Week 10 - #7 Sac State at #4 Montana

[SDHornet]

Hey guys, from this Griz fan standpoint, you're being too hard on your team and your staff. That game was closer than the score indicated, and as you know, Wa-Griz is a tough place to play.

FWIW, my $.02 is that you are an absolute LOCK at 8-3, and I would say it would take a lot of weird isht for you not to get at 7-4. You'd be deserving. The problem is there are a lot of bad teams who still have the potential to win their conference title, and that's never a good thing for bubble teams.

Finally, what the eff with the big sky calling unsportsmanlike on everyone in the stadium? How ridiculous.

Okay, go beat Poly and that team across the Causeway. Let's load the playoffs with bsc teams.

Thanks. You guys lived up to the occasion, congrats. I thought that penalty on everyone was a good move by the refs to keep control of the game from any potential after the play nonsense by both teams.

 

[SDHornet]

Don’t talk up Montana and how dominant they are, we owned them under the Taylor derangement period. So to get blasted 34-7 shows that either the coaches are in over their head and were good assistants under a great coach or that Mapu, O’Hara and Skatteboo were indeed demigods able to slay the dragon all by themselves.

I think Thompson has too much on his plate, be a DC or HC, not both. Fresques is in way over his head, not able to plot and adjust a game plan consistently. I unfortunately saw this kind of ball game under Sears and it sucked. Instead of confidently entering the game expected to win, we are sheepishly hoping THE game plan selected will work not willing to make adjustments or open a bag of tricks to counter changing game momentum.

Having public infighting and noticed by a beat writer tells me the team is not cohesive, confident or executing to a common game plan. This is on the coaches. Be it their personality, ability or leadership.

Ok, they miraculously make it to the playoffs and get bounced first round. How much fun and accolades does that bring?

Talking up Montana? They earned it, and they clearly turned a corner this season and are a far cry from scraping by wins at home against non-schollie and D2 schools from the early part of the season. Credit to that team and coaching staff is deserved. Their win at Idaho was impressive, and should have been the clear indicator that they were on the right track. They followed it up with a dominating win over us at their place. If they win the Brawl they'll get a share of their first BSC title in about a decade and a half. At a certain point you just have to tip your cap and give them their due, and imo that moment was this past Saturday.

And comparing anything about where this program is now to whatever you want to call the Jody Sears team is just laughable and the worst take imaginable. As bad as the outcome was, this team didn't quit and I'm not even going to bother to go back and look at how many games the Hornets no-showed during the Sears. The Hornets came prepared to play this past weekend, it just didn't turn out like we all hoped.

There is validity in the criticisms of the current coaching staff. It's fair to question if Coach Thompson has too much on his plate, but considering that this defense has improved from a season ago (check the metric's if you doubt it) and aside from play calling hiccups on both sides of the ball, I don't recall any blatant in-game mismanagement like not calling timeouts (twice) at critical moments of a game. At 6-3 and being a win away from a playoff berth, I'd say first time Head Coach Andy Thompson and his staff are doing just fine.

I agree with OSH, anyone expecting an undefeated season year in and year out in this current D1 football climate is living in another dimension...my God, who had me and OSH agreeing on Hornet football on their 2023 bingo card? :lol:

 

[SDHornet]

This is still a playoff team. I just think expectations were very high around these parts after we beat Stanford. No Fulcher for half the season has hurt, and Moleni being down also hasn’t helped.

We can turn it around if we get everyone believing in each other and not bickering and fighting with each other like we saw in Missoula.

We need to blow out Cal Poly and feel good about ourselves. Davis game we will lock in for because it matters too much to the local guys on our team. We are not getting a bye week. We’ll get a home playoff game. And then we’ll see what we got.

Agreed. Excellent post.

 

[stingthemgood]

Hey guys, from this Griz fan standpoint, you're being too hard on your team and your staff. That game was closer than the score indicated, and as you know, Wa-Griz is a tough place to play.

FWIW, my $.02 is that you are an absolute LOCK at 8-3, and I would say it would take a lot of weird isht for you not to get at 7-4. You'd be deserving. The problem is there are a lot of bad teams who still have the potential to win their conference title, and that's never a good thing for bubble teams.

Finally, what the eff with the big sky calling unsportsmanlike on everyone in the stadium? How ridiculous.

Okay, go beat Poly and that team across the Causeway. Let's load the playoffs with bsc teams.

A Griz fan telling us to not overreact. I have officially heard everything. We can close the board down now. Nothing else to see.

 

[BSCfan1]

Hey guys, from this Griz fan standpoint, you're being too hard on your team and your staff. That game was closer than the score indicated, and as you know, Wa-Griz is a tough place to play.

FWIW, my $.02 is that you are an absolute LOCK at 8-3, and I would say it would take a lot of weird isht for you not to get at 7-4. You'd be deserving. The problem is there are a lot of bad teams who still have the potential to win their conference title, and that's never a good thing for bubble teams.

Finally, what the eff with the big sky calling unsportsmanlike on everyone in the stadium? How ridiculous.

Okay, go beat Poly and that team across the Causeway. Let's load the playoffs with bsc teams.

A Griz fan telling us to not overreact. I have officially heard everything. We can close the board down now. Nothing else to see.

I get it though, this is all uncharted territory for us. They've had their peaks and valleys over the years. From what I've been able to gather, being a newish fan since 2019, we've had a lot of valleys and very few peaks until recently. We just have to go 1-0 each week and get into the tourney. From there, whole new ballgame! I also agree with a previous post about playing the weekend after Thanksgiving could be a good thing!

Stingers Up!!!

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Any insider knowledge of current locker room? Hearing stories of infighting and finger pointing (unproven), curious if the team has used this set back as a means of coming together for a concerted effort for these last two games. If Poly beats us, no chance of playoffs and FUCD is FUCD, anything can happen.

 

[Kadeezy]

Any insider knowledge of current locker room? Hearing stories of infighting and finger pointing (unproven), curious if the team has used this set back as a means of coming together for a concerted effort for these last two games. If Poly beats us, no chance of playoffs and FUCD is FUCD, anything can happen.

No insider knowledge, but stuff like this happens every year - just usually not in front of 26,000 observant Montana fans. From what I've seen/heard, Taylor and Thompson are both good/calm "win the interview" type guys with the media and at postgame, etc., but get after guys pretty hardcore in team meetings, etc., especially after losses.

We'll learn a lot about this team's resilience over the next two weeks.

 

[OldSchoolHornet]

“Pretty hardcore in team meetings…especially after losses.”
How else would anyone want them to be?