Griz top Tennessee State with stellar special teams
(UM Sports Information) There is just nothing quite like the magic of Junior Bergen in the playoffs. The senior specialist for Montana tied the FCS record for punt return touchdowns on Saturday night inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium, scoring twice to lead Montana to a 41-27 victory over Tennessee State.
Bergen brought his career total up to eight with a pair of second-half scores that were the difference-maker for Montana in the first-round win. He now has five special teams scores in the previous three home playoff games, four of them coming on punt returns.
Bergen scored on a kickoff and punt return score against Furman in last year’s quarterfinal, and a punt return in the semifinal win over NDSU. It’s his fifth career punt return touchdown in the playoffs.
The big plays helped Montana overcome three fumbles on the day. They outgained the Tigers 369-277 behind a huge discrepancy in the rushing category. Montana carried the ball for 254 yards and held Tennessee State to negative 19 rushing yards.
“Playoff wins are hard to get and so we’re excited to get it,” head coach Bobby Hauck said. “The people that were here were loud and had a good time. We found ways make it a little more interesting than we needed to, but that seems to be the way of the ’24 Grizzlies.”
It’s the second time this season that Montana has held an opponent to negative rushing yards, and the fewest yards by an opponent since Montana held Mississippi Valley State to -61 yards rushing in 2016.
“Minus 19 yards rushing is going to be a successful formula generally speaking,” Hauck said. “(TSU QB Draylen) Ellis kept fighting though. He was a tough kid, and the Tennessee State folks should be proud of him because he really hung in there. He got hit a bunch, but he hit some passes. We had immense pressure on him, and I thought our guys did a good job defensively.”
The Griz defense forced five sacks and eight total tackles for loss. Riley Wilson led Montana in both categories with 1.5 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss.
Montana then leaned on Eli Gillman and the rushing attack for the win. Gillman had a season-high 20 carries and turned it into 136 yards and two touchdowns. He moved into the top five in career rushing touchdowns with 28, went over 1,000 yards on the season and over 2,000 career yards on the night.
Freshman Malae Fonoti also had eight runs for 46 yards, averaging nearly six yards per carry.
Logan Fife started and played most of the game at quarterback, rushing eight times for 34 yards while throwing for 97 yards. Stevie Rocker Jr. also had five carries for 30 yards.
Bergen will garner the special teams attention, but Ty Morrison also went 4-of-5 kicking field goals and recorded a new career-long with a 50-yard field goal in the first half. Morrison also had a pooch kick that was recovered by Montana.
The coverage team was also excellent, forcing Tennessee State to start four drives inside their own 20-yard line.
“The special teams coach earned his keep tonight. I was really, really proud of our special teams guys in particular,” Hauck said. “The two punt return touchdowns were obviously big, but that was a terrific kickoff return and punt return team that we played and we smashed them pretty good so I was enthused by that.”
Hauck improves to 18-11 all-time in 1-AA/FCS Postseason history, moving into a tie for third all-time with John Stiegelmeier (SDSU) and Chris Klieman (NDSU). It’s the ninth straight home playoff win for Montana dating all the way back to 2013.