Montana Grizzlies Sports, Football and Basketball : Grizzoulian

The affidavit comes out and this home invasion is now a marijuana robbery. More men have been added to the charges, including Qwenton Freeman. It also turns out this could've gone a lot worse. One of the victims insisted that the armed robbers take him to his safe, where he kept loaded guns. This victim says he was "planning on getting his loaded 9mm handgun and protecting him and his friends." This information comes from the 25-page affidavit, which is available for download from The Missoulian.

After the jump is the complete affidavit.

• Send To A Friend
• Print This Article
• Comments
• Trackbacks

Three Montana Grizzlies football players have been arrested for charges stemming from a home invasion near campus. Here's a quick summary from The Missoulian:

According to the jail, 19-year-old [freshman cornerback Jeremy Pate] was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, burglary and robbery. [Junior running back Greg Coleman], 22, was booked on charges of assault with a weapon, kidnapping, burglary and robbery.

And [defensive end Michael Shelton], 21, was arrested on charges of assault with a weapon, burglary and two counts of robbery.

Oh, and there could be more:

“There are three or four people out there we have to verify their connection to this, but we can't locate them. We don't know if they have taken off or if they got scared off,” Ludemann said. “There's still some information we have to lock down.”

Coach Bobby Hauck's reaction:

“I'm sickened and embarrassed by this,” said Grizzly football coach Bobby Hauck. “This is different to me than anything else that has happened. There's some embarrassment to me personally. We do everything we can to educate these guys, and it's like having your own children get into trouble.

“I don't have any details on what supposedly transpired. All I know is that we had three players arrested and we have 100 hard-working kids on our team that will be negatively affected by this.”

First off, I want to say I am not solely blaming Bobby Hauck or the administration. Even so, let's start this off with a big Stephen A. Smith HOWEVA. It's easy for anyone to say "a few individuals are ruining it all for everyone else." There are a lot of schools and a lot of football teams where a few individuals don't ruin it for everyone else by rampaging into someone's home, tasing them and smacking them over the head with the butt end of a gun. Remember, Michael Shelton just got here. This was after he left the University of Arizona because he was kicked off the football reason for disciplinary reasons.

I agree with what most people are saying, almost all of the blame should come down on these three individuals. However, someone has to tighten things up somewhere because we can't have individuals making these same mistakes.

• Send To A Friend
• Print This Article
• Comments
• Trackbacks

It's really hard for me to give you any good impressions from Friday's Griz football scrimmage because I really didn't walk away feeling very impressed. It wasn't that we played bad, it's just that nothing really stood out.

I went into the scrimmage not expecting much with the two guys I would most like to see, Craig Chambers and JD Quinn, were out with shoulder and "undisclosed" injuries respectively. Even so, I was interested to see the quarterback race and how our running backs were doing.

Here are some pretty basic observations:

• The quarterback race seems pretty hope but I believe the job will be Bergquists almost by default as none of them really stood out. I think I may have developed some bias against Bergquist after seeing him next to Swogger. He just seems so small and weak-armed after watching Swogger play. It's like watching Brett Favre and being afraid of when Aaron Rodgers time eventually comes. However, Bergquist has the mobility inside the pocket that Swogger just didn't have.
  
  • They really did not pass the ball much during the scrimmage, at least not with the first team. It was really kind of discouraging. With there being something of a quarterback controversy, I figured they would want to air it out more.
  • The only real good pass of the day was about a 35 yarder from Bergquist to Allen. Seemed like it may have been due to strong pass protection as Cole had a lot of time to go through his progressions before coming back to hit a wide open Eric Allen.
• The backs played well, just about all of them making strong moves in the open field. It was good to see Lex out there. Not sure if he played much or at all in the 11 on 11 scrimmage. This is one of our deepest positions with TBF, Lex, and Coleman all being great players.
  • We ran the swing play a ton. The type of thing Baylark of UMass killed us with. However, the play was rarely run smoothly. Quarterbacks were consistently tossing bad passes out in the flats that were either incomplete, too high or behind the receiver.
  • The offensive line was not opening up holes and often letting guys into the backfield. Our backs were forced to make a move or break a tackle before they even got to the line of scrimmage.
• I almost felt robbed. The whole thing lasted about 90 minutes, maybe a bit less. They spent probably 70 minutes running a normal practice and 20 minutes scrimmaging. I mean watching practice is worthwhile but I wasn't interested in watching the QBs hit wide open receivers and having no idea where they were actually trying to throw it.
  

• Send To A Friend
• Print This Article
• Comments
• Trackbacks

The big Double-D pointed out in his recent Kaimin column that I-AA screw-ups and backups sure do love the University of Montana and the U loves them right back.

The University of Montana football team loves transfers like a fat kid loves cake.
Or like the elderly love Buicks.
Or like myself and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg love Shakira.

So what if I-AA transfers swarm to Missoula like deadbeat dads and retirees to Florida; would the Griz be anywhere without them?

A recent ESPN (AP) article points to how I-AA second teamers and those who Bomar'd their teammates are the prosthetic legs that will carry the Griz through this season.

Just as the Montana Grizzlies were looking to shore up their quarterback spot, which struggled during the 2005 campaign, Washington State's Josh Swogger was looking to play for a team that had a chance of winning a national championship.

Others are former Louisville running back Reggie Bradshaw and Iowa State running back Greg Coleman, along with former Washington receiver Craig Chambers. However, Chambers is expected to miss the season opener Saturday against No. 16 Iowa.

"Chambers isn't cleared yet to play," Hauck said. "We're not sure how long that will linger -- maybe soon, maybe longer. He has issues with me and eligibility."

Come on, ALL the skill positions have been sured up by I-AA dropdowns. Quarterback, running back, and wide receiver all have transfers at #1 on the depth chart. This won't exactly be the case against Iowa as Chambers will not make the trip. (What are these issues with Hauck?)

Yes, these transfers do, in a way, make the Griz and all of I-AA look like 'Plan B' to anyone that messes up or just can't cut it in big time college ball, but we have to take what we can get. If we're going to to complain about this making us look bad, then why not get upset about selling our team out as a practice squad for six figures?

• Send To A Friend
• Print This Article
• Comments
• Trackbacks

• Hilliard's injury was to his achilles tendon and came during a non-contact drill.
  • “It's the old-man, noon-hoop, tennis injury. We've all seen it with the guys our age,” said Hauck, who is 42. “In fact, I've never seen it on a football field before. So that would lead you to ask, ‘Why now?' There was not even a hit on the play.
• Hilliard had already undergone surgery as of Tuesday evening
• What the backups had to say:
  • “It was hard, because Lex is my friend,” said senior running back Brady Green. “I don't even think about it from a football aspect. You think of it as he's a friend...I went to meetings this morning, and I haven't been to a meeting without Lex in four years, you know? It was kind of a sobering thing, but like coach said, you have to go on. Stuff happens....
    Everybody kind of got it out of their system yesterday.  It was somber for a little while here. But it's a new day, a new chapter. It is somebody else's turn to step up, just like Lex did a couple years ago. You just pray for his full recovery.”
    
  • “Coach just told us we've got to keep going and try to win the national championship, still,” said junior running back Reggie Bradshaw, who transferred to UM from Louisville this spring.
• Who they are: "The fall depth chart listed Bradshaw and Iowa State transfer Greg Coleman as co-backups to Hilliard. Bradshaw is 6-foot and 212 pounds; Coleman is 6-1 and 240.
  
  Beyond those two is Green, 5-9 and 192. The senior out of Brighton, Utah, has been a special teams standout and carried the ball 98 times in three seasons with the Griz, for 396 yards."

• Send To A Friend
• Print This Article
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks