Chase Reynolds signs with the Rams

Its already been a thrilling NFL career for Montana's Chase Reynolds. He's been signed by the Seahawks, cut and then signed by the St. Louis Rams.

The Rams signed Reynolds, who scored 59 touchdowns for the University of Montana from 2008-10, on Wednesday. This is according to a Twitter post from Reynolds' agent, Marc Lillibridge.

Reynolds was signed by the Seahawks last week and appeared in one NFL exhibition game, netting 8 yards on six carries in Seattle's 24-17 win over San Diego Thursday. The Seahawks released him Sunday.

Do you think Montana fans have Taiwan Jones envy?

The Big Sky arms war just got a whole lot crazier

It's official, Nate Montana has transferred from Notre Dame to the University of Montana. It seems that Eastern Washington University and the rest of Big Sky have their own Cuban Missile Crisis in football. The NFL legend's son is surely to bring his dad's skill and coolness to Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Hold on, this might be all a farce, read what ESPN had to say...

It's questionable whether the quarterback would have ever made the roster had his name been Nate Wyoming. But as the son of Joe Montana, he was going to be given a shot. And the Irish were glad to have him last season after he transferred back in from junior college, because Montana was the most experienced quarterback on the roster after Dayne Crist.

Montana played in three games in 2010, going 9-for-18 for 116 yards with an interception. When Crist got hurt against Michigan and Tommy Rees looked nervous and shaky, Montana was the one who had to finish the half.

But once Rees improved and wound up starting and finishing the final four games victoriously, Montana clearly became the odd man out. The Irish brought in highly regarded freshman Everett Golson in this recruiting class and have Andrew Hendrix and Luke Massa from last year's signing class, plus the return of Rees and Crist. Brian Kelly said that there was no way to get six quarterbacks reps in practice and that the group would be thinned. It didn't take a genius to see that Montana needed to find a new home.

Montana fans shouldn't celebrate just yet, because Nate is an unproven commodity. Nothing against the kid, and seriously it will be cool to have the QB have the same name as the state he represents (Should make for some cool photos). Here's what Mick Holien, the godfather for Montana football (and Polson resident), had to say on his blog...

It’s been quite the winter for such drop-down quarterback speculation and the school no doubt will receive quite a degree of national pub for his arrival.

A business school enrollee and a finance major at Notre Dame, Nate will be a junior in eligibility and have two years to play two seasons.

He is described in the Notre Dame Press Guide as “a raw but talented quarterback” who enjoyed his best career outing in the Blue-Gold Spring game where he connected on 18 of 30 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns as the Gold quarterback.

Six-foot 4-inches and 215 pounds, his younger brother, Nick, is a quarterback at the University of Washington.

It’s a good thing he’s a Libra because he needs the strength and creativity of his astrological sign to grow out of the shadow of his famous father and blossom as something other than the son of a four-time Super Bowl and National Championship winning quarterback.

As my good buddy, Charley Mitchell, suggested, maybe the town of Ismay which changed its name to Joe Montana in his honor in 1993, should consider another moniker alteration.

So while Montana has the namesake, EWU had transfer Bo Levi Mitchell. Might I add that Mitchell has pantented "gunslinger" tattoos on his arms. ADVANTAGE: EWU.

Griz fans are awesome

In the final media poll for the FCS, everybody voted for Eastern Washington in first place, except for one person who voted for Delaware in protest of that fourth down spot call. That man was the sports information director for Towson University. Being naturally a little peeved, a good friend of mine sent him an email and got this response:

I am responding to you because you asked me this question in a polite manner. Surprisingly, there are many people have e-mailed me and called me all sorts of names.

Here is my reasoning:

I truly believe that Delaware was beaten by an egregious administrative error by the officials. Mario Brown was clearly short of the first down in the fourth quarter. If the chains had not been moved, I firmly believe that he would have short of the first down and Delaware would have taken over on downs.

Although Eastern Washington won the game, Delaware dominated the first 40 minutes and Delaware dominated the game statistically. If the ball had been spotted correctly, Delaware would have won.

When the ball was spotted erroneously, it seemed like more than the UD defense could handle. They had been on the field for a long time.

I didn’t mean to disrespect Eastern Washington in any way. They won the trophy and they are the national champions. Their impressive come-from-behind rally was outstanding. The fact that it was accomplished against a terrific defense made it even more impressive.

Polls are opinions and not everyone is going to agree.

Enjoy the celebration.

Dan

Dan O'Connell
Associate Director of Athletic Media Relations
Towson University

But it gets better, a whole lot better. Remember when I wrote this little column about how it's dumb when people "root for their conference," well apparently Griz fans didn't get the memo. Here's the rest of Dan's email...

PS – Here is a sampling of some of the other emails I have received:

If you in fact did vote Delaware #1 would you mind elaberating on how or even why? If you missed the box score Eastern Washington 21- Delaware 19 for the National Championship. I would think as a non bias voter you would want to keep some integrity in the results of the poll. If not you should refrain from voting and spare Towson the embarassment.

Bill Solomon CPA
University of Montana Class of 1983

That's right, the bear claws of Griz Nation have descended upon Griz nation, much like they did to me when I wrote less than favorable columns about the University of Montana. Its crazy and awesome how Griz fans will go to bat for EWU over something as silly as a media poll. My hat is tipped to you Griz fans!

Eastern Washington featured in Sports Illustrated

When I first heard that Eastern Washington University was going to be installing red turf, I thought it was the coolest idea ever.

The reason being that I knew that tiny Eastern Washington would get national exposure for really doing nothing.

And sure enough that's what is happening.

The first big splash made by the red turf was the first game ever played on it. The rival Montana Grizzlies came into Cheney and became the first victims of "The Inferno." We of course were there to document the historic event.

A few weeks later the red turf gained national exposure on ESPN during the Boise State vs. Oregon State primetime game in September. If you missed the feature on the red turf, or want to watch it again, you still can by going here.

Now the red turf of The Inferno is at it again. Each week Sports Illustrated has a feature called "Leading Off: Pictures of the Week." In this section the magazine runs a number of photos from the week in sports.

This week picture number one is the Eastern Washington Eagles on the red turf against North Dakota State from this past weekend. (I didn't run the photo as I didn't have permission too, but check it out, it's pretty darn sweet)

The photo that did run is one that I snapped when we were over in Cheney for the Montana game.

Basically this has been just a dream season for the Eastern Washington University football program. A great team that wins at home on the red turf, national exposure for the program and an ever growing fan base.

The Eagles are currently 7-0 on The Inferno. And hopefully this Friday evening when Villanova comes to town the Red Turf will claim another victim and send the Eagles to their first ever National Championship game. By the way, the game is on ESPN2 which means more national exposure.

Many people say that they "bleed" their school colors. Well at Just South of North that statement is absolutely true. Around here we bleed red. But not just any red, Inferno Red.

Missoula's economy completely shattered by Griz not making the playoffs

People in Missoula can't be happy about the Griz missing the playoffs for a reason more than just pride.

MISSOULA - The Griz football team is not in the playoffs for the first time in 18 years and according to University of Montana Athletic Director Jim O'Day, the greatest financial impact is not on the university, but rather on the community.

He says each playoff game is worth about $30,000 and the money goes into the UM's athletic fund. But this year the university won't have the cash while the community won't see as much business from those coming to watch the games.

"We get a lot of fans that come into town for a game. I know during the regular season the numbers that are showing out there are usually between five and seven million coming into the community on a Grizzly home football game," O'Day told us.

He added that when fans come into town some of them go to the game, others go shopping, go out to eat or find other things to do in Missoula.

It makes sense. In a city of 100,000 people, having 25,000 more people milling about for a football game is definitely a big boost to the local economy. If you consider that a large amount of people that have Griz season tickets live outside of the county, and the fans of the other team and Missoula is missing out on a whole lot of cash.

Montana makes the right choice

The University of Montana made the right choice, announcing today that they'll be staying in the Big Sky Conference. They flirted with the WAC and that was the big elephant in the room during this season, but it was promptly shoved out the door as the Grizzlies put them in a spot where it will be very difficult to win their 12th straight conference championship. It makes the most sense that they stay in the FCS as they'll continue to compete for national titles and always be in the playoffs.

Had they made the choice to move to the WAC, they would have relegated their program to obscurity. Even in the second-tier FCS, fans come to Washington-Grizzly Stadium knows that they're watching a team that has a very good shot at being the best in the nation for their class. If they went to FBS, even if their team was good they'd be reduced to hoping for a berth in the PapaJohn's Bowl against the eighth-best team from the Sun Belt Conference. Even if everything went well and they were the next Boise State... well look how the Broncos are dropping in the BCS rankings...

It's not likely they'd even be the next Boise State. While Boise actually has a rather large metro area of over a half million people, Missoula has a metro-area of 100,000. That's perfect for the FCS, and they get the job done with fan support. However, the corporate money would be significantly lower than most of their FBS counterparts. Heck, just look at the issues WSU is having and the Cougars have the Spokane metro area to draw from. You need corporate money to expand. You need rich alumni or boosters (read:Oregon) and you need fans to show up regardless.

Over half of Montana's season ticket base is outside of Missoula County, so that sold out stadium might dwindle if the team is no longer competing for national championships. In fact, you can count on it. Only the most delusional marketing rep would tell you otherwise. It's easy to sell out when you're winning, not so much when you're not.

Throw in the MSU rivalry and the Big Sky is just the right choice. Hands down.

The fall of Montana football

With Eastern and Montana State sitting in the drivers seat for at least co-champions of the Big Sky, Montana is on the outside looking in.

Their streak of Big Sky Conference championships will most likely come to an end. And because of that the athletic department of the University of Montana is in complete turmoil.

Checkout this footage from the closed door meeting they recently had:

Where the hell is Portland State playing?

Watching the Griz game last night, I noticed that even though they were on the road against Portland State, they weren't playing at the familiar PGE park. What the heck is going on I thought, it looks like they're playing on a high school field.

(I also wondered why Montana's uniforms looked so bad and tried to adjust the TV, then I realized that's just normal)

Come to find out, Portland State is actually playing at a high school field. PGE Park is getting renovated for the upcoming MLS team it will be hosting (it will be nice to have the Sounders beat them again and again), and Portland State had to move their football games to Hillsboro stadium, 20 miles from downtown. It has a capacity of over 7,000 and hosts high school and lower division college games. It was also built in 1999.

I saw one main grandstand, one endzone stand and a bunch of kids in the adjacent field playing football while the game was going on. It was really like a high school game!

Oh, and the Griz won on a last second field goal and are tied with EWU for first place in the Big Sky Conference. Boo.

Big Sky Standings

This brought a tear to my eye. The way the Big Sky should be.

Eastern Washington on the top.

And oh look. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down there at the bottom. Montana.

Respect the Red.

My big statement before the big game

Ladies and gentlemen of Eastern Washington,

In just a few short hours, our boys in red will take the field against the Montana Grizzlies of Missoula with the rights to the Big Sky Championship on the line. It's the umpteenth time that these teams have faced off and it's been a big deal.

However, I must inform you all that this will be the first year that I will not bash the state of Montana in an article. I'm sorry. But I live in the state of Montana now, and I must say it's actually a pretty cool state.

Was I wrong about Montana? No. It seems like there's a person getting eaten by a grizzly bear every week. The internet here is in the 1995 stages and I have to get it from a Verizon Wireless card and it takes me 30 minutes to download a YouTube clip. My neighbor has a cowbell on his truck. You're more likely to get struck by lightning then find cell phone reception.

But does that make it a bad place? No it rocks. The people here rock. The scenery here rocks and the nightlife is absolutely freakin' hilarious. However... while I tip my cap to the state of Montana, Griz fans will not get such a kind gesture.

I still find your football team to be unbearable. I find your new uniforms the worst things to happen to football since Boise State's new uniforms. I'm getting sick of your talking about going to the WAC and sucking for 20 years. I can't wait for the Eastern Washington Eagles to hand you your jockstrap on the red turf.

As far as I'm concerned, Montana is a great land spoiled by the eyesore of hippies and intellectuals in Missoula. This Saturday I'll be the only one wearing a red EWU jersey and I'll probably get some good natured ribbing from the Griz fans at the bar. But you know what? Instead of those pathetic forum trolls that scoured the The Easterner website years ago and told a 21-year old kid he should go procreate himself, these fans might buy me a drink. You know why? Cause it's sports and it's fun. 99 percent of fans get that. The other one percent live with their mother. Too bad some of them just can't get that through their head.

Now if you'll excuse me... GO EAGS!

EWU sells out Griz game tickets in 23 minutes

It didn't take long for EWU to sell out their game against Montana, which along with being a home away from home game for the Griz faithful, it is also the first time the school will unveil its red turf.

23 Minutes. That's all it took.

Griz cornerback likes to bite

Things aren't going so good for Griz cornerback Jimmy Wilson. He just got cleared to play for Montana again after getting murder charges dropped. Then this happens...

University of Montana football player Jimmy Wilson pleaded not guilty Tuesday to allegations that he bit a woman's leg, responding to the misdemeanor charge one year after jurors in Southern California acquitted him on murder charges.

The allegations prompted UM officials to suspend the standout cornerback indefinitely from football practice.

Wilson, 24, was cleared by the NCAA last month to play this fall for the Griz, where he starred from 2004-06. He was arrested for the murder of Kevin Smoot in June 2007, and spent the next two years in prison before eventually being acquitted in a second jury trial. The first trial ended in a hung jury.

I'm not sure exactly how you get into the business of biting someone's leg after you have murder charges hanging over you so either this is a big mistake, or Jimmy Wilson loves biting things. I dunno.

My guess is that you probably wont see Wilson suit up for the Griz this year.

Miami extends former Griz players' contract

The Miami Dolphins just extended the contract of former University of Montana kicker Dan Carpenter. The new three-year deal will be worth $6 million.

It comes on the heels of Carpenter's first Pro Bowl selection in just his second year in the league. The 24-year-old made 25-of-28 field goals and all but one of his 38 extra point attempts in 2009.

Carpenter has been Miami's full-time kicker the past two seasons.

UCLA WR transfers to Montana

And the rest of the Big Sky Conference thinks to themselves "oh crap."

MISSOULA — UCLA wide receiver Antwan Moutra is transferring to Montana.

First-year Grizzlies coach Robin Pflugrad offered Moutra a scholarship when Pflugrad was an assistant at Oregon.

Moutra’s high school coach, Greg Goodyear, said Pflugrad told Moutra he had a chance to play the slot position on the right and could catch 50 to 80 passes.

Goodyear said Moutra liked the college-town atmosphere of Missoula and how the fans embrace the team.

I'm not one to freak out over the chances of my Eagles, but EWU gets transfers from places like SMU. Montana? Freakin' UCLA. When is Lebron James going to become a Griz and announce it on TV?

Football Championship Subdivision playoffs: Quarterfinals

Despite the fact that there was no Eastern Washington football today, the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs are still going on. And there was some crazy games.

Mainly the Appalachian State and Richmond game.

These two teams have won the last four FCS titles. Appalachian State claimed the crown in 2005, 2006 and 2007. In 2008 the Richmond Spiders beat Montana.

Two powerhouses, only one could advance this year. And they didn't disappoint.

Richmond scored first with a touchdown. Appalachian State answered back with one of their own. Richmond eventually spread their lead to 24-14 in the early 4th quarter.

Appalachian State would come back with 14 unanswered to go up 28-24 with 4:27 remaining in the game.

But Richmond proved why they were the champs last year as they fought back to take the lead 31-28 with just 3:26 to go.

But sadly for the Spiders that was 3:16 too long.

The Mountaineers of Appalachian State stormed down the field and capped a 70 yard drive with a 4 yard touchdown pass from Armanti Edwards to Matt Cline. After an extra point, Appalachian State lead 35-31. And that's where the score remained. It was an amazing finish.

But this means that there will be no repeat champion this year. Someone new will emerge for the 2009 season. Here's the scores from the other three games:

Montana - 51
Stephen F. Austin - 0

William & Mary - 24
Southern Illinois - 3

Villanova - 46
New Hampshire -7

Needless to say, these other three games were less than close and were pretty much poundings. Nothing worth reporting other than they weren't even close.

Here's how the Semifinals shape up:

Appalachian State (11-2) at Montana (13-0)

William & Mary (11-2) at Villanova (12-1)

Football Championship Subdivision playoffs

Yes, the Eagles lost. And that was sad. Very sad.

And Montana won. That was even sadder.

Yet, since you can't find a lot of information on the FCS playoffs here's how the weekend panned out:

Montana over South Dakota State: 61-48

Stephen F. Austin over Eastern Washington: 44-33

Richmond over Elon: 16-13

Appalachian State over SC State: 20-13

Villanova over Holy Cross: 38-28

New Hampshire over McNeese State: 49-13

Southern Illinois over Eastern Illinois: 48-7

William and Mary over Weber State: 38-0

That means that the Quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs, on December 5th, look like this:

Stephen F. Austin at Montana

Appalachian State at Richmond

New Hampshire at Villanova

William and Mary at Southern Illinois

You can find a printable bracket here.

Big Sky in the FCS Playoffs live updates

Today marks the start of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.

Three teams representing the Big Sky Conference are in it. We'll keep you posted on how they do. And you can follow the Eastern game via Brandon's Twitter at this link.

Weber State

Final - William and Mary 38, Weber State 0

Montana

Final- Montana 61, South Dakota State 48 (Montana scored 41 unanswered to win)

Eastern Washington

Final -Stephen F. Austin 44, Eastern Washington 33

We'll have a complete FCS playoff picture results later today.

Video Bites: Washington State Riots

The November 27th edition of the JustSON Video Bites.

Casey's in a tree.

Brandon's in Montana.

Oh those silly Northern Rangers.

Check out our YouTube Channel. And please subscribe!

The JustSON Video Bites happen every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. So tune back in!

Video Bites: Apple Cup Jokes

More Apple Cup jokes:
http://www.huskyfan.com/wsu.html

Eastern Washington University:
http://www.goeags.com

Gonzaga Basketball:
http://www.gozags.com

Why I must root for Montana

This week the Eastern Washington football program found out that the NCAA had lifted the post season ban on the Eagles. That's great, but as of right now EWU sits in fourth place in the Big Sky Conference with a 4-2 conference record.

Those two losses came against Montana (thanks to the refs) and Weber State (thanks to EWU forgetting they had a game to play). And because of those loses the best Eastern can hope for is an at large bid into the 16 team FCS playoff.

Montana currently sits in first with a 4-0 conference record and has a firm grip on the Big Sky Championship.

In second was is Weber State with a 5-1 conference record. That one loss came against Montana State.

Sitting in third place is Northern Arizona with a 4-1 conference record. Their loss came at the hands of non other than Montana.

Now comes the fun part and why I must go against every fiber of my being and root for the Montana Grizzlies.

If the Eagles and do their part and win out, then they would finish with a 6-2 conference record and an 8-3 overall record. Their other loss came from then ranked #10 California. But that won't be good enough for a Big Sky Championship. However, it would give Northern Arizona at least another conference loss.

However, this weekend Weber State meets Montana. And I will be rooting that Montana will take down the Wildcats. This would drop Weber State to 5-2.

And on November 14, Weber State and Northern Arizona will meet. Guaranteeing that one of these teams will get another conference loss. Which would mean that if everything above happened, Montana would win the Big Sky, and either Weber State or Northern Arizona would have three losses. The other team might only have two losses which would be what Eastern had as well.

If you aren't confused by all this, then what it means is that Eastern would be tied for 2nd in the Big Sky and if they were ranked high enough in the standings, they would get the "at large" bid for the playoffs.

So tomorrow, I will root for the Griz in a hope that they win the Big Sky and can get Weber State a loss.

Oh, and I will root that Eastern wins out. The Northern Rangers will be at Qwest Field tomorrow in our EWU jerseys and cheering louder than ever.

GO EAGLES!!!!