Quick Word From the Bird: What Made Montana Grizzly Football?

DARIO AKA" THE REALIST" ASKS TAYLOR AKA "THE BIRDMAN" SEEBERGER:

Bird,

How do you make the playoffs in 16 straight years? How do you have the largest seating capacity in The Big Sky Conference with 25,000 plus seats? How do you have the biggest JumboTron in college sports? How does a guy parachute from the sky and land on the field? How do you have 16 Big Sky Championships? How do you share or win 11 of the last 16 Big Sky Championships? How do you win a Division I-AA title in 1995 and 2001? How do you compete in 6 total championship games in the last thirteen years? How do you get equal or more players drafted to the NFL in the last six years than Memphis, Mississipi State, Rice, South Florida, Temple, Appalachian State, Marshall University, Idaho and only one less than Washington? How do you do all this with a recruiting region significantly smaller than most other schools?


TAYLOR SEEBERGER AKA THE BIRDMAN REPLIES:

Well this is a very good question and there has been much debate to this, so let’s start from the beginning. UM football had some shining moments before the mid 80’s, namely Jack Swarthout’s two 10-0 campaigns in 69 & 70, which ended in trips to the Camelia Bowl. But, I would point to the mid 80’s as the beginning of the sustained success and start of the evolution that you are referring to. I would point to three people who were the most vital components of this.

The University of Montana football coaching staff. Jack is pictured in the top row, center.

First would be Dennis Washington, a Missoula industrialist who is now Forbe’s 61st richest American, with a net worth of 4.2 billion. He was the donor who put up the cash to begin construction on Washington Grizzly Stadium which opened in 86.

While old Dornblaser was an ok spot, having a great facility on campus has been a major draw for both fans and student athletes. While the stadium has gone through major upgrades since then (96 end-zone seats, 02 expansion of the end-zone seating, 08 another expansion and the addition of the premium seats and enclosed premium seating area on the eastside), Washington is almost solely responsible for the stadium we have today.

Next would be Don Read, the coach who brought the “Air Bear” offense. Ahh, the good old days of throwing on almost every down and seeing scores like the 70-14 blowout of Stephen F. Austin in the 1995 semifinal game. He was also a guy who used UM’s burgeoning resources to recruit well and really was UM football’s biggest fan and supporter. Through the mid 80’s into the early 90’s Don had many good QB’s that ran his system well (see Brad Lebo and Grady Bennett). However, no one fit his system better than Mr. Montana football, the best QB to ever play in the Big Sky Conference, the Legend of the Fall, 1995 Payton Award winner, Dave Dickenson.

Dave was everything that his successor at CMR High (Ryan Leaf) was not. Savvy, smart, athletic, the most humble likable attitude imaginable, with a knack for taking broken plays and turning them into magical long gains and td’s. He was just the type of person you could not help but love, a real winner at every level and in every facet of life. Just a few stats about DD… Back to back AA MT State Championships at CMR High. In 1995 when he graduated from UM he had the highest completion percentage, highest percentage of passes for a touchdown, and fewest interceptions per pass in NCAA Division I-AA history. In his college career (including playoff games) he completed 1,015 of 1,477 passes (68.7%) for 13,486 yards, with 116 touchdowns and only 26 interceptions, and was responsible for 137 total touchdowns (116 passing and 21 rushing). In 1995, Dickenson's senior season, he threw for 5,676 yards in fifteen games, including 1,500 in four playoff games.

These three people were the catalyst for the 94 team which lost to Youngstown State in the semi’s and more importantly the 95 team which captured Montana’s first title with a win over Marshall at Marshall (I still argue that it is incredibly unfair that they were given the bid to host the title game) and subsequently turned the corner permanently for Grizzly Football. While I would argue that the best UM team of all time was the 96 team that lost to Randy Moss’ Marshall team in the title game.

 No one team made more of an impact on Grizzly Football than the 95 title team. The excitement they generated helped solidify the support that helped MT become what it is today.

In the years that followed Wayne Hogan was brought in as AD and he focused on turning UM Football into a product. This is the time when things like the pregame choreography was developed, the jumbotron was brought in and capital drives to secure funding for expansion happened. The fact that he made UM Football an experience was a big factor in continuing momentum, drawing crowds and gaining support for the program.

Another dynamic to consider is the fact that MT has no professional sports team, thus Grizzly Football is the biggest show in the state. They garner almost everyone’s support and attention. Attention from alum and fans who talk up the program every chance they get, make donations, buy gear (note the fact that soon MT will be the only FCS school with a Nike Team store on campus and that they are usually in the top 30??? for NCAA apparel sales).

 All of this has allowed MT to get their pick of instate recruits, attract top dropdown athletes and get top out of state recruits from WA, OR and CA (sometimes getting guys who were being considered by larger schools). The gap in talent level is what helps them dominate the conference every year, which in turn leads to the continued playoff bids.

It is also the fact that they are getting top talent who may be overlooked by other schools that has led to the success UM athletes have had in getting drafted or signing FA NFL deals. While I don’t think the national exposure they get from televised playoff games hurts. Most notable may be the fact that Missoula is home to Ken Staninger, a very established and succesful agent. Ken is the man who negotiated Mark Rypien’s contract that at the time was the second largest in NFL history. He has been great at not only getting guys workouts, etc… but also coaching them on ”how to get drafted or signed”.

 Now here is where the native Montanan in my likes to proudly point out the fact that most of the guys to get signed or drafted in the last few years have been native Montanans. Dan Carpenter, Kroy Bierman, Colt Anderson, Tuff Harris, Dylan McFarland etc… are all guys who spent their prep career in MT.

This presents the chicken or egg argument. Were these guys good players who were overlooked by other schools and then came to UM? Or did UM make these good athletes the great football players they became? Either way there is no denying that UM does produce a lot of NFL caliber players who find success in the league. This is also not a recent phenomenon as Tim Hauck, Kirk Scrafford and Scott “Lurch” Gragg prove.