Griz wrap up lackluster football season with eyes on 2025
(Montana Sports Information) It wasn’t the season anyone expected at Montana, but despite the Grizzlies bowing out of the playoffs in the second round it was in many ways still a year to remember in Missoula.
At 9-5 overall, 5-3 in Big Sky play, and the fifth-straight season with a playoff win, Montana’s 2024 campaign had a similar feel to 2022 when the highly favored Griz went 8-5 with a second-round playoff loss. What happened in 2023? The Grizzlies roared back, won a 19th Big Sky title, and advanced all the way to the national championship game.
The Griz officially set their sights on returning to Big Sky and national title contention in 2025 this week as the cycle of college football restarts for head coach Bobby Hauck and his staff and players.
In his 13 total years coaching the Grizzlies, Hauck has helped Montana become one of the top two winningest FCS programs of the 20th century, and even as the win/loss record in certain seasons ebbs and flows, the standard of success has never wavered.
“I appreciate the efforts of our team and coaches. I thought everybody worked really hard, played really hard, tried hard throughout the season. Obviously, we're really excited to have won nine games. Each one of those is hard to get. Everybody we beat gave us good competition. It's always good to get in the playoffs and win in the playoffs like we normally do,” said Hauck.
“The other side of that coin is that we're at Montana, we want to win every game. So, we've got to continue to recruit, we've got to continue to train, and we've got to continue to get ready for the next season at all times.”
With the early signing period for high school prospects opening on Dec. 4 and the transfer portal officially opening four day later, recruiting season is in full swing at Montana.
The Grizzlies added a star-studded cohort of 16 players to the incoming class of 2025 to open the early signing period, with nine rated as three-star prospects. With 26 seniors lost to graduation and yet more to the transfer portal, Montana will have plenty of shoes to fill in 2025.
“I thought we did well with our high school recruiting and now we're into the mid-year transfer recruiting piece. After that, we'll get back into high school recruiting, add couple of current seniors and then look at seniors to be. Then we’ll have another transfer recruiting period after spring practice. So, recruiting continues, assembling a team for August continues, and we are on the case,” said Hauck.
“The next three weeks are going to be vital to the success of our team next year. In 2024 and now 2025 the nature of college football is every player on every team is at his school for one year, and then you see if they re-up. So, we are in what is going to be a yearly battle trying to put our team together for next August.
“The other coaches and I are really excited for the next year. We have good guys in our locker room, and they're fun to coach. I'm excited to watch the young guys develop over this next eight months and we have a good core of contributors coming back,” said Hauck.
“Enthusiasm is high within the program.”