MOSCOW, IDAHO — The college football season rolls on to Week 8 as the Montana Grizzlies get set to take on the Idaho Vandals. The Grizzlies head into Saturday's game in Moscow looking to rebound from last week's loss to Sacramento State.
The Grizzlies have now had a week to regroup after dropping last week's contest at home, a game in which the Hornets won for the first time in program history in Missoula.
Montana dropped from No. 5 to No. 11 in the FCS rankings, and now at 1-2 in the conference, looks to even that record out once again.
"Well anybody that’s lost a game, or anybody that’s played has lost a game, so it’s what you do when you lose a game you go practice, and you go to work and try to go get the next one that’s what competition is and we have a competitive group," UM coach Bobby Hauck said.
Now, it's the Vandals who have the Grizzlies attention, with Idaho also sporting a 1-2 record in Big Sky Conference play. The Vandals are 2-4 overall and their lone conference win is against Portland State. Idaho comes into the game against Montana off of a 71-21 loss to Eastern Washington.
Montana is riding a six-game winning streak against Idaho including a win in Moscow in 2018. It's a rivalry renewed between the two schools, and one that goes way back for Hauck and others who have long been associated with the program.
"It’s our second oldest (rival) and there’s a lot of Grizzly fans that care a lot about this game," Hauck said. "They think this is a really important game, for us it is. We are familiar with them and we see them in recruiting and everything else. It’s been a hard fought game in the history of it and that’s kind of what we expect this weekend."
Montana will look to find ways to capitalize on key moments against the Vandals, as well as getting the rhythm back on offense, two areas that UM struggled with against Sac State.
"I just feel like we just have to execute better and be focused in on making plays when they come to us," UM wide receiver Samuel Akem said. "We just got to execute, that’s really what I think it comes down, execution."
