Montana 2000 revisited (Part II)
Appalachian State’s 2000 team traveled to Missoula, Mont., to take on the top-ranked Montana Grizzlies in the Division I-AA (now FCS) semifinals. Here’s what some of the players from that team recall about the game, played on a snowy 28-degree day and won 19-16 in overtime by the Grizzlies:
FIELD CONDITION
Washington-Grizzly Stadium had a natural-grass field at the time, which players said was frozen, slick and hard for the Mountaineers to get a grip on.
“It was hard as a rock, but slippery on top,” said Corey Hall, a defensive back who was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons and now lives near Atlanta.
Daniel Wilcox, a receiver also living in Atlanta who played eight seasons as a tight end in the NFL before being released by the Baltimore Ravens earlier this year, remembered:
“It was like we were on ice skates the whole game. Nobody had any footing. We were slipping all over the place. I slipped the first play and busted my knee wide open and it bled the whole game. That’s how hard the ground was. Everybody was looking at their cleats, trying to figure out how (Montana) was getting more traction than we were.
“The linemen were slipping trying to push off because they couldn’t get traction, we couldn’t get off the ball as fast as we normally would. You couldn’t cut on that stuff. We were all slipping. We had a few big plays, but we couldn’t make enough to put the game away.”
Josh Jeffries, a defensive end now living in Charlotte who played five seasons of Arena Football in Los Angeles, said: “I remember coming in thinking I’d have a pretty good pass rush game but I couldn’t do much on that field. It was awful. It was like having cleats on in the driveway.”
Jerry Moore, the coach of the Mountaineers, remembers the poor footing.
“We spent most of our time pregame looking to see what shoes they were wearing, thinking they would have the right shoes on,” Moore said. “We knew we had the shoes, we just didn’t know if we had the right ones on. We had taken every kind of shoe you can imagine out there.
“Now they have the synthetic turf and you know a little bit more what to wear as footing.”
LARGE MONTANA LINEMEN
“Those boys were big,” Jeffries said. “I remember those offensive linemen. They were 6-6 and 6-7 and all of them had those Grizzly Adams beards. They were big ol’ boys.”
Wilcox said: “Our guys were decent size, but not huge. Their linemen were huge.”
The Grizzlies are still big.
This year’s ASU team that will play at Montana on Saturday in the semifinals will see an offensive line that has starting guards that are 6-7, 305 and 6-7, 320; tackles that are 6-7, 315 and 6-8, 297; and a tight end that is 6-5, 246. Four of the five are seniors.
THE FANS
Washington-Grizzly Stadium seats 25,200 and is renowned for crowd noise. The Grizzlies are 155-20 at their home.
“It was like a bowl-type stadium, and you could see the mountains behind it and the big ‘M’ on the side of the mountain,” Wilcox said. “When we got there, I remember signs all over towns, on the store windows, banners across the road, everybody supporting that team. Those fans supported that team like it was their NFL team. Their fans were like professional fans. It was like it was the only thing they had to do there besides go hunting.
“The fans were absolutely amazing. It was one of the most intense places I’ve ever played at. It was my first experience playing in front of a really disciplined crowd. When their offense was on the field, you could hear a needle drop in the stadium. When their defense was on the field, it was so loud you couldn’t hear the quarterback call the play in the huddle.”
Jeffries said: “That was probably the best atmosphere I experienced in college football, especially at our level. Their fans were sitting right on top of you. It was loud.”
Hall said: “The main difference was that the fans were so close to the sidelines. It felt like the fans were right on top of you. It kind of reminded me of Lambeau Field on a smaller scale.”
THE WEATHER
“I remember hearing, ‘You boys aren’t ready for the cold,’” Jeffries said. “It was cold, the river was frozen so it had to be, but it was a different kind of cold. We were out there in t-shirts and stuff. I don’t think it would have affected us anyway. It was like negative 20 the week before when we practiced in Boone. That was worse. I don’t think the weather was a factor, not like that field was.”
Wilcox said: “Montana was cold, but it was a dry cold and it really didn’t seem as cold as it was in Boone. You get that wind in Boone. Man, that’s cold. It’s ridiculous.”
Wilcox said the Mountaineers should be prepared, but not to make weather an issue.
“I believe that’s why it didn’t bother us,” he said. “We didn’t have that indoor facility then. It was real cold all week. It was freezing. We were in hand warmers, thermals, hoodies under our shoulder pads. We prepared all week in the cold and when we got out there for the game and it wasn’t as cold as it was when we left.”
THE GAME
ASU surged from 10 points behind in the fourth quarter, getting a 40-yard touchdown pass from Joe Burchette to Troy Albea and game-tying field goal in the final 8:28 to force overtime.
The Mountaineers had to settle for a field goal on its overtime possession, and the Grizzlies won with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Drew Miller to Jimmy Farris that just missed being deflected by defender Hall.
Hall and Farris both wound up in the NFL.
“I guess you could say we were literally a couple inches away from playing for a national championship,” Hall said.
“I think about it every now and then. (Farris) ran a fade route and I had good position on him. I won’t make any excuses, but it was slippery, and I guess when I went up to defend the pass it just barely skimmed right over my hand. The guy just made a great catch.”
Wilcox said: “It came down to a perfect throw and a perfect catch. It was a finger-tip pass, beautifully thrown. I think Corey Hall’s fingers were probably an inch off. It was a helluva game.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
“I remember I cried at the end of that game because we knew we had beaten them physically,” Wilcox said. “I feel like we beat them across the board, I didn’t feel they were as physical as we were. But they were fundamentally sound. They didn’t make any mistakes.”
Had ASU won, it would have faced a rematch with Georgia Southern in the championship game in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Mountaineers had lost 34-28 to Georgia Southern in the regular season. Georgia Southern, coached by Paul Johnson, beat Montana 27-25 in the title game in Chattanooga.
“I think we could have won it all,” said Joe Burchette, the Mountaineers’ quarterback in 2000. “We had everything we needed – great receivers, a great offensive line and the defense was as sound as we’ve had.”
Jeffries said: “We had a lot of guys that went on to play pro football while I was there. I don’t feel like we underachieved, I remember we played our butts off in that Montana game, and I feel like if we had won that game we won have won a national championship.
“It’s hard to give Appalachian any advice now on big games. Every team that is left is a great team. It’s just that team that has a little extra, like what happened Saturday (in ASU’s win over Richmond), just calm and collected going down the field and making plays. That’s what a championship team does, on any level, and it’s extremely hard to do.”
Hall said: “It didn’t turn out like we wanted it to, but it was a good experience for all of us to get to go out to Montana. The atmosphere was great, they had great fans. Hopefully this group will go up there this time and get to the championship game.”
FOR MORE: Joe Burchette recalls the 2000 semifinal game at Montana in Friday’s Winston-Salem Journal.