the opportunity to go down to Greeley this weekend."
Now it's on to Montana's longest road trips of the regular season in back-to-back weeks starting with the Bears, a team that is 1-6 but two weekends ago picked up a ranked win over Weber State to snap an 18-game losing streak and give head coach Ed Lamb his first win with the program. This came the week after the Wildcats upset the Griz in Missoula.
"I think they play really hard," UM head coach Bobby Hauck said. "They do a nice job, and they've had two weeks to prepare for us. So this will be a good test this weekend down there. They're coming off a big win over Weber, who had just beaten us here, and that certainly has our attention."
Statistically, Northern Colorado ranks toward the bottom of the Big Sky Conference in most categories and has recently settled on a quarterback after that position shuffled most of the season.
"You know, the thing that pops out the most is the multiple formations," Hauck said. "You know, they move around a lot, shifts, motions try to get you out of sorts. And then you couple that with the quarterback run game, they create some problems."
Hauck added about their defense, "We see them doing some similar things this year (as last year). They played a lot of man coverage against Weber, and won on the ball, did a really good job with that, and then we did not move them off the ball very well up front (last year).
"They're big up front, they do a good job of of hanging in there and not getting moved off the ball, so they're hard to run the ball against."
The Bears lost a lot of close games over that stretch, so it's about how they keep momentum going after this win and also being on a bye last week.
When these two teams met last year, Montana blanked Northern Colorado 40-0 in Missoula, and Bobby Hauck has never lost to the Bears as head coach of the Griz with a 7-0 mark against them.
On the Grizzlies' side, UM is well on its way to a playoff push, and after a rugged schedule to start the season, Montana is ready to begin the back half stretch with a bang.
"I just don't think we've played our best yet, and I think we are willing to work to improve, and when you do that, you have a chance to play well," Hauck said. "I think we have a team that likes to battle, competes hard, plays physically, willing to work at it week in and week out. So we're just a really competitive group."
