West Valley’s Gregorak shines in Montana

The photos were all over my Facebook page from friends and former colleagues, each one basking in the sunlight of a summer Saturday afternoon at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula.

My first reaction, of course, was to ponder whether or not I have too many friends who are University of Montana graduates, but it’s a moot point by now. I’d miss these Grizzly folk.

My second reaction was to seek out the ESPN broadcast of the national kick-off college football game between Montana and four-time FCS champion North Dakota State – the reason these selfie-taking UM alums were back in the Big Sky State.

More than just looking for a shared experience, and more than simply hoping to avoid listening to their first-person re-creation of the game, I was curious about this year’s Grizzlies.

First-year Montana coach Bob Stitt was one reason. The offense Stitt designed during his 14-year tenure at the Colorado School of Mines is one of the most plagiarized playbooks in college football – especially a play he designed called the fly sweep. West Virginia used that play to great success in crushing Clemson, 70-33, in the 2012 Orange Bowl.

By all accounts Saturday, the offense is going to be just fine and a total handful for Eastern Washington when the schools clash Nov. 14 in Missoula.

But what I was most interested in seeing was the Montana defense. Ty Gregorak’s defense.

Gregorak is one of the finest football players West Valley High School has ever produced. A two-time All-State selection who was named to the USA Today All-America team as a senior. In 1996 he was named the Washington State Defensive Player of the Year and Super Prep magazine made him its West Coast Defensive Player of the Year.

He went on to win three letters as a linebacker at Colorado, helping the Buffaloes reach the Aloha Bowl in 1998 and the Insight.com Bowl in 1999.

A long-time assistant coach under Bobby Hauck, then-UM head coach Robin Pflugrad elevated the linebackers’ coach to become the Grizzlies’ defensive coordinator in February 2012. Stitt retained Gregorak in that role when he was hired in December.

Gregorak has produced some exceptional linebackers during his tenure at Montana, including Seattle Seahawks special-teams star Brody Coyle, and his defenses have helped the Griz maintain their long tradition of reaching the FCS playoffs.

I have an admitted soft spot for my fellow WV alums, so investing some time watching the first college football game of the season seemed like a very good idea.

It was time well spent.

Stitt is famous for his dislike of the punt. By comparison, Mike Leach is an arch-conservative on fourth down compared to the new guy in Missoula. The most endangered species at Montana? Punters on scholarship.

Saturday, the Griz went for it on fourth down a half-dozen times – four times on their own half of the field. That kind of a tendency will require two things: 1) treatment for an anal-retentive disorder, and 2) a defensive coordinator with steely nerves and a limitless supply of Tums.

North Dakota State, which had posted a 58-3 record over the past four years, put up 28 points in the first half Saturday. Then added just seven in the final two quarters.

But the real story was told in the final three minutes.

Stalled inside the Bison’s 10 and trailing by a touchdown, 35-28, Stitt opted to kick a field goal and trust his defense could get the stop.

As the Bison huddled on first down, Gregorak made his defensive signals. Ironic or not, the call he made was to stick his fingers by the side of his head. This bull of a man with an intense stare made bison faces at his players. Not cuddly, stuffed souvenir buffalo faces, either. He did everything but snort.

And it worked.

Gregorak’s crew stonewalled, forcing a three-and-out that got Montana the ball on its own 20-yard line for the 16-play game-winning drive that was capped by Joey Counts’ 1-yard run with .06 seconds left.

It says something about the rivalry that Gregorak has never beaten Eastern Washington as the Grizzlies’ defensive coordinator, and I am in no hurry to see him reverse that trend – I am what I like to call a “Double Eagle,” an EWU alum as well as WV.

But it was good to see a West Valley grad shine so brightly on the national stage Saturday.

On West Valley!