No. 8 Montana returns to the road and faces Cal Poly for the first time since 2018

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – The No. 8 Montana Grizzlies face their fourth road game of the season as UM travels west to San Luis Obispo to take on Cal Poly on Saturday.

It comes a week after Montana posted a shutout against Northern Colorado to improve to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in Big Sky Conference play.

“If we want to win football games, especially on the road in today’s college football, that’s what we have to do,” UM senior safety Jaxon Lee said. “So I just have to get better and progress every week.”

Cal Poly enters this contest at 2-5 and 1-3 in Big Sky play, with its only league win also coming over Northern Colorado.

The Mustangs had a bye last week and lost a close road game at Idaho the week before, showing they are a team that is better than their record but statistically in the bottom half of the Big Sky in most categories ranked.

“They did a good job there and came up just short,” said UM head coach Bobby Hauck. “You know, they're extremely well-coached offensively, defensively and special teams.

“Head coach (Paul Wulff) knows what he’s doing. It is always very difficult to plan and beat them. So we have our hands full getting back down there.”

For the Grizzlies — who haven't been to San Luis Obispo since 2018 — they will have to complete their longest road trips of the season back-to-back, which brings its own challenges at this point in the season.

“It's a little easier when you play day games,” Hauck said, with Saturday's game scheduled for 3 p.m. Mountain Time. “You know, just the lack of sleep is hard. The journey takes its toll, a bit like any other. It's a business trip. So business travelers will tell you it takes its toll, but day games make it a little easier.”

Not to mention some of the benefits Cal Poly could have from the extra week to prepare for Montana during last week's bye.

“Depends on how they use their open appointment, but just in terms of the hours they have to study and the number of exercises, they have the opportunity to have a little more complex game plan in all three phases because they have more “Have practice.” Time to implement it,” said Hauck.

“I don’t know how they approached it, but you see a lot of new things and a much bigger plan in terms of what you need to deal with.”

So the Griz hit the road again, sitting in eighth place in the FCS and looking to win their third game in a row before two home games are next and November is officially here.

“I think we're finding ourselves a little bit and adjusting to where we need to be and I think we just need to figure out who we are and what we need to do to prevent teams from putting up big numbers against us “Set up.” Lee said.