Panda-monium! Montana Football Bamboozles Sacramento State

Let's call it a game so epic, it received a Presidential Squeal of Disapproval.

In a rare Friday night game, amid the unbecoming trash talk emanating from the office of the president of Sacramento State University, referring to his team's opponent as the "Pandas" among other babble, the University of Montana Grizzly football team simply shut off that noise, then made a lot of noise at Hornet Stadium Friday night.

After spotting the Hornets leads of 7-0 and 14-7 in the first quarter, the Griz went on a 35-7 run to overpower Sacramento State 49-35 in what was the final Big Sky Conference clash with the Hornets, who are leaving the conference with aspirations of moving up to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), because, as University President J. Luke Wood put it, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) is merely junior varsity. Not that the NCAA and FBS are rolling out the red carpet for the would-be powerhouse and their "Go Go Offense."

Sacramento State scored a touchdown in the final 15 seconds to make the game look cloer than it was. The Griz were led by Michael Wortham's three touchdown night. Eli Gilman, Evan Shafer and Brooks Davis also added scores. Although his statistics were rather modest, Montana quarterback Keali'i Ah Yat threw three touchdown passes, and the Griz played virtually a penalty-free game. That cannot be said about the mistake-prone Hornets.

The Griz improve to 8-0 and the season and will likely earn a boost from their No. 4 national ranking position, as No. 1 North Dakota State and No. 2 South Dakota meet in Brookings, South Dakota on Saturday night.

The next action for Montana is back to a more normal day and time, Saturday, November 1, 1:00 pm at Weber State.

Congrats to the Griz, who let their game do the talking!