Story by
Daily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont.
Wildcat in the Wildcat
- Story byDaily Inter Lake, Kalispell, Mont.
- Wildcat in the Wildcat
Among the large supporting cast that saw action for the No. 3 Montana Grizzlies Saturday, in their 45-10 win over Drake, was one Cody Schweikert — and he came dangerously close to his first collegiate touchdown.
The 6-foot-3, 217-pound junior out of Columbia Falls got the call in, fittingly, Wildcat formation from the Drake 9-yard line and found a lane, then trucked a tackler at the 2. He went down at the 1, and Dylan Paine scored his first Grizzly TD on the next play with 1:27 left in the game.
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Schweikert's totals: two carries, 10 yards — with an 8-yard gain in the first half called back by holding.
"Cody's growing and it was good to see him get in and get some game action," Montana coach Bobby Kennedy said. "He has got to continue to improve but, yeah, he's a guy we can use and have confidence in.
"It's not easy sometimes being the second or third quarterback because a lot of times you don't get as many reps. But we've had him in those situations in practice."
Bulldog Tough
Kennedy was pleased with a defense that, other than a 67-yard strike from Riley Warzynski to Willis Nofsinger, held up well against Drake's tempo.
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"We thought they were going to present a real challenge for us because we went afrom last week, a team (Southern Utah) that pounded the ball, grind it out, to this week spread it out. I was really pleased with the defense. I think we only gave up one explosive play which I was worried about during the week."
Take away that big-hitter and Drake 234 yards of total offense on 84 plays.
"I think to replicate our offense is hard," Bulldogs coach Matt Walker said. "I think that first drive you saw some of that; we got a blown coverage due to some switch-release stuff at the line of scrimmage. I think it was a clear day of them settling in a little bit to our tempo.
"But we were off and running, weren't we? Did we take the lead? Holy crap. ... Got ugly after that."
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Walker went onto to say half of Warzynski's passes — he threw 60 — were run calls that he switched out of. Montana's front four and man-to-man pass defense dictated it.
"I don't know what the average fan or naked eye saw, but within the system I thought (Warzynski) played great," Walker said. "Against a good opponent. Every throw was challenged and he was under pressure all day."
Valley Participation
Besides Schweikert, running back Fynn Ridgeway saw action on special teams for the Grizzlies, as did fellow Whitefish product Ryder Barinowski. Barinowski sent all eight of his kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks. Glacier High product Isaac Keim saw action as well.
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Sixty-eight Griz saw the field on Saturday, including No. 2 quarterback Luke Flowers in the fourth quarter. He missed on his only pass attempt.
Back-to-Back, Almost
Over in Bozeman, top-ranked Montana State had its own lopsided win against the Butler Bulldogs, 51-24.
The score was 23-3 Bobcats when freshman Garter Dahlke blocked a Butler punt — which would have been two in two games for MSU, but an illegal substitution penalty on the Cats negated it.
On the re-boot, Taco Dowler tore off a 37-yard return to the Butler 40-yard line. But on that play, his twin Caden Dowler was injured and left the game. He showed up in the second with a large brace on his right leg.
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To start the second half MSU drove 75 yards for a touchdown, and 74 of those yards went to Taco Dowler on passes of 20, 34 and 20 yards. His TD made it 37-3, and Brent Vigen was asked if one brother took inspiration for the other's injury.
"Anytime a guy of that magnitude goes down, and certainly Caden has had a rough history of things," Vigen began. "If there was inspiration or whatever, I imagine there was."
Caden Dowler, a senior safety, is the reigning Big Sky defensive player of the year, and 2025 was his first truly healthy season at MSU — though he was injured in the FCS playoffs.
Vigen couldn't say how serious this injury was but felt it wasn't season-ending and that, "I'm encouraged by the initial prognosis."
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Jabez to the House
Montana State's school record 16 th straight win, played in front of a Gold Rush crowd of 22,277 Bobcat Stadium, turned on another special teams play: a 100-yard kickoff by Jabez Woods.
It was 3-3 after a Butler field goal when the junior broke loose for his first kick return touchdown.
"We were just focusing on everybody knowing their assignment, knowing their one-eleventh," Woods said. "Throughout the week we were just saying, this could be the game where we get one. And I guess we just kept harping on it.
"I saw the ball floating and it was right in my hands. I knew I had to do something with it."
MSU's last loss came, oddly enough, in the 2025 Gold Rush game to South Dakota State.
