As seniors depart the Montana Grizzly football team, a new crop of freshmen has been signed to fill in the gaps as the team celebrates a year that saw it reach the second round of the FCS playoffs.

At the Signing Day press conference, head football coach Bobby Hauck had a few words about the season just completed.

“It was just a great season from the win at Washington to the very last play in Virginia,” said Houck. “From coast to coast, there was a lot of great stuff. I'm excited that we're back to competing for it every year now. I think that can be the certainly be the expectation and it is, I think both internally and externally for our team. We just weren't healthy enough. We didn't have enough in the tank to complete the job.”

Sports Information Director for football, Eric Taber provided details of some freshman recruits close to home.

“Two Missoulians to speak up right off the bat,” began Taber. “Obviously Joe Weida, state champion with Missoula Sentinel this year, just a great student athlete who has great hands, and he's got some family ties to the program as well. His dad JC is our head trainer here, so he's been wandering these halls here at the Adams Center for his entire life. So it's great to have him, and then also from Missoula, there’s Ian Fitch from Missoula Hellgate, a nice, big, tall, wide receiver who can really go get the ball and it's nice to have those two kids coming here to Missoula.”

Another promising recruit hails from the Bitterroot.

“You know not too far away we've got others just down the Bitterroot, and that’s Tyson Rostad  from Hamilton,” he said. “Then, up towards Flathead Lake in Polson there’s Bronson Hendrickson, so there’s some real nice local flavor to this year’s signing class.”

With award winning punter Brian Buschini headed through the transfer portal to the University of Nebraska with a full ride scholarship, there’s a need for another talented young punter, as Taber points out.

“One person leaves and another one comes back in, and that’s Patrick Rohrbach from Kalispell’s Glacier High School,” he said. “He is also part of the signing class, and obviously there are other kickers currently on the roster as well. Patrick's a real interesting kid. He's the first player to ever start on the varsity team all four years at Glacier High School, so he’s real talented. Coach Houck referred to him as one of the better kickers he's ever seen in the state. So I think there's a lot of potential with him.”

Click the link to see profiles of the entire freshman signing class as the team stocks up for next season.

The Grizzlies finished the season at 10-3 after losing in the quarterfinals to James Madison.

 

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