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Chewin'
up Chattanooga
Dominating
Griz capture I-AA crown|
It
all started at 6:45 a.m. Jan. 29, 2001, inside the West
Auxiliary Gym. A bunch of tired University of Montana football
players and coaches had arrived for the first day of winter
workouts. Coach Joe Glenn, the self-described King of Corn,
gathered his troops together and asked, "How do we
eat an elephant, guys?"
"One
bite at a time, coach," the groggy Griz groaned back
at him. "One bite at a time."
Glenn's
mother always said that if you have a big job to do, you
sit down and start chewing at it one bite at a time. That
practice was the first bite, taken on a freezing Montana
winter day, and it didn't taste like much. But that last
bite of elephant on Dec. 21 -- beating a tough Furman Paladin
team 13-6 in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the I-AA national title
-- left a sweet taste in their mouths that will last a lifetime.
The
Griz completed their championship campaign 15-1, setting
a school record for wins in a season. They were 7-0 in Big
Sky Conference play, becoming conference champs for a record
fourth-consecutive time. Their sole loss came in Maui on
Sept. 8 against a tough I-A Hawaii team, which went on to
a 9-3 record that included wins over Fresno State and BYU.
UM won its only other championship crown in 1995.
The
2001 road to Chattanooga wasn't easy, and some of UM's toughest
wins came at home in raucous Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
The Griz needed overtime to stop Big Sky rival Eastern Washington
on Sept. 29. They also needed an extra period to topple
I-A Idaho Nov. 24 during the last game of the regular season.
Despite
roaring into the playoffs ranked No. 1 in the nation, the
Griz came out flat against Louisiana's Northwestern State
on Dec. 1 and were losing 0-13 at halftime. Then the coaches
and players must have done something -- dug deep -- because
the Griz were a changed team when they emerged from the
locker room. They jelled and started rolling, going on to
beat Northwestern 28-19, Sam Houston State 49-24 and Northern
Iowa 38-0. They looked like champions.
Suddenly
Chattanooga choo-choo references were everywhere, for the
Griz had earned a return ticket to the championship game
in Tennessee, where they had lost 25-27 to Georgia Southern
the year before. Redemption was on everyone's minds.
Thousands
of Griz fans lined the streets of Missoula when the team
launched its championship crusade, traveling by bus from
campus to the airport Dec. 18. Escorted by police cars and
a fire truck, they passed throngs of waving fans holding
signs such as "Go Griz," "You're Our Champions"
and "We Believe." Car dealers set all the headlights
in their lots blinking as the buses rolled by, and fireworks
lit the evening sky at one point.
One
electronic sign read "DeCoite wear your cup,"
referring to a nasty incident in the Northern Iowa game
when an opposing player punched sophomore free safety Dave
DeCoite below the belt. (Footage of the low blow was broadcast
on ESPN, and DeCoite took a lot of ribbing from his fellow
players.) A Montana Rail Link train engine bearing the sign
"Good Luck Grizzlies" chugged along parallel to
the buses as they went to the airport. Players said they
were blown away and misty-eyed by the show of support.
Indeed,
thousands of Griz fans made the expensive trip to Chattanooga
right before Christmas. Two thousand-plus Griz faithful
showed up at an Alumni Association pep rally the night before
the game on Dec. 20. During the rally UM Athletic Director
Wayne Hogan said, "We're on a mission. It's going to
be a great game. ESPN television is televising this live,
and there will be more people -- millions more people --
watching our program than ever before."
Game
day dawned bright and beautiful, unlike game day 2000 when
monsoon-like rain dropped on Chattanooga. The Griz players
carried themselves with a quiet confidence before kickoff
in the locker room, and during his pregame speech, coach
Glenn said, "You have the opportunity of a lifetime,
to play for a national championship and be the best in the
country. Expect more from yourself. Show what you can do
-- don't talk about it, just go out and dominate, so you
can hold your head high and be proud."
The
championship was played before 12,868 fans at Finley Stadium.
It quickly became a battle between two excellent defenses.
The Griz were stopped on their first possession, but then
UM senior strong safety Vince Huntsberger recovered a Furman
fumble on the Paladin 12-yard line. Despite the outstanding
field position, the Paladin defense -- led by a headhunting
linebacker named Wil Bouton -- again stymied the Griz offense,
and a field goal by sophomore Chris Snyder went wide. But
the UM defense also clamped down, and the quarter ended
0-0.
A
turning point came in the second quarter when a Furman punt
pinned the Griz on their own 1-yard line. In a drive that
will be long remembered in Grizzly lore, junior quarterback
John
Edwards meticulously moved his squad 99 yards down the field,
resulting in a touchdown by senior running back Yo Humphery
with 6:27 left before the half. Later, Snyder added a field
goal to make the score 10-0 Griz at halftime.
The
Griz came into their locker room more focused and determined
than ever. They yelled at each other not to get complacent
and to play like they were losing. Before they ran back
onto the field, Glenn said, "It's 30 more minutes for
the rest of your lives."
The
defenses were even more dominant in the second half, and
the only Griz score came from another field goal with 6:12
left in the fourth. Then, losing by 13, the clock became
Furman's enemy. The dominant Griz defense denied Furman
again and again. The Paladins finally got on the scoreboard
as time expired with a 54-yard Hail Mary pass. This improbable
play, which UM's Huntsberger got a hand on, averted the
first shutout in the 23-year history of the championship.
But
it was a meaningless play, and Griz fans mobbed the field
and engulfed the players in a vast Montana group hug. The
goal posts came down, and the I-AA national championship
trophy was raised in triumph.
During
the postgame news conference, Glenn said, "There is
not a more deserving team in the United States than the
Montana Grizzlies. They deserve this championship for how
hard they've worked and how much they've stuck together
through the hard times and the times they got behind. They
never gave up. They never quit. Tremendous chemistry, tremendous
friends."
UM
wound up with 297 total yards - 142 via Humphery's churning,
unrelenting legs and the punishing Griz offensive line.
Edwards also ran for 32 yards and passed for 124, and the
Griz offense didn't turn over the ball. The UM defense held
Furman to 293 total yards, with 54 of those coming on the
desperation pass play at the end of the game. In the wild
celebration after the game, assistant head coach Mike Breske,
architect of UM's dominating defense, was spotted quietly
smoking a cigar.
Griz
fans had a lot to celebrate that night, and the party moved
back to Missoula the next day, where thousands of people
welcomed the Griz back at the Adams Center. The welcome-home
celebration, organized by University Relations, included
speeches by Grizzly athletic administrators, Gov. Judy Martz,
President George Dennison, coach Glenn and several of the
seniors on the team. Hundreds of prizes were given away,
and several players stayed late signing autographs, basking
in the glow of being the best.
Yep,
that last bite of elephant tasted fine. In fact Glenn said
his favorite sign during their Chattanooga adventure had
a picture of an elephant and the word "Chattanooga
Chew-Chew. The last bite."
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