Bob Stitt's firing more evidence of 'cutthroat business'

Montana State’s football team has had three losing seasons in a row and Bobcat fans are happy as heck.

On the other hand, Montana’s football team has had three straight winning seasons and the Grizzlies on Monday fired their head coach.

You know why.

Never ever underestimate the power of the Cat-Griz Game.

The rivalry has always fascinated, even since this small-town sports writer from the Minnesota prairie adopted Big Sky Country as his own nearly 35 years ago. I’ve always admired the personality and passion of the Cat-Griz series. It’s worthy of attention on a year-round basis.

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But Monday’s firing of Grizzly coach Bob Stitt following a 31-23 loss in Bozeman on Saturday seemed to me to be a bit over the top.

And it turns out I’m not the only one who feels that way.

“That’s extremely unusual as far as I’m concerned,” said Dennis Erickson, the famous former Bobcat quarterback and national championship-winning coach. “But college football is changing. Loyalty seems to be one way and one way only.”

Stitt was let go by UM Athletic Director Kent Haslam after three years on the job. His Grizzly teams finished 8-5 (including a 1-1 mark in the playoffs), 6-5 and 7-4. His teams had the misfortune to suffer more than a few injuries to quarterbacks, including this fall when starter Reese Phillips was hurt in the third game of the season, yet were always in playoff contention.

Down to the bitter end.

And that’s what Saturday’s loss was for Grizzly fans.

Just two short years ago, remember, the blue and gold Bobcat fans were just plain blue. That’s because the Grizzlies – Stitt’s first UM team - won 54-35 in Bozeman. It was Montana’s third straight victory over Montana State and so Ash, the winningest Cat coach in program history with an MSU record of 70-38, was cashiered.

We thought it was a reckless decision by Peter Fields, who later was also shown the door by MSU, for Ash was a proven winner.

But he couldn’t beat the Grizzlies very often, with a 2-7 record.

So Ash was gone. His successor, Jeff Choate, has vastly improved the Bobcat defense and running game and deserves much credit for the toughness MSU teams now display. Saturday’s victory was the second for Choate in as many tries against the Grizzlies.

So in spite of a 9-13 overall record, doubtless many Bobcat fans are ready to give Choate a contract extension and raise.

And now Stitt, whose overall record including a highly successful run at NCAA Division II Colorado-Mines is 127-74, is out of a job.

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Who knows about a replacement? Nick Saban or Bill Belichick maybe?

But seriously, the coaching world is quite a business.

Few realize that better than Erickson. A true blue Bobcat, the highly successful head coach wasn’t rejoicing upon hearing the news of Stitt’s dismissal.

“Three years, I don’t quite understand that,” Erickson said Tuesday from his home near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. “Obviously Montana’s had great success. All of a sudden they lose two in a row to the Bobcats, so they fire him? I don’t quite understand it, but it’s none of my business.

“I unfortunately rooted against him on Saturday.”

Fifty years ago, Erickson was a star quarterback for Montana State teams that were in the midst of a six-game winning streak against the Griz.

Montana later drilled the Bobcats 16 years in a row, of course, a streak that coincided with 17 consecutive national playoff berths and a couple of national championships.

“Cat-Griz is a great rivalry with a lot of great coaches,” Erickson said. “And there have been a lot of great coaches who have lost in that game. But I don’t think at Montana or Montana State have I ever seen anything like this.

“But that’s how it is, man. In a lot of places, if you can’t beat the rival (you don’t survive). I’ve always said, the Bobcat-Grizzly Game is more important than the season for a lot of people. Whoever wins that controls the state. Obviously Montana controlled the state for a long time. Now all of a sudden they’ve lost two in a row and whoever the powers that be are not real happy about that.”

Grizzly fans found that out Monday, nearly two years to the day that Bobcat fans became aware of the same thing.

So down came the axe on the head coach.

“Do I like it? No, I don’t think it’s right,” Erickson said. “But I’m more old-school than anybody else.

“And who knows who made the decision? That’s the thing about coaching anymore. You don’t know who makes the decisions to hire and fire. And it’s not just there. It’s a lot of different places. You look around and there are some surprises every year.”

It should be noted that Stitt is in pretty fair company when it comes to Grizzly coaches who were fired. Robin Pflugrad had a 13-7 record in two season when he was fired a few years ago, and both Mike Van Diest and Joe Glenn – who later enjoyed great head-coaching careers – were once let go as assistants.

The Bobcat have also fired their share of highly successful coaches, including Ash, Sonny Lubick, Dave Arnold, Mick Delaney, Mick Dennehy and Mike Kramer.

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Dave Guffey worked for the University of Montana for about 40 years as sports information director and no one alive knows more about the history of Grizzly athletics. He said he considers Bob Stitt a good man.

“He was successful, but not as successful as they expect around here,” Guffey said. “There’s so much pressure, economic pressure, to win games and host playoff games.

“It kind of surprised me, but it’s a cutthroat business.”

In the last 40 years, Grizzly football has fired only three coaches: Larry Donovan, who was 2-4 against the Cats, Pflugrad, for reasons related to an NCAA investigation, and now Stitt.

Pflugrad’s ouster, a dark day in Missoula that also included the firing of popular UM Athletic Director Jim O’Day, remains controversial.

“I thought that was really wrong, myself,” Guffey said of the Pflugrad decision. “This one, you know to lose two years in a row and lose a playoff berth … it impacts the community so much financially, which puts more pressure on a guy like Kent Haslam. But I was still pretty surprised.

“I’m just glad I wouldn’t have to make a decision like that, frankly.”

Isn’t that the truth?

Scott Mansch is Tribune sports columnist and has followed the Cat-Griz rivalry closely since 1983. He can be reached at 791-1481 or smansch@greatfallstribune.com

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