Montana takes on pass-happy SFA

MISSOULA – Stephen F. Austin comes into its Football Championship Subdivision quarterfinal game today against Montana with the top passing offense in the nation.

Quarterback Jeremy Moses has passed for 3,920 yards and 40 touchdowns this season for the Lumberjacks (10-2), who like to go no-huddle.

“They’re an open set, mostly four wide receiver, drop-back throwing team,” Montana coach Bobby Hauck said.

Top seed Montana (12-0) needs to force incompletions to disrupt SFA and run the type of defense it would like.

“If they complete a lot of their passes, we won’t be able to get new personnel into the game because they set up their next play so fast,” said Griz senior safety Shann Schillinger. “If we can keep them from completing passes, we can get new people into the game and mix up our defense.

“We’ve played against no-huddle teams, but nobody that goes as fast as these guys,” said Schillinger, who had a season-high 14 tackles in Montana’s first-round win.

Hauck said the Grizzlies offense needs to do its part, as well.

“We need to move the ball,” he said. “We can’t be three-and-out a bunch and letting their offense back on the field.”

Montana struggled with turnovers in the first half and trailed South Dakota State by 27 points in the third quarter before rallying for a 61-48 victory in the first round of the playoffs last weekend.

SFA is coming off a 44-33 win over Eastern Washington in which Moses passed for 432 yards and four touchdowns, and that was without two key receivers who were out with injuries. Aaron Rhea and Contrevius Parks are expected to return today.

Montana quarterback Andrew Selle has passed for 2,250 yards and 21 touchdowns while sharing playing time with Justin Roper, who has 941 yards passing and eight scores.

Montana likely has an advantage over the Texas team when it comes to crowd noise and the weather. Montana had sold more than 21,000 tickets as of Thursday and the temperature for the 11 a.m. PST kickoff is forecast to be around 20 degrees with a 50 percent chance of snow. Throw in the wind chill and the temperature drops down to single digits.

“I do think the stadium and the crowd will be factors, with us being our first time in 14 years in the playoffs,” SFA coach C.J. Harper said. “It will be an environment not typical for us.”