MISSOULA -- Montana football fans are used to the program making the FCS playoffs on a regular basis, but there are actually no current players on the 2019 roster that have played for Montana in a playoff game.
"There's a little more added to it because if we lose, we are done. It's not like regular season where you always have a game the next week. So, we are just looking forward to leaving it all out there and seeing what happens," said redshirt senior Jesse Sims.
Players like Sims, Jerry Louie-McGee, Cy Sirmon and Dante Olson are among many other key guys on this 2019 roster who were all part of that redshirt freshman group who stepped on campus in 2015.
In the 2015 season the Griz started out hot, taking down the No. 1 team in the country in North Dakota State, which featured current NFL quarterback Carson Wentz.
In the playoffs the Griz won their first-round home game over South Dakota State that year before losing a rematch to North Dakota State on the road.
While they weren't suited up in those two playoffs games, these now-seniors were there and they're trying to emulate that team's first-round playoff success four seasons later.
"I just remembered, you know, kind of the dominance and what Griz football has been," said Louie-McGee. "Those guys always being juiced up and ready to go and I am hoping that we can leave on a positive note, our senior class can. I hope that we can lead this team and this university back in the right direction."
"Those guys put together a hell of a team, they beat North Dakota State at home (regular season) and won the last playoff game since then. Just a great team environment and I think we're kind of capturing that a lot this year, you know, with a bunch of strong seniors," added Sirmon.
The Griz kick off at 1 p.m. on Saturday as they'll host the Southeastern Louisiana Lions in the second round of the FCS Playoffs at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
