By CHRIS WALTERSKIRCHEN
It is a little over three weeks until the annual “Brawl of the Wild” football game takes place in Bozeman. It is worth noting how comparable the Grizzly and Bobcat football programs have become. Since the start of the 2008 season the Griz have won 58 games while the Bobcats have won 50 games since ’08 season. Many ardent Griz and cats fans will say “my favorite team is (Grizzly/Bobcats) and my second favorite team is whoever is playing our archrivals.” Over the last 6 seasons there have been 10 Saturdays where the Bobcats won and the Griz lost, while there have been 9 Saturdays where the Griz have won and the Bobcats have lost.
November is here and that is always a good sign for the Montana Grizzlies. Since 2000 The Montana football team has gone 37-9 in the month of November, a winning percentage over 80%. Since 2004 the Griz are 27-4 in November for a winning percentage of 86%.
Most of the Griz upperclassmen remember their last visit to Sacramento that resulted in a rousing win for the Hornets, the Griz were so motivated by that 2011 road loss they proceeded to win their next 9 games.
Hornets quarterback Garrett Safron is fourth in the Big Sky in total offense two spots ahead of UM’s Jordan Johnson. Sacramento State features the Big Sky leader in receiving touchdowns as DeAndre Carter has 11 receiving TDs.
Hornets head coach Marshall Sperlock has bad memories of facing the Griz as a player. Sperlock was 0-2 against the Griz while he was the quarterback for Nevada-Reno in the early 1980’s.
It is unlikely that much will happen on kick-off returns Saturday afternoon in Sacramento as the Hornets and the Griz are 12th and 13rd in the Big Sky in kick-off returns. However both schools are among the leaders in punt return yards.
A win this weekend would put the Sentinel Spartans in the AA play-offs for the first time since 1989 when the Spartans got demolished by Dave Dickinson and the Great Falls CM Russell Rustlers.
If the World Series goes to 7 games it would mark only the second time in 22 seasons that a Game 7 is played in an American League ballpark. In 2002 the Anaheim Angels won their first World Series title with a outstanding game 7 performance from pitcher John Lackey, who is back in the Series in 2013 with the Red Sox.
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Chris Walterskirchen has been an observer of Montana sports for nearly half a century. A Kalispell native, Chris has worked in various capacities for professional and college sports organization of at various times: ranging from announcing and statistical work to the concessions and even a stint as a costumed mascot.
Chris has academic degrees in communications and elementary education. His style of sports trivia involves more than just who won and who lost, but also focuses on the obscure or human side of sports. In this blog you will learn things like the Grizzly football team has won 210 games over the 19 seasons since they have had Monte as their mascot or that UNLV is the only school that both the Griz and Lady Griz have both faced in the NCAA basketball tournament
When not following sports Chris enjoys taking care of animals of all kinds (a peacock rescue?) and reading to pre-schoolers.