Griz to host Delaware in second round of FSC playoffs
(Gogriz.com) The Montana Grizzlies have three football goals listed in black and white to consider 365 days a year. One: Win the state championship. Two: Win the conference championship. Three: Win a national championship.
Check, Check, and this week the Griz get the chance to work towards checking off goal number three.
Riding high at 10-1 with a dominant win in the rivalry game and the program’s league-record 19th Big Sky Conference title, Montana now enters the FCS playoffs for a record 27th time, set to host the Delaware Blue Hens in a second-round matchup at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
With the No. 2 overall seed in this year’s playoff bracket and momentum to spare, the Griz are seemingly in the Catbird Seat to make a deep postseason run with one of the nation’s most stingy defenses and an offense that has grown more lethal each week.
Montana has outscored its previous four opponents 145-24 heading into the playoffs about as hot as a team can get, heading to the postseason with home field advantage through until Frisco if the wins keep coming.
The Grizzlies have held their opponent under 300 yards for the fourth consecutive game against MSU and are outgaining opponents by an average of 480-224 yards per game over the last four.
Home has been good to the Griz in the playoffs as well with Montana sitting at 35-24 (.593) all-time in the postseason, but 32-7 (.820) in playoff games inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
The Griz welcome a Delaware squad to town that has been one of the tops in the FCS in recent years and comes to Missoula for the second time in program history sitting at 9-3 on the season and 6-2 in Coastal Athletic Conference play.
The Blue Hens also come to Montana with momentum in the second round after earning a wild win over Lafayette last week where they turned the ball over three times in the first half but rebounded to take a 36-34 win.
The Blue Hens have been here before as one of the few programs to beat the Griz in Missoula in the postseason. Big and physical, they’ll get that chance again this week in a battle of FCS blue bloods.
Kickoff at Washington-Grizzly Stadium is set for 7 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 2.
Implications
It’s win or go home time in the FCS. Montana faces Delaware in the second round of this year’s 24-team playoff bracket as the No. 2 overall seed, ensuring the Grizzlies home field advantage through the semifinal round.
The winner of the Montana/Delaware game will go on to face the winner of the No. 7 Furman/Chattanooga rematch. Furman snuck past Chattanooga 17-14 in Tennessee on Nov. 4, but lost to one-win Wofford in the final match of the regular season to springboard UM into the No. 2 seed.
From there, things get interesting in the bracket with the likes of Montana State, North Dakota State, South Dakota State, and Sacramento State all in the mix for a potential quarterfinal matchup against the Griz.
Of course, each is competing for a chance at playing for a national championship. This year’s FCS title game is set for Sunday, Jan. 7, in Frisco, Texas. Kickoff is set for noon mountain time.
WATCH: Montana’s second-round playoff game against Delaware will be shown nationwide and without blackout exclusively on the ESPN+ streaming service. No linear television broadcast will be available.