Washington Football: Game-by-game predictions for 2017
By Zach Bigalke
Every season since 2011, the Huskies have featured a home game against a FCS opponent on their schedule. This season, that team will be Montana out of the Big Sky. Last year, Montana broke its three-year FCS playoff streak with a mediocre season. The Grizzlies finished 6-5 overall and went just 3-5 in Big Sky play.
Bob Stitt enters his third year in Missoula at a crossroads. The Grizzlies still have the players to be a conference contender yet again, but would that just mean another early exit from the playoffs? The fact that both preseason Big Sky polls picked Montana to finish sixth in the 13-team league is telling. Stitt has a team unlikely to make many waves at the FCS level.
The teams that have pulled off massive FCS-over-FBS upsets in recent years have been national contenders at the second level. Think Appalachian State over Michigan in 2007, for instance, or North Dakota State’s recent run of top-tier victories. Montana is not that caliber of team, at least not this year.
Prediction: Washington 62, Montana 7 (2-0)
There used to be an annual contest between the two schools during the 1920s and early 1930s. Washington and Montana, though, have not played one another since 1951. In fifteen games against the Huskies, Montana has yet to win dating back to 1923. They’ll be waiting much longer for their chance to take down UW after plummeting in a blowout loss at Husky Stadium.