2021 Montana Grizzlies football team

The 2021 Montana Grizzlies football team represented the University of Montana as a member of the Big Sky Conference during the 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season. The Grizzlies were led by 11th-year head coach Bobby Hauck and played their home games at Washington–Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, Montana.

2021 Montana Grizzlies football
NCAA Division I Quarterfinal, L 6–28 at James Madison
Conference	Big Sky Conference
Ranking
STATS	No. 6
FCS Coaches	No. 6
Record	10–3 (6–2 Big Sky)
Head coach	Bobby Hauck (11th season)
Offensive coordinator	Timm Rosenbach (4th season)
Defensive coordinator	Kent Baer (3rd season)
Home stadium	Washington–Grizzly Stadium

2021 Big Sky Conference football standings

	Conf							Overall
Team		W		L					W		L
No. 10 Sacramento State $^		8	–	0					9	–	3
No. 2 Montana State ^		7	–	1					11	–	3
No. 7 Eastern Washington ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 6 Montana ^		6	–	2					10	–	3
No. 17 UC Davis ^		5	–	3					8	–	4
Weber State		5	–	3					6	–	5
Northern Arizona		4	–	4					5	–	6
Portland State		4	–	4					5	–	6
Idaho		3	–	5					4	–	7
Northern Colorado		2	–	6					3	–	8
Cal Poly		1	–	7					2	–	9
Idaho State		1	–	7					1	–	10
Southern Utah		0	–	8					1	–	10
$ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Preseason

Polls

On July 26, 2021, during the virtual Big Sky Kickoff, the Grizzlies were predicted to finish second in the Big Sky by both the coaches and media.

Coaches poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(7)
2	Montana	(3)
3	Eastern Washington	(2)
4	Montana State	(1)
5	Sacramento State	(1)
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Cal Poly
13	Northern Colorado

Media poll

Predicted finish	Team	Votes (1st place)
1	Weber State	(14)
2	Montana	(4)
3	Eastern Washington	(3)
4	Montana State	(3)
5	Sacramento State
6	UC Davis
7	Northern Arizona
8	Idaho
9	Idaho State
10	Portland State
11	Southern Utah
12	Northern Colorado
13	Cal Poly

Preseason All–Big Sky team

The Grizzlies had five players selected to the preseason all-Big Sky team.

Offense

Samuel Akem – WR

Conlan Beaver – OT

Defense

Jace Lewis – LB

Robby Hauck – S

Special teams

Matthew O'Donoghue – LS

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 4	6:00 p.m.	at No. 20 (FBS) Washington*	No. 9	Husky Stadium Seattle, WA	P12N	W 13–7	64,053
September 11	6:00 p.m.	Western Illinois*	No. 4	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	W 42–7	25,238
September 25	1:00 p.m.	Cal Poly	No. 4	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	W 39–7	25,600
October 2	8:30 p.m.	at No. 6 Eastern Washington	No. 4	Roos Field Cheney, WA (EWU–UM Governors Cup)	ESPN2	L 28–34	7,944
October 9	1:00 p.m.	Dixie State*	No. 6	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	W 31–14	23,434
October 16	1:00 p.m.	Sacramento State	No. 5	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	KTMF/SWX	L 21–28	24,305
October 23	2:00 p.m.	at Idaho	No. 11	Kibbie Dome Moscow, ID (Little Brown Stein)	KTMF/SWX	W 34–14	6,059
October 30	12:00 p.m.	Southern Utah	No. 11	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT	RTNW	W 20–19	22,587
November 6	12:00 p.m.	at Northern Colorado	No. 11	Nottingham Field Greeley, CO	ESPN+	W 35–0	4,987
November 13	1:00 p.m.	at Northern Arizona	No. 9	Walkup Skydome Flagstaff, AZ	KTMF/KULR	W 30–3	6,228
November 20	12:00 p.m.	No. 3 Montana State	No. 7	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT (Brawl of the Wild)	RTNW	W 29–10	26,856
December 3	7:00 p.m.	No. 4 Eastern Washington*	No. 5	Washington–Grizzly Stadium Missoula, MT (NCAA Division I Second Round)	ESPN+	W 57–41	24,065
December 10	5:00 p.m.	at No. 2 James Madison*	No. 5	Bridgeforth Stadium Harrisonburg, VA (NCAA Division I Quarterfinal)	ESPN2	L 6–28	14,690
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from STATS Poll released prior to the game All times are in Mountain time

Game summaries

At No. 20 (FBS) Washington

See also: 2021 Washington Huskies football team

Montana Grizzlies vs Washington Huskies – Game summary

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Grizzlies	3	0	0	10	13
No. 20 (FBS) Huskies	7	0	0	0	7

at Husky Stadium • Seattle, WA

• Date: September 4, 2021
• Game time: 5:00 p.m. PDT
• Game weather: 77 °F (25 °C) Sunny
• Game attendance: 64,053
• Referee: Matthew Richards
• TV announcers (P12N): J. B. Long (play-by-play) and Max Browne (analyst)

Game information

First Quarter UW – Dylan Morris 1-yard run (Peyton Henry kick), 10:09. Washington 7–0. Drive: 9 plays, 78 yards, 4:45. MONT – Kevin Macias 26-yard field goal, 7:08. Washington 7–3. Drive: 8 plays, 66 yards, 3:01. Second Quarter No scoring. Third Quarter No scoring. Fourth Quarter MONT – Camron Humphrey 4-yard run (Kevin Macias kick), 10:35. Montana 10–7. Drive: 10 plays, 69 yards, 5:00. MONT – Kevin Macias 22-yard field goal, 2:54. Montana 13–7. Drive: 11 plays, 42 yards, 6:05. Top passers MONT – Camron Humphrey – 12/23, 105 yards UW – Dylan Morris – 27/46, 226 yards, 3 int Top rushers MONT – Xavier Harris – 15 rushes, 70 yards UW – Richard Newton – 17 rushes, 62 yards Top receivers MONT – Mitch Roberts – 2 receptions, 29 yards UW – Cade Otton – 8 receptions, 82 yards

The Grizzlies upset Washington 13-7, becoming the 5th FCS team to beat a Top-25 FBS team.

Western Illinois

	1	2	3	4	Total
Leathernecks	0	7	0	0	7
No. 4 Grizzlies	7	14	14	7	42

See also: 2021 Western Illinois Leathernecks football team

Cal Poly

	1	2	3	4	Total
Mustangs	0	0	0	7	7
No. 4 Grizzlies	15	3	21	0	39

See also: 2021 Cal Poly Mustangs football team

At No. 6 Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Grizzlies	7	7	7	7	28
No. 6 Eagles	7	3	0	24	34

See also: 2021 Eastern Washington Eagles football team and EWU–UM Governors Cup

Dixie State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Trailblazers	0	0	0	14	14
No. 6 Grizzlies	0	3	14	14	31

See also: 2021 Dixie State Trailblazers football team

Sacramento State

	1	2	3	4	Total
Hornets	7	7	14	0	28
No. 5 Grizzlies	0	6	15	0	21

See also: 2021 Sacramento State Hornets football team

At Idaho

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Grizzlies	7	13	13	7	40
Vandals	7	0	0	7	14

See also: 2021 Idaho Vandals football team and Little Brown Stein

Southern Utah

	1	2	3	4	Total
Thunderbirds	0	3	13	3	19
No. 11 Grizzlies	0	10	7	3	20

See also: 2021 Southern Utah Thunderbirds football team

At Northern Colorado

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 11 Grizzlies	14	7	14	0	35
Bears	0	0	0	0	0

See also: 2021 Northern Colorado Bears football team

At Northern Arizona

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 9 Grizzlies	0	13	7	10	30
Lumberjacks	0	0	3	0	3

See also: 2021 Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football team

No. 3 Montana State

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 3 Bobcats	3	0	0	7	10
No. 7 Grizzlies	10	6	10	3	29

See also: 2021 Montana State Bobcats football team and Brawl of the Wild

No. 4 Eastern Washington

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	14	7	7	13	41
No. 5 Grizzlies	10	10	24	13	57

See also: 2021 Eastern Washington Eagles football team and EWU–UM Governors Cup

FCS Playoffs

No. 4 Eastern Washington–Second Round

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 4 Eagles	14	7	7	13	41
No. 5 Grizzlies	10	10	24	13	57

See also: 2021 Eastern Washington Eagles football team

At No. 3 James Madison–Quarterfinal

	1	2	3	4	Total
No. 5 Grizzlies	3	0	0	3	6
No. 3 Dukes	7	7	7	7	28

See also: 2021 James Madison Dukes football team

Ranking movements

Ranking movements
Legend: ██ Increase in ranking ██ Decrease in ranking
( ) = First-place votes

	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Final
STATS FCS	9	4 (5)	4 (3)	4 (2)	4 (3)	6	5	11	11	11	9	7	5	6
Coaches	9	5 (1)	5	4	4	6	6	12	11	10	9	7	5	6