Welcome back to the Interlake Sports Now. I'm Josh to get in on this week's show. We'll take a look at the Grizzlies performance in FCS title game. And I'll get my final thoughts on Montana's special season and the run to the championship game. We will start this thing out with our winter sports update the first one of 2024.

And then we're gonna get to that Grizz football talk before we dive in. All that fun stuff quick reminder today's episode is brought to you by Nomad for the Flathead best manufacturer Nomad. As a longtime supporter of …

Welcome back to the Interlake Sports Now. I'm Josh to get in on this week's show. We'll take a look at the Grizzlies performance in FCS title game. And I'll get my final thoughts on Montana's special season and the run to the championship game. We will start this thing out with our winter sports update the first one of 2024.

And then we're gonna get to that Grizz football talk before we dive in. All that fun stuff quick reminder today's episode is brought to you by Nomad for the Flathead best manufacturer Nomad. As a longtime supporter of our local community and sports scene, celebrating 20 years of building great careers and mission focused custom vehicles. Nomad, a Montana based company making a global impact.

Visit Nomad geeks.com for more info. That's Nomad gcs.com for more information. All right, let's get into the first winter sports update of 2024. We'll keep an eye out for any potential postponement. News on the horizon I know last year when the big the big winter storm came through, they did have to cancel a few games due to travel concerns.

We'll see if that happens this year with a big, heavy winter front on the horizon later this week. Keep an eye on the daily interlake.com. I'm sure the sports team will. We'll keep you updated there. All right. But starting with this winter sports update, let's get to the prep wrestling scene. The Glacier Wolfpack travel to Spokane for the Pacific Northwest Classic.

They took on fifth place in a loaded tournament. Placers Caleb Shine took home first place at the 144 pound weight class to help the pack cement that fifth place finish. As for Flathead, they headed the opposite direction. The brave brawlers were Bozeman bound for the Tom Prows tournament and took home a second place finish. Honors Thompson and Sawyer Troup took home first place in their respective weight classes to help break brawlers.

Grab that second place finish to finish behind Billings West, who came in first. The Flathead Lady Brawlers took home fourth place on the girls side, with Bella Downey landing the top spot in her weight class honor. The local basketball action started with the Glacier Wolfpack boys who split their weekend set in Kalispell with the Helena schools and a pair of close games Friday, the pack fell 51 to 49 to Capital after the Bruins knocked down a layup with 25 seconds to play to pull out the win on the road on Saturday, though, the odds shifted back in Blazers favor and the pack held on for a double overtime win versus Helena, 70 to 66.

Liam Else hit a buzzer beater to force double. O-T and Coen Costello led the way with 21 points for the Wolfpack. As for Flathead, they dropped their weekend series with the Helena Schools. Helena went on A90 run Friday. The bangles stole that one from the Braves. Tough loss, but hey, it happens. That's the name of the game. Lyric.

Ursuline led the bears with 26 points in the loss. On Saturday. The Braves fell to Capital 61 to 52. Ursuline led the team in scoring once again with 14. As for the Bravehearts, they also dropped both their games to the Helena schools Friday. The Helena Bangles won 44 to 24. Kennedy Moore led the way with Flathead with ten points on Saturday.

The capital Bruins pulled away for a 4820 win over the Bravehearts. Moore was once again the leading scorer with nine points in that one, as for the Glacier Girls, they got swept by the Helena schools as well. Helena Schools just came down, did a lot of winning or did a lot of winning over the Kalispell schools. It happens.

Hey, that's the name of the game. Like I said, you bounce back. Friday, the Bruins took home a 3817 win over the pack. Reese Rainey led the way with eight points. And on Saturday, the Bengals won 59 to 45 despite 19 points from Glacier's Carly Allen. All right, that'll do it for the first winter sports update of 2024.

Let's move on to the Montana Grizzlies. Football talk is Montana fell an FCS title game 23 to 3 versus the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. The title game did not go in the bears favor. Maybe you know, not the showing that the players and coaches would hope for. But overall, such a special season, such a fun opportunity to cover this team.

You know, a few different plays go their way in that game could have been a lot different. So let's roll through three. What is from the Grizzlies loss to the Jackrabbits? Then I'll give my final thoughts on this special season from the Montana football program. What if. And number one, right off the bat the Jackrabbits go down and score and the Grizzlies respond.

Their drive in, they have momentum on their side. They're going. And the jackrabbit rabbits they made that big time goal line stand fourth and one Eli Gilman takes the handoff breaks it outside. Has a great chance of scoring the Jackrabbits Adam Bock made an unreal tackle on the play. That's one of those plays. The rest probably could have taken a longer look at because from certain angles, sure looked like the ball did cross the plane.

Of course that didn't happen and that's why we're here talking about the what if game. But the point being, if the Grays score a touchdown on that opening drive, it was a 15 play drive. That game has a different feel to it. They were that close to really making it interesting. Number two Clifton McDowell was injured. He's been a star for the Grizzlies since taking over the starting job.

And what makes him so special is his mobility and ability to throw on the move. Had a leg injury. It looked like it happened early in the game. If you were watching the game, McDowell or if you didn't watch the game, if you watched the game, you probably saw the play. If not Philly in the, McDowell darts towards the end zone.

The play before Gilman's goal line stand goes airborne through the air, takes a big hit from a couple of Jackrabbits defenders and comes up a little bit limping, so it hurt his leg in the first quarter. That's tough from your mobile quarterback, who makes a lot of plays outside the pocket. You gotta feel like if Clifton McDowell was 100%, that would have been a different ballgame.

They did announce on ABC he was dealing with a leg injury, so definitely looked like it happened on that play. Or it could have been some prior to the game, but it felt like it changed the dynamic of the football game. Overall. They've got to respect the toughness of Clifton McDowell for fighting through and playing hurt. It was clear he wasn't 100% down the stretch and he was still out there trying to make plays for his team, so that's what it's all about.

But it definitely changed the dynamic of the Montana offense and that game as a whole. Number three the fumble on the Grizzlies opening drive of the second half. At that point, the game was seven three. The Grizzlies are driving down the field. They have a chance of maybe putting up some points. Even a field goal in that situation could have really impacted the outcome of the game.

Instead, the Grizzlies opening drive of the second half resulted in a turnover. They fumbled the ball and that turned into seven points for the Jackrabbits. They go up 14 three essentially a, you know, a swing of almost ten points because they were driving near field goal position where that really shifted momentum in this one. And it felt like a bit of an early knockout punch by the Jackrabbits, just completely changed the dynamic of the football game.

That'll be and said, of course you can't play the what if game in the long run. So, you know, I don't love to sit here and do this, but I saw a lot of people on Twitter talking. The other Grizz got outclassed or they really weren't in the same level of competition as the Jackrabbits. And it felt like there was a few key moments and if they had gone Montana's way, they could have been in that football game.

It could have been a one score game late, and they would have had a great chance. It just cookie didn't crumble their way. That's how it goes sometimes. But that being said, they had the opportunities. Just a few key mistakes and an injury to McDowell completely shifted that ballgame. There was 120 plays total in the game, so you can't pinpoint 1 or 2 plays as the reason for the loss over 120 plays, but I think it's worth bringing these moments up because all the score was, although it was 23 to 3 at the finish, I do think the Grizzlies were a few plays away from keeping this things really interesting.

And the sentiment on Twitter that, you know, maybe the Grizz got outclassed and they weren't good enough to face a Jackrabbits. They won't beat a team like that. I don't know if that's totally true. I think that game was played at Washington Grizzly Stadium night game. The crowd's going crazy. I mean they have a different ballgame. Of course that's a major whatever.

But the point being, I thought the Grizzlies held their own early and it just wasn't enough. They couldn't stick around because a few mistakes really made the difference. Overall, though, this year's Montana Grizzlies football team deserves nothing but respect. This team was tough as nails, so a true resilience. It would have been easy in today's era of instant gratification and sports to kind of fall apart after that loss to knew they lost, that was a bad loss.

There was a lot of talk about the program around the team that they have the quarterback, all these different things. They took it on the chin. They stayed in the fight and they won a big Sky title. They delivered Hammack haymaker after haymaker down the stretch to knock off Idaho, SAC State and Montana State to lock down their first big Sky championship since 2009.

They rattled off ten straight wins out to that end, a loss including two hard fought overtime playoff wins over Furman and the double team win that will go down in history over the bison. North Dakota State. That was one of the games of the year overall, though. This team, I think, was just the definition of resilience. You could see it week in and week out.

This group was there to fight for one another. They played as a unit and it was a lot of fun to cover, no doubt about it. Did the season come to an end? How the Griz coaches and players wanted probably not. But at the end of the day, what a journey. And if we're going to lose to a team.

South Dakota State's a pretty dang good team. There was a lot of media calling them one of the top three FCS teams of all time, and the word dynasty has been thrown around for South Dakota State. I wouldn't say they're quite there yet. Two championships, let's make it three. But no, it's tough. And college football on this air for stability.

And what the Jackrabbits have done is very impressive. And the Grizzlies just met a tough opponent sometimes you know that just is going to happen. Every dog has their day overall though this season with a stepping stone for Montana. They are headed in the right direction. They've kind of returned to a top tier FCS program in the country heading into the season.

You go there. Big Sky contender. I think they were picked sixth to finish in the big Sky, so they really weren't even one of the teams rattled off. It's like a top tier big Sky team heading into next season. They're going to be a big, you know, a top tier program in the conference. Once again, they're headed in the right direction.

They played three games on ESPN this year in front of a national audience. Won all three of them with thrillers versus Idaho, Furman and Ndsu. And although they lost to South Dakota State, that game was on ABC again in front of the entire country national audience. That exposure is going to only help the Grizz in the long run, in recruiting and building this program back into one of the top tier FCS programs in the country, year in and year out.

So all that being said, I just want to give a big shout out to the Grizzlies football program for their success this year. Best of luck to all the seniors from this group on the next chapter of their journey. Overall, an awesome experience covering this team week in and week out here on the Sports Now and our other show The Big Sky now.

It was a ton of fun. And one other note worth mentioning just to kind of throw the Bobcats in here. This is the second time in the past three seasons that a Montana school made it to the championship game. Montana was represented in the national title game in 2021, with Montana State going and falling to North Dakota State last year, the Bobcats face off with South Dakota State in the semifinal.

So three seasons, you know, two out of three, and that's three years in a row. At least one team has made it to the Final Four. That's impressive. Two trips to the title game. It just really shows the type of college football being played in the Treasure State on a national level can put it on full display. It helps both programs recruiting the brawl.

The wild rivalries got a lot of exposure and ESPN game day, so overall, just another special year for football at the college level in the state of Montana. And both teams, the cats and the Grizz, are poised once again to be top tier big Sky contenders next year and likely top five top eight FCS teams in the country heading into the next season.

So the transfer keep rolling for years to come. When it comes to football, the state of Montana is right there with the Dakotas. It's kind of the top reason for FCS football in the country. South Dakota State, North Dakota State very tough to beat, but South Dakota and North Dakota, both schools are good as well. But the Montana schools are right there.

They're just a lot of good talent up this way, and it's cool to see it get displayed on a national level. So now it is officially time now to turn the page from football. The basketball. It's a little later than usual. Last year on the show, we were talking hoops by now, but next week we'll definitely get into the basketball action for the Grays and Bobcats moving forward as we slowly but surely creep up on March Madness and all that good stuff.

Big Sky basketball tournament. So that'll be a lot of fun. That'll be and said it's going to wrap it up for this week's show. I want to give a quick reminder to everybody. Today's episode is brought to you by Nomad. Voted the flat best manufacturer, Nomad. As a longtime supporter of our local community and sports scene, celebrate 20 years of building great careers and mission focused custom vehicles.

Nomad, a Montana based company making a global impact. Visit Nomad geeks.com for more info. That's Nomad geeks.com for more information. So thanks always to our friends and Nomad geeks. Next week we'll be back at it again with our Clark Auto Group poster Player of the week. Now that Prep Sports is back in full swing. That being said, one last big shout out to the Montana Grizzlies.

Their coaching staff, the players, everyone who supported that program as far as parents and all that, because it takes a lot of effort to have a successful dog program in college football. A lot goes into that. This university social shout out to them on that epic season. Like I said, it was a blast covering that. And overall, that'll do it for this week's Interlake Sports.

Now I'm Josh Dugan and I'm out.