Montana Grizzlies Football: Not "In the Game"
Last season the Montana Grizzlies football rode Lex Hilliard to a Mountain West Conference Championship and an 11-0 record. Lex Hilliard won the Heisman after breaking Barry Sander's single season record of 2,628 yards and scoring more than 50 touchdowns.
Despite their record, the Griz were shutout of a BCS National Championship game berth and were forced to settle for playing USC in the Fiesta Bowl. USC shut down the Griz rushing attack
but Jason Washington launched an airborn assault that led to an upset and a BCS victory in the Grizzlies' very first season in I-A ball. Or so it played out on my Xbox.
This season, I don't have that option as I recently purchased an Xbox 360 and the 360 version of the game only contains Division I-A teams. Blowing up the USC defense is great with the likes of Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija, but it doesn't quite compare to bumblin' and stumblin' with our own Lex Hilliard. I'm not the only one that's a little disappointed their team didn't make the game.
The Xbox version of this year's game does include UM and almost all of the Big Sky Conference. The only exception being the Bears of Northern Colorado. EA Sports, the game's publisher, had no idea that UNC made the move to the Big Sky Conference. Here's a story out of the Greeley Tribune on their disappointment.
Despite their record, the Griz were shutout of a BCS National Championship game berth and were forced to settle for playing USC in the Fiesta Bowl. USC shut down the Griz rushing attack
but Jason Washington launched an airborn assault that led to an upset and a BCS victory in the Grizzlies' very first season in I-A ball. Or so it played out on my Xbox.This season, I don't have that option as I recently purchased an Xbox 360 and the 360 version of the game only contains Division I-A teams. Blowing up the USC defense is great with the likes of Brady Quinn and Jeff Samardzija, but it doesn't quite compare to bumblin' and stumblin' with our own Lex Hilliard. I'm not the only one that's a little disappointed their team didn't make the game.
The Xbox version of this year's game does include UM and almost all of the Big Sky Conference. The only exception being the Bears of Northern Colorado. EA Sports, the game's publisher, had no idea that UNC made the move to the Big Sky Conference. Here's a story out of the Greeley Tribune on their disappointment.
The school's absence occurred because EA Sports did not include UNC with the Big Sky Conference, which the Bears officially joined June 30. When asked about UNC's absence from the game, Nick Straw, the public relations coordinator at EA Tiburon, said none of the Great West Conference is included. Straw said he and the programmers were unaware of UNC's move from the Great West to the Big Sky.So, no repeat Heisman for Hilliard. I guess I could settle for a I-AA National Championship.
Straw said the Bears could appear in the 2008 version.
"Ultimately it's our goal to have all the college teams," Straw said.
