It turns out the Grizzlies and Bobcats have played each other twice the same season before.

It happened five straight years from 1908-13, and Montana won seven of the games with two ties. The run ended with five straight Griz wins, including verdicts of 7-0 and 20-7 in 1913. 

“Good on those Grizzlies,” UM coach Bobby Hauck said Monday, adding: “I don’t know any of those guys.” 

Some 112 years later it’ll happen again: Saturday the No. 2 seed Bobcats will host the No. 3 Grizzlies at Bobcat Stadium, in an FCS semifinal. Kickoff for what has been referred to as “The Super Brawl” is at 2 p.m. The game will air on ABC. 

It’s a rematch that might have happened in 2023, but North Dakota State ruined it by blocking a PAT kick in overtime of a 35-34 second-round win in Bozeman. Two weeks later the Griz beat NDSU in two overtimes in the semifinals, 31-29. 

Saturday’s rematch comes 28 days after the Cats (12-2) knocked off the then-unbeaten Griz 31-28 in Missoula. Hauck knows these guys. 

“In terms of our opponent, you don’t get to 12 wins and beat us without being a good football team,” Hauck said. “We’re tasked with trying to beat another good team this week. We weren’t able to beat them three weeks ago; when you look at that as a head coach, you worry about matchups. Is it a bad matchup for us? Is it a bad matchup schematically, is it a bad matchup personnel-wise?  

“We’ll go back and try to diagnose that as we get back into it this week.” 

Useful Blueprint?

“It was bound to happen at some point, and here it is,” Bobcats coach Brent Vigen said at his weekly press conference, 200 miles down I-90. “It’s not unfamiliar to play a team twice.” 

Montana State beat Big Sky Conference foe Weber State 33-25 in a 2022 second-round game, for example. Montana beat Eastern Washington 57-41 in the second round in 2021 and handled Weber 24-13 in a 2008 quarterfinal; the Griz also lost to Eastern 37-20 in a 2014 second round rematch.  

So it happens, just not like this. It’s the first semifinal meeting of two Big Sky teams. 

There’s an old axiom that it’s tough to beat a good team twice; balancing that out is the Cats were good enough the first time, why not this time? 

“You certainly look at that (first) game with a fine-toothed comb,” Vigen said. “But know that not everything was put into play that day, on either side.” 

In other words, you can’t Sharpie in a win. 

“Winning over there on the 22nd of November... the only thing it guaranteed is the game’s played here in Bozeman,” Vigen said. 

He Said, He Said

Dillon Botner, the senior center for the Grizzlies by way of Whitefish High School, is happy to have the historic rematch. 

“You don’t always get a chance to right your wrongs,” he said Monday. “We’re pretty excited to be able to go do that. The offense has found its footing and is firing on all cylinders and we hope to keep it going. 

“To have the opportunity to play it twice during your senior year is pretty special.” 

Over in Bozeman, Bobcat running back Adam Jones, a senior out of Missoula Sentinel – put little stock in the first matchup. 

“They’re going to make a ton of adjustments; they’re a great team,” Jones said. “We’re going to make some adjustments. It’s going to be a new game for sure. It’s not going to look the same; it’s not going to play the game.  

“I do feel we do have confidence because of how that game went, but the only thing that mattered about that first game is we get to play this game at home.” 

QUICK KICKS: Brock Osweiler, Flathead High product and former NFL quarterback, will be the color analyst for ABC on Saturday. ... Montana’s 52-22 win over South Dakota marked its 10th home game of 2025, and Saturday’s Brawl II will mark the Bobcats’ school-record 10th home game as well as its 19th in two years. ... Eli Gillman’s 1,434 rushing yards this year give him 3,511 for his career; the junior is No. 4 on UM’s list behind Yohance Humphrey (4,070 from 1998-2001), Chase Reynolds (4,067 from 2008-10) and Lex Hilliard (4,018 from 2003-05 and ‘07). ... South Dakota committed eight false starts at Washington-Grizzly Stadium Saturday but made first down after each of the final six.