Has there ever been a better time for University of Montana Griz football faithful to watch the NFL pre-season? A number of former players have made the most of their opportunity to display their ability in the run-up to regular season play.
I must admit I rarely watch a down of pre-season football and am not enthralled with the professional game. That’s probably heresy, but it’s about needing to be removed from football for a time on Sunday before heading back into another week of relishing the collegiate game.
But things just might be different this season with more former UM players than I can remember at one time vying for regular-season professional playing time.
What is most striking about this group is I’m not too sure that playing at the next level after college was on their bucket list when they ventured on to the Missoula campus.
And while this new gang of players has a ways to go to before they cash a regular-season check, the way they have approached the possibility reminds one of an undersized Big Timber kid who wasn’t even recruited by UM coaches out of high school.
But when Tim Hauck finished his career with three consecutive Golden Helmet awards as the team’s best tackler – thus his nickname “Hitter,” – back-to-back defensive league MVP awards and consensus All-American status, he made the most of a 1990 free agent contract with Philadelphia, outworked and out-performed his more highly heralded teammates and enjoyed a 13-year NFL career before retiring and joining the UM coaching staff.
Born, of course, in Butte, Tim Hauck is the bellwether for over achievement.
His legacy, however, is being carried forward, possibly even enhanced, by the likes of such small-town Montanans as Colt Anderson of Butte, Tuff Harris of Colstrip, Marc Mariani of Havre, Steve Pfahler of Frenchtown and Shann Schillinger of Baker.
And don’t forget Lex Hilliard of Kalispell and Dan Carpenter of Helena, who are cashing in with Miami and Kroy Biermann, who is owning opponents off the edge at Atlanta and drawing rave reviews from people like Troy Aikman.
It should not surprise you at all that Biermann was a premier wrestler in high school who was 26-1 one season, posted a 3.8 GPA and majored in business; Schillinger, who was a part of high school football teams that lost just once in four years, was bound for a career in teaching and coaching following his uncle Don, a former UM running back and his dad Jim. Mariani, a tennis star who ran 4.49 but didn’t compete in track, didn’t even make the press guide since he was a walk-on. Nor did Harris, a state-champion sprinter. Pfahler, although a prominent tight end on teams that went 25-6 his final three years, was a most impressive javelin thrower (210-11) and a four-year hoop letterman who initially pursued a degree in exercise science.
For a state with a small population, that’s quite an impressive group that will set their own standard for achievement in sports and life as they did on the University of Montana campus where, for most, I’m not so sure their dreams and aspirations included playing on Sunday.