POCATELLO, Idaho — Crazy games happen in Holt Arena, which is still the case even after the name was changed to ICCU Dome last season.
This time, fourth-ranked Montana rallied for a 42-38 win over unranked Idaho State on Saturday in front of an announced crowd of 7,674 fans. The Grizzlies improved to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big Sky Conference as they passed their first road test in a game featuring a combined 1,014 yards of offense.
The win completed a Gem State sweep after they beat Idaho at home last week when they were in control throughout the game that pitted two top-10 teams against each other. They now return home to host Cal Poly at 2 p.m. Saturday in Washington-Grizzly Stadium for homecoming.
“That’s what good football teams do: They can beat you a lot of different ways,” Montana head coach Bobby Hauck said. “I think we can score points and move the ball a variety of ways. And I think that we can stop people. And I think we’re really good in the kicking game.”
Here are three takeaways from the victory:
Cardiac Griz
Don’t count out the Griz after one quarter, after two quarters or even after three quarters.
They again showed their continued fight as they erased a 13-point deficit in the second half. When they fell down 31-18 with 12:09 left in the third quarter, that had matched their largest deficit of the season.
That came when they trailed North Dakota 13-0 in the first quarter three weeks ago. They rallied for a 24-23 win over the Fighting Hawks in the second game of the season as they had a 10-0 burst in the final 4:23.
This time, they kept whittling away until they could get the knockout punch and then make sure Idaho State was out cold in what had started as a heavyweight bout while the teams exchanged offensive blows.
“I don’t think we played our best game,” Hauck said. “I think that’s a sign of a good team when you can win when you don’t play your best game.”
Eli Gillman’s 4-yard touchdown catch brought them within 31-25 with 9:05 left in the third quarter. They were driving again but had to settle for a 35-yard field goal from Ty Morrison, which pulled them within 31-28.
A punt and interception on their next two possessions were followed by a touchdown pass from Jordan Cooke to Tsion Nunnally that put them down 38-28 with 0:52 left in the third quarter. No quit yet.
“We faced some challenges throughout the game, but a great team’s going to be able to overcome those tough things,” receiver Michael Wortham said.
The Griz then owned the fourth-quarter, outscoring the Bengals 14-0 to turn a 10-point deficit into a four-point win. Gillman’s 5-yard touchdown run pulled them within 38-35 with 14:22 remaining in the game two plays after his 33-yard run on the final play of the third quarter provided a spark.
The defense held strong by forcing a turnover on downs, a sign of things to come later, but Montana ended up punting the ball. The Griz then forced a punt and drove down the field to claim their first lead since they had gone up 18-17 with 6:05 remaining in the second quarter.
Montana needed just five plays to go 52 yards, a short field thanks to Drew Deck’s 15-yard punt return. Wortham capped off the drive with a 9-yard touchdown run to make it 42-38. But the Griz had left 3:06 on the clock.
They needed to make one more stop, like they did against North Dakota. Unlike that game, Idaho State got within scoring range. But the Griz stood tall by forcing four straight incompletions from the 20-yard line.
“We started off a little bit slow, but something about the Grizzlies that we’re never going to stop fighting,” safety Diezel Wilkinson said.
Getting creative
Montana’s go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter featured something not seen up to that point this season: Wortham throwing the ball to quarterback Keali’i Ah Yat.
One play before Wortham’s touchdown run, he found Ah Yat on a reverse for a 33-yard gain on first-and-10 as the quarterback-turned-temporary-receiver ran for 14 yards after the catch down to the 9-yard line.
That wasn’t the first time Wortham had thrown the football in the game. But it was the first game in a Griz uniform that the former junior college All-American quarterback had attempted a pass.
Midway through the second quarter, Wortham threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to wide-open tight end Josh Gale after he took a lateral pass from Ah Yat. It was his first touchdown pass since Sept. 21, 2024, against Nevada when he played for Eastern Washington.
“I actually thought it was third-and-short, so I was going to try to run it,” Wortham said. “I already knew what the play was, but they dropped their cover, so I was like, man, I’m just going to have to make it with my legs. They just all shot down the moment I put my eyes down, acted like I was going to run and it all worked out.”
Wortham finished 2-of-2 passing for 49 yards, a career high at the NCAA Division I level, and one touchdown. He also rushed seven times for 41 yards and two scores. That was on top of his six catches for a team-high and career-high 124 yards.
Then add in three kick returns for 82 yards. He finished with 247 all-purpose yards. Passing yards aren’t included in that calculation.
Davis joined him in setting career highs as he did so in receptions (six) and receiving yards (109). Davis, the holder on kicks, also rushed in a 2-point play after Wortham’s touchdown pass to Gale, putting the Griz ahead 18-17.
“We’ve had that particular play up for three weeks and haven’t had the opportunity to run it,” Hauck said. “This morning I said I really want to run it and just kind of gut instinct and said that was the time and it was big.”
Ah Yat threw for a career-high 350 yards on 23-of-40 passing with one touchdown. He did throw his first interception since the second game of the year after he had two turnover-free games.
The Griz finished with 517 total yards of offense despite Gillman being limited to a season-low 48 rushing yards and one touchdown on 16 carries. Outside of his 33-yard run, he had 15 yards on his 15 other carries.
Montana couldn’t get much going up the middle, intead finding success on the outside as it ran 35 times for 118 yards. The Griz allowed three sacks and nine tackles for loss, five of which were Gillman being dropped for a loss.
“They were trying really hard to stop our base run plays, base routes and they didn’t handle some of the outside-the-box-stuff as well,” Hauck said.
Defense steps up late
Before Montana could celebrate a comeback win, the defense had to make a final stand. The Griz did that eventually.
After ISU’s drive started with a 32-yard completion, the Bengals got to Montana’s 20-yard line with 68 seconds left in the game. But they needed a touchdown thanks to UM’s 2-point conversion in the second quarter.
On first down, Wilkinson broke up Cooke’s pass intended for Ian Duarte in the end zone as he undercut the corner route because he knew he had post help, he said. After a short incompletion along the sideline on second down, Griz cornerback Prince Ford broke up a pass thrown to Nunnally in the end zone after Cooke scrambled around before he fired into traffic.
Idaho State took a timeout with 44 seconds left to draw up a plan. It didn’t work. Cooke’s pass intended for Damien Morgan fell incomplete.
“We’re built for the pressure,” Wilkinson said. “That’s what we do during practice. We practice situations like that, two-minute, they’re up, stuff like that, or we’re up, different situations like that. So I feel like we’re very battle tested and we can handle anything that comes our way.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of games for UM’s pass defense, but the Griz stepped up when needed. Cooke completed 33 of 54 pass attempts for 421 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Nunnally caught nine passes for 110 yards and one score while Michael Shulikov had eight receptions for 119 yards.
The Griz were called for three pass interference penalties, all on the starting senior cornerbacks. Two were on Kenzel Lawler and one was on Prince Ford.
Montana rotated corners throughout as it played without injured star sophomore Kyon Loud for the first time this season. True freshmen DeAnte Gentry and Brady Beaner got more playing time on defense than sophomore Elijah Brady and senior Justus Breston.
Gentry got his first career interception, which came with 4:20 left in the third quarter on a deep heave by Cooke on first down. It was the first interception by a Griz cornerback this season.
“That’s one of the beautiful things about our defense is you have a lot to go to,” Hauck said. “If you have smart guys, you have a lot you can go to, and we do have smart guys. It’s a difficult game for true freshmen to come in against a throwing team, veteran quarterback, veteran receivers, big-bodied dudes. … I thought they competed hard.”
Montana didn’t do anything with the turnover gained as Rylan Leathers picked off Ah Yat three plays later. The Bengals converted the short field of 33 yards into a touchdown that put the Griz down 38-28 three plays later.
That was the only scoring drive UM allowed over ISU’s final seven possessions. The Bengals had started with five scores over their first six drives when they found the end zone to open the second half as the Griz fell down 31-18.
Montana had just gotten back linebacker Peyton Wing for the second half after he sat out the first half due to a targeting penalty the previous game. The Bengals’ final seven drives included one touchdown, one interception, two turnovers on downs and three punts.
“That last drive was amazing,” Wortham said of watching the defense from the sideline. “That kind of shows what type of team we’re going to be going forward.”
Frank Gogola is the Senior Sports Reporter at the Missoulian and 406 MT Sports. Follow him on X @FrankGogola or email him at frank.gogola@406mtsports.com.
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