2021 Montana Grizzlies football

NCAA Division I Quarterfinal, L 6–28 at James Madison
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 6
FCS Coaches	No. 6
Record	10–3 (6–2 Big Sky)
Head coach	Bobby Hauck (11th season)
Offensive coordinator	Timm Rosenbach (4th season)
Defensive coordinator	Kent Baer (3rd season)
Home stadium	Washington–Grizzly Stadium
Seasons ← 2020 2022 →

2021 Big Sky Conference football standings
v t e
Team	W		L	W		L
No. 10 Sacramento State $^	8	–	0	9	–	3
No. 2 Montana State ^	7	–	1	11	–	3
No. 7 Eastern Washington ^	6	–	2	10	–	3
No. 6 Montana ^	6	–	2	10	–	3
No. 17 UC Davis ^	5	–	3	8	–	4
Weber State	5	–	3	6	–	5
Northern Arizona	4	–	4	5	–	6
Portland State	4	–	4	5	–	6
Idaho	3	–	5	4	–	7
Northern Colorado	2	–	6	3	–	8
Cal Poly	1	–	7	2	–	9
Idaho State	1	–	7	1	–	10
Southern Utah	0	–	8	1	–	10

$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

The 2021 Montana Grizzlies football team represented the University of Montana as a member of the Big Sky Conference during the 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Grizzlies were led by 11th-year head coach Bobby Hauck and played their home games at Washington–Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Montana.

Preseason

Polls

On July 26, 2021, during the virtual Big Sky Kickoff, the Grizzlies were predicted to finish second in the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.^[1]

Coaches poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(7)
2	Montana	(3)
3	Eastern Washington	(2)
4	Montana State	(1)
5	Sacramento State	(1)
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Cal Poly
13	Northern Colorado

Media poll
Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(14)
2	Montana	(4)
3	Eastern Washington	(3)
4	Montana State	(3)
5	Sacramento State
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Northern Colroado
13	Cal Poly

Preseason All–Big Sky team

The Grizzlies had five players selected to the preseason all-Big Sky team.^[2]

Offense

Samuel Akem – WR

Conlan Beaver – OT

Defense

Jace Lewis – LB

Robby Hauck – S

Special teams

Matthew O'Donoghue – LS

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4	6:00 p.m.	at No. 20 (FBS) Washington*	No. 9	Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	P12N	W 13–7	64,053
September 11	6:00 p.m.	Western Illinois*	No. 4	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	W 42–7	25,238
September 25	1:00 p.m.	Cal Poly	No. 4	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	W 39–7	25,600
October 2	8:30 p.m.	at No. 6 Eastern Washington	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA (EWU–UM Governors Cup)	ESPN2	L 28–34	7,944
October 9	1:00 p.m.	Dixie State*	No. 6	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	W 31–14	23,434
October 16	1:00 p.m.	Sacramento State	No. 5	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	L 21–28	24,305
October 23	2:00 p.m.	at Idaho	No. 11	Kibbie Dome Moscow, ID (Little Brown Stein)	KTMF/SWX	W 34–14	6,059
October 30	12:00 p.m.	Southern Utah	No. 11	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	RTNW	W 20–19	22,587
November 6	12:00 p.m.	at Northern Colorado	No. 11	Nottingham Field Greeley, CO	ESPN+	W 35–0	4,987
November 13	1:00 p.m.	at Northern Arizona	No. 9	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, AZ	KTMF/KULR	W 30–3	6,228
November 20	12:00 p.m.	No. 3 Montana State	No. 7	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT (Brawl of the Wild)	RTNW	W 29–10	26,856
December 3	7:00 p.m.	No. 4 Eastern Washington*	No. 5	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT (NCAA Division I Second Round)	ESPN+	W 57–41	24,065
December 10	5:00 p.m.	at No. 2 James Madison*	No. 5	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (NCAA Division I Quarterfinal)	ESPN2	L 6–28	14,690
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

^[3]

Game summaries

At No. 20 (FBS) Washington

Montana Grizzlies vs Washington Huskies – Game summary

Period	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Grizzlies	3	0	0	10	13
No. 20 (FBS) Huskies	7	0	0	0	7

at Husky Stadium • Seattle, WA

Date: September 4, 2021
Game time: 5:00 p.m. PDT
Game weather: 77 °F (25 °C) Sunny
Game attendance: 64,053
Referee: Matthew Richards
TV announcers (P12N): J. B. Long (play-by-play) and Max Browne (analyst)

Game information

First Quarter

UW – Dylan Morris 1-yard run (Peyton Henry kick), 10:09. Washington 7–0. Drive: 9 plays, 78 yards, 4:45.
MONT – Kevin Macias 26-yard field goal, 7:08. Washington 7–3. Drive: 8 plays, 66 yards, 3:01.

Second Quarter

No scoring.

Third Quarter

No scoring.

Fourth Quarter

MONT – Camron Humphrey 4-yard run (Kevin Macias kick), 10:35. Montana 10–7. Drive: 10 plays, 69 yards, 5:00.
MONT – Kevin Macias 22-yard field goal, 2:54. Montana 13–7. Drive: 11 plays, 42 yards, 6:05.

Top passers

MONT – Camron Humphrey – 12/23, 105 yards
UW – Dylan Morris – 27/46, 226 yards, 3 int

Top rushers

MONT – Xavier Harris – 15 rushes, 70 yards
UW – Richard Newton – 17 rushes, 62 yards

Top receivers

MONT – Mitch Roberts – 2 receptions, 29 yards
UW – Cade Otton – 8 receptions, 82 yards

The Grizzlies upset Washington 13-7, becoming the 5th FCS team to beat a Top-25 FBS team.

Western Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
Leathernecks	0	7	0	0	7
No. 4 Grizzlies	7	14	14	7	42

Cal Poly

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mustangs	0	0	0	7	7
No. 4 Grizzlies	15	3	21	0	39

At No. 6 Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Grizzlies	7	7	7	7	28
No. 6 Eagles	7	3	0	24	34

Dixie State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Trailblazers	0	0	0	14	14
No. 6 Grizzlies	0	3	14	14	31

Sacramento State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hornets	7	7	14	0	28
No. 5 Grizzlies	0	6	15	0	21

At Idaho

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Grizzlies	7	13	13	7	40
Vandals	7	0	0	7	14

Southern Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
Thunderbirds	0	3	13	3	19
No. 11 Grizzlies	0	10	7	3	20

At Northern Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Grizzlies	14	7	14	0	35
Bears	0	0	0	0	0

At Northern Arizona

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Grizzlies	0	13	7	10	30
Lumberjacks	0	0	3	0	3

No. 3 Montana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Bobcats	3	0	0	7	10
No. 7 Grizzlies	10	6	10	3	29

No. 4 Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	14	7	7	13	41
No. 5 Grizzlies	10	10	24	13	57

FCS Playoffs

No. 4 Eastern Washington–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	14	7	7	13	41
No. 5 Grizzlies	10	10	24	13	57

At No. 3 James Madison–Quarterfinal

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Grizzlies	3	0	0	3	6
No. 3 Dukes	7	7	7	7	28

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
**Legend:** ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	9	4 (5)	4 (3)	4 (2)	4 (3)	6	5	11	11	11	9	7	5	6
Coaches	9	5 (1)	5	4	4	6	6	12	11	10	9	7	5	6

References

^ "Griz picked second in preseason polls". July 26, 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2021.
^ "Five Griz named to Preseason All-Big Sky Team". University of Montana. July 26, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
^ "2021 Football Schedule". University of Montana Athletics. Retrieved July 25, 2021.

v t e Montana Grizzlies football
Venues	Dornblaser Field (I) (1912–1967) Naranche Stadium (alternate (Butte), 1938–1950) Dornblaser Field (II) (1968–1986) Washington–Grizzly Stadium (1986–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Eastern Washington: EWU–UM Governors Cup Idaho: Little Brown Stein Montana State
Culture and lore	Monte "Up With Montana" University of Montana Grizzly Marching Band
People	Head coaches NFL draftees
Seasons	1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943–1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
National championship seasons in bold

v t e 2021 NCAA Division I FCS playoff participants
Davidson East Tennessee State Eastern Washington Florida A&M Holy Cross Incarnate Word James Madison Kennesaw State Missouri State Montana Montana State North Dakota State Northern Iowa Sacramento State Sacred Heart Sam Houston South Dakota South Dakota State Southeastern Louisiana Southern Illinois Stephen F. Austin UC Davis UT Martin Villanova
Champion – North Dakota State