Montana plays Furman for Division I-AA championship

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- After Montana lost to Georgia Southern in the I-AA national championship game a year ago, the Grizzlies vowed to return for another try.

Instead of another shot at Georgia Southern today, Montana (14-1) faces Furman (12-2), which ousted Georgia Southern from the playoffs last week.

"A year ago we came up a little bit short against Georgia Southern. That served as a huge motivational factor," Montana coach Joe Glenn said. "We started working in January, and it became a mission for 12 seniors to lead this team back to Chattanooga."

Montana has made it to the playoffs the last nine years and has played in four title games, winning it in 1995 over Marshall.

Last year, Furman was just trying to get to the Scenic City.

The Paladins were beaten by Hofstra in the first round, and they began this season with the defeat in mind.

"We've worked extremely hard to get here. In fact, we began talking about it after the Hofstra game last year," Furman coach Bobby Johnson said. "We not only wanted to get here, but to win it as well."

The game could be Johnson's last as head coach at Furman. He is a leading candidate to replace Woody Widenhofer at Vanderbilt.

Furman's route to the title game was not easy. The Paladins entered the playoffs as an at-large team and won in the first and second rounds before facing Georgia Southern, a six-time national champion.

Furman had lost to Georgia Southern earlier in the year but pulled off the 24-17 upset last weekend.

And the Paladins did that without leading rusher and Southern Conference Offensive Player of the Year Louis Ivory. The senior sprained a ligament in his left knee on Dec. 1 but has been cleared to play today.

"It has been hard at the beginning of each game. The toughest part is that you don't know if there's going to be a next week," he said.

High-octane offenses

The game matches two potent offenses averaging about 34 points apiece.

Montana, which has dominated its last three opponents, relies first on passing.

Montana quarterback John Edwards has passed for 2,604 yards and 14 touchdowns, but the Grizzlies' running game is just as dangerous.

Edwards ran for a career-high 111 yards and two touchdowns in Montana's 38-0 win over Northern Illinois last week.

Montana halfback Yohance Humphrey also ran for two TDs last week and needs just 41 yards to reach 2,000 yards for the season. He's also the second-leading receiver on the team, which likes to use screen passes.

Montana doesn't expect Furman's defense to be tricky, just tough.

"This team is as vanilla as any team we've played all year," Montana coach Joe Glenn said. "That tells you they've got the best athletes we've faced."

Furman's offense is centered on Ivory and uses the option with quarterback Billy Napier, who has passed for 2,154 yards and 13 touchdowns this season.

Being in the Big Sky Conference, Montana doesn't see much option while playing defense.

"We try to establish the run but Montana gives a lot of different looks on defense," Napier said. "We go through that every week. Each week someone tries to come up with a new way to stop our offense."