Above is the last regular season game for now NFL-players Lex Hilliard, Kroy Biermann and Dan Carpenter. Hilliard gets three touchdowns, Biermann chases down a wide receiver way down field and Carpenter knocks a couple big ones through, including a 50-yarder.
After the jump are highlights from Biermann's award-winning season.
On Sunday, Montana Grizzlies and Montana-natives Kroy Biermann and Lex Hilliard officially became professional football players. Bierman went in the 5th round (#154 overall) to the Atlanta Falcons. Hilliard went in the 6th round (#204 overall) to the Miami Dolphins. The interesting thing is that both were drafted two spots away from players who were, at one point, legitimate Heisman Trophy candidates.
Biermann was drafted two spots ahead of Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon, who went 156th overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers. This one makes some sense. Dixon lost his Heisman hopes to a blown out knee late in the season. I was still somewhat surprised his stock was so low. I mean, Willis McGahee went in the first round, 23rd overall, after he blew out his knee at Miami.
The situation with the player near Lex is different. Lex was drafted only two spots behind Michigan running-back Mike Hart, who went 202nd overall. Going into the season, Hart wasn't viewed as highly as, say, McFadden, but he was a legit pro prospect and Heisman contender. If you would've told me at the beginning of the season that Hilliard would go only two spots behind Hilliard I would've said that's about as likely as the Griz losing in the first round of the playoffs to a school with less than 1500 students App State beating Michigan Montana moving up to the FBS. Crazy stuff.
Bobby Hauck & Co are confident going into this weekend's game against the Hornets and why shouldn't they be? In their 12 meetings with Sac State, the Griz have never lost. That doesn't mean the Griz aren't wary of what could happen.
From the Great Falls Tribune:
"They've been a really good team in Sacramento," Hauck said of the Hornets, who are 1-0 at home this season and 0-4 on the road. That victory was a 38-9 romp on Sept. 29 over Northern Arizona (2-1), which is considered a valid Big Sky contender."If you look at the last few years, they've won a lot of games in Sacramento. Our four games previously with them, we have played really well at Sac (26-0 in 2003, 31-14 in 2005). A lot of teams can't say that."
The team is also looking forward to experiencing their first road game of the season. From the Missoulian:
“That shows what kind of team you are, if you can go on the road and focus and kind of make it like a home environment,” running back Lex Hilliard said.“We've been down that road, talking about our schedule,” fifth-year coach Bobby Hauck said. “The first two (conference) games, we don't have any control over.
“They'll be excited. It is a great team-building thing. We'll go down there with 58 players and our coaches, and try to get a win.”
Also of note: Marc Mariani won't make the trip because of injury and Michael Shelton isn't quite ready for game situations. From the GFT again: "Michael has to know what everybody's doing (before he plays)," said Hauck. "It's not like pickup hoops or something."
This year's Sports Network FCS All-American team stars three Montana Grizzlies: running back Lex Hilliard and tackle Cody Balogh were named to the second team offense while defensive end Kroy Biermann was named to the first-team defense.
The Missoulian notes this trio's longevity:
Lex Hilliard, Kroy Biermann and Cody Balogh are all members of the Sports Network Division I FCS Preseason All-American team that was released Wednesday.And they have something else in common.
All three seniors played as true freshman for the Grizzlies, who will enter the season on Sept. 1 as the second-ranked team in the nation.
Hilliard, of course, was set to finish out his eligibility last year, but the 230-pound running back out of Kalispell tore his Achilles tendon in fall camp. His medical redshirt is one reason there are 24 seniors on this year's Grizzlies.
Another reason is eight current players suited up as true freshmen in 2004. That was out of a large recruiting class of 23. Nine of them played in the Grizzlies' run to the '04 FCS (then I-AA) championship game.
That includes Biermann, who had 22 tackles and three sacks that season, and Balogh, who started at right tackle in the Grizzlies' final three playoff games.
“We were forced to play a bunch of guys as true freshmen because we weren't talented enough to win without them,” said Bobby Hauck, then in his second year as the Grizzlies' head coach. “Now we've got essentially two classes together.”
Also interesting to note that the Big Sky Conference leads all conferences with 11 All-Americans.
More than 30 percent of this year's preseason All-Big Sky Conference football team will come from the University of Montana. Here's the complete team, with the Montana kids in bold:
Offense
With almost half their starters on the all-conference team, it's not much surprise they were unanimously voted as the favorite to win the conference.
There is no dispute. Going into this season, Lex Hilliard was the best football player in Montana and probably the entire Big Sky Conference. Now, he's done for the season after suffering a serious foot injury that will require surgery.
We’re very disappointed for Lex Hilliard,” said fourth-year Griz head coach Bobby Hauck. “For him to lose his senior season, especially one that he has prepared so hard for, is a hard pill to swallow. It’s difficult to put into words just how bad that myself, our coaches and our players feel for Lex.“Obviously it is a tremendous loss to our football team and certainly puts a damper on our championship aspirations since we lost our best player for the season,” Hauck said.
Looks like Swogger will have to carry the offense as the injury leaves a crater where a great running game once was.
In a way, Lex is to Hauck as Terrell Davis and John Elway were to Mike Shanahan of the Denver Broncos. Hauck has proven that he can win with Lex, lets see if he can do so without.
I do acknowledge the fact that Hauck did lead the Griz to a 9-3 record in his initial season in 2003 without much help from Hilliard. Sorry for another NFL reference, but Bill Callahan led to the 2002 Oakland Raiders to the Super Bowl because of the system put in place by Jon Gruden. Callahan was fired only a [4-12] season later.
During the 2004 run to the National Championship game Lex failed to break the 1000 yard (950 yards) mark but he did rumble into the endzone 17 times.
In 2005, Hilliard ran for 1,332 yards and the Griz were BSC co-champions before losing their opening round playoff game.
Lex will return in 2007 after redshirting for the 2006 season.
From: The Missoulian
The Cat-Griz Insider notes that Lex is a average (for him) year away from breaking the career rushing record at UM.
Senior running back Lex Hilliard needs 1,186 yards to become the Montana Grizzlies’
all-time leading rusher. Yohance Humphery (1998-2001) currently holds that title with 4,070 yards.
Lex ran for 1,322 yards last year so the record is definitely within reach. I'm sure he'll be as motivated as ever enteting his senior year and looking to re-establish the Griz as the I-AA powerhouse they are. However, it'll be interesting to see if the Griz return to their airborn ways with the talented senior transfer Josh Swogger at quarterback.
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.
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.Straw said the Bears could appear in the 2008 version.
"Ultimately it's our goal to have all the college teams," Straw said.
So, no repeat Heisman for Hilliard. I guess I could settle for a I-AA National Championship.
