CEDAR CITY, Utah – The Southern Utah University football team begins its final road trip of 2021 Saturday when it travels to Montana to take on the No. 11 Grizzlies.

GAME #9

Southern Utah at #11 Montana

Date: October 30

Kickoff: Noon MT

TV: ROOT Sports -or- AT&T Sports Net

Live Stats | Southern Utah Notes | Montana Notes

ABOUT MONTANA

Montana enters Saturday's matchup with an overall record of 5-2 and conference record of 2-2. The Grizzlies opened 2021 with a huge victory over nationally-ranked FBS foe Washington before taking down Western Illinois and Cal Poly. Eastern Washington handed Montana its first loss the season, and Sacramento State also took one from the Griz in conference play. Montana won its last game against Idaho, 34-14. Xavier Harris leads the team in rushing yards with 396 while Junior Bergen has three rushing touchdowns. Kris Brown leads the way at quarterback with 771 yards passing and two touchdowns. Defensively, the Griz are led by Robby Hauck who had 67 tackles. Marcus Weinel and Justin Ford have also combined for eight interceptions.

SERIES HISTORY

The Grizzlies lead the all-time series with Southern Utah by a count of 7-2. The two teams last met in 2018 when Montana visited Cedar City and took home a 57-14 victory. The last meeting in Missoula occurred in 2016 with the Griz earning the win by a score of 43-20. Southern Utah's last victory against Montana took place in 2012 when the Thunderbirds went into Missoula and earned a 30-20 win.

LAST TIME OUT

In a hard-fought battle with Northern Colorado, the Southern Utah offense could not produce enough points to lift the Thunderbirds to a victory. Quaid Murray led SUU's defense to its best game of the season by totaling 16 tackles, but the T-Birds ultimately fell, 17-9, after being unable to find the endzone offensively.

NOTES AND QUOTES

-In Southern Utah's game against Northern Colorado, linebacker Quaid Murray recorded a career-high 16 tackles. Murray's previous career high was 13 tackles against Cal Poly in 2018.

-Kicker Noah Alejado had a career night for the Thunderbirds in Saturday's contest with Northern Col- orado. The senior drilled three field goals on the night, including a career-long 39 yarder. The Hawaii native's efforts accounted for all of SUU's scoring on the night.

-All Southern Utah's road games this season are in stretches of two-consecutive away games or more. The T-Birds started the season by traveling to San Jose State, Arizona State and Tarleton State. After two games, SUU visited Sacramento State and Northern Arizona back-to-back. Southern Utah will now depart on its final road trip of the season with games at Montana and Idaho to close out the 2021 road slate.

"Obviously it was another difficult loss. All the guys have put a lot of effort in and continue to work hard, so we just need to have some perspective and stay positive so we can respond. We had a thousand chances out there tonight, but we just didn't play well enough to win the game."

-Head Coach Demario Warren on his team's tight loss against Northern Colorado

"We've got a lot of guys who have been through a lot, and they're never going to stop fighting. That's what I was most proud of tonight. We fell down 24 and cut it to 10 multiple times. We had opportunities but the defense just didn't play well enough for us to be successful tonight. We've got to fix that side of the ball. It's my job to go in there and see what's going on and see how we can get better."

-Warren on his team's fight at Northern Arizona

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