He’s Worth Shouting About Dave Dickenson Has Put Up Stunning Numbers With Montana, And Washington State Has Noticed

The last time Dave Dickenson ventured onto the hostile turf of a Division I-A gang, he was the one who did most of the banging.

The 5-foot-11, 175-pound senior quarterback from the University of Montana, came within a whisker of rallying the Division I-AA Grizzlies past heavily favored Oregon back in 1993.

Dickenson was a sophomore at the time and came on in relief of starting quarterback Bert Wilberger to throw for 324 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-30 loss. He also rushed for 77 yards and another touchdown to unseat Wilberger as the starter and launch a career that has since become legendary.

Saturday, at 2 p.m. in Martin Stadium, Dickenson and his Grizzlies teammates will get another chance to test themselves against a Division I defense, when Montana (1-0) meets Washington (0-1) in the Cougars’ home opener.

And Dickenson hopes they all benefit as much as they did the last time they made such a dramatic step up.

“The speed factor was a big change and just the athleticism out there, it was unreal,” Dickenson recalled of the Oregon game in ‘93. “But we made a good showing for ourselves and, even though we lost, I think a lot of us came out of the game feeling good about our team, and we went on to have a real good year.

“That’s the great thing about playing a team like Wazzu. You get a chance to see that combination of speed and strength you probably won’t see again, and I think it helps you later on.”

The Oregon loss was the only one Montana suffered during a remarkable 1993 regular season that saw Dickenson put up some logic-defying numbers prior to the Grizzlies’ 49-48 loss to Delaware in the first round of the I-AA playoffs.

As a sophomore, he completed 262 of 390 passes for 3,640 yards and 32 touchdowns - both school records. He finished the season with a school-record pass-efficiency rating of 168.0 and also rushed for 338 yards and 14 TDs to earn the first of his two consecutive Big Sky Conference offensive most valuable player awards.

Last year, Dickenson missed two games with a lower leg injury, but still threw for 3,053 yards and 24 touchdowns, completing a school-record 68.2 percent of his passes. He finished third in the Walter Payton Trophy voting and was named to several All-American teams.

Operating primarily out of a shotgun formation, Dickenson has used his intelligence, competitiveness, agility and field of vision to overcome his lack of size and strength and mystify opponents.

“He’s just a great quarterback - I mean great,” said WSU coach Mike Price, whose Cougars will try to at least slow Dickenson come Saturday. “He is something special.

“They’ve got quick, fast receivers and a huge offensive line and they sit him back there in the shotgun and he just picks people apart. Dave Dickenson could play for a lot of people at a lot of schools at a lot of levels.

Montana coach Don Read agrees.

“Dave is truly one of the most outstanding college quarterbacks ever,” he said. “When you think about all of the things he can do, it’s uncanny. He really moves around well, he gets rid of the ball quickly, he always throws to the right guy, reads cover - he’s just the whole package.”

But above all, Dickenson is smart.

He carries a 3.88 grade point average in molecular biology and a straight-A in the logic and realties of college football.

He knows the yards won’t come as easily against WSU as they did last Saturday when the Grizzlies beat up on Division-II Eastern New Mexico 41-14.

“We know we’re going to be outmanned athletically,” Dickenson said. “We can play our best game and lose, that’s just the reality of D-I versus D-I Double-A.

“If we’re going to have any chance, we’ve got to pretty much go mistake free and hope Wazzu makes some mistakes. If we battle even-up on turnovers, we’re going to lose.”

Dickenson got his first look at the differences between D-I and D-I-AA football as a true freshman in 1992 when he watched from the Martin Stadium sidelines as WSU overcame seven turnovers to beat the Grizzlies 25-13.

What he saw were huge gaps between the teams in terms of depth, size, speed and strength - especially on the line of scrimmage, where the game was decided.

“They had a lot of talent and seemed like they were always getting penetration on defense and getting into our quarterback’s face,” Dickenson recalled. “I thought our defensive line came out well, but (WSU’s) size eventually started to wear on them.

“That could happen again this year. I just hope we don’t get into a matchup of one-on-one in the trenches or we’re in big trouble.”

Dickenson said he will change his own approach to Saturday’s game only minimally.

“We can’t change too much,” he admitted. “It’s early in the year, first off, and we’ve got to work on stuff that we’re going to do later in the year in our league games.”

It would make a wonderful story line if Dickenson were harboring festering disdain for WSU for not having sent him so much as a letter while he was leading C.M Russell High School to back-to-back 12-0 records and state championships.

But he isn’t.

It’s that reality thing again, it seems.

“I wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school, nor should I have been,” Dickenson admits. “I was small and I didn’t have great arm strength. I understood that and I came to where I thought I could play.

“But since then, my body has matured a little more and I’ve definitely improved.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo