Verlanic Brings Family Ties to Cat-Griz Game
11/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jim Verlanic remembers as if it were yesterday the Saturday drive he and his father took on a November morning five years ago.
"Dad and I drove over to Missoula for that game in 2002," Verlanic says, his serious demeanor instantaneously shattered by an electric smile. "We watched Travis (Lulay, MSU's all-time quarterback, who was a freshman that year) roll up and down the field. It was a great day."
Verlanic, like his father Ken before him, plays for the Bobcats. A junior from Anaconda, he has started every game at center for the Bobcats this year. And like so many Montanans this week, Saturday's 107th Bobcat-Grizzly clash is much more than a football game. It's about tradition and friendships, it's about hometowns and alma maters. And it's about family.
"It was a big deal," Verlanic says of growing up in a Bobcat family. Ken graduated from Montana State, and played on the 1976 National Championship squad, and Jim's uncle Mike Tocher also played at MSU. Jim's mother Teresa didn't graduate from MSU, but remains a die-hard Bobcat. "I'm a Bobcat through-and-though."
This year's contest pits the Bobcats against a Grizzly team seeking its second perfect regular season in the past dozen years, and one which seems poised for a deep playoff run. Mobile quarterback Cole Bergquist, who has proven deadly inside the opponent 20-yard line and late in games, leads an efficient offense that leans heavy on a power running game. Lex Hilliard and Thomas Brooks-Fletcher combine to form a battering-ram tandem in the backfield. Dominant defensive end Kroy Biermann, who has registered 16 quarterback sacks this season, is a candidate for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented to the FCS' top defensive player each year, and he leads a ferocious front seven.
November has been a trying month for first-year head coach Rob Ash. A plague of injuries descended on the program, leaving several All-Big Sky caliber defensive players (linebacker Epikopo King, linebacker Chase Gazzerro, cornerback Kory Austin and defensive tackle Chris Kolone) watching the past few games in street clothes. The offense has undergone a similar transformation, with six projected starters in June lost for the season for varying reasons.
With young players forced into the void, MSU stemmed the tide of a two-game losing streak with an emotional and stunning 50-36 win at Portland State last Saturday. Jack Rolovich threw for nearly 300 yards and the Bobcat defense, so productive during MSU's 5-2 start, stepped up in a big way. "How many games do you allow 36 points and 400 yards and feel good about the defense?" Rob Ash asked rhetorically after the game, but he was right. Cornerback Michael Beach romped across PGE Park's artificial turf much of the afternoon, scoring one touchdown and setting up another on interception returns.
That win in the old ballpark in downtown Portland went a long way toward restoring the confidence that flowed through the Bobcat program early in the season, Ash said. "You want to think that winning or losing one game doesn't change how you feel about your team and how you feel about your teammates, but that win really helped us," he said. "You could see it in the kids' demeanor after the game. It was a good win."
As Ash braces for the culmination of his first Cat-Griz week, he acknowledges the significance of the event and his status as a newcomer. "I can't really say that I've been involved in a game that really resonates across an entire state like this one," he says. "I grew up around the Iowa-Iowa State game, and that's similar, and certainly I've coached in a lot of big games. The Drake-Dayton game decided our conference championship for 15 years, and I think in terms of what happens on the field that is very similar. But this game is unique."
One of Saturday's keys stands to be the play of Montana State's offensive line, for which Verlanic serves as the fulcrum. Left tackle Peder Jensen is the only senior in the group, and until Mike Person went down with a season-ending knee injury was the only starting offensive lineman from outside Montana. Guards Jeff Hansen (Great Falls) and Chris Smith (Laurel) and tackle Jeff Miller (Pocatello, Idaho) join Verlanic and Jensen up front.
Verlanic typifies the intelligence and tenacity of MSU's offensive line. A Cell Biology major with plans on medical school, Verlanic was recently named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Region VII (along with tight end Elliott Barnhart, another starter unlikely to play because of injury). He started a couple of games as a freshman last year before being replaced, but his determination to return to the lineup as a junior this year allowed the Bobcats to move Hansen back to guard, where he has played at an all-league level.
The Cat-Griz game's unique nature stems from many things, but at its core is the human relationships the contest touches. "I think this game personally touches every person in the state," says MSU Senior Associate Athletic Director Dan Davies, who played for the Bobcats and whose wife, Jan, was a Grizzly cheerleader. "In that way, it's so important to so many people."
It's that importance that led the Verlanics to take a Saturday drive west on I-90 five years ago, and which led Jim Verlanic to make the trip a few hours the other way on that same road when it came time to choose a college. And it's that importance that will lead thousands of people to gather across the world at satellite parties to cheer for his or her team.
And, as with the Verlanics, it almost always comes back to family.
"Dad and I drove over to Missoula for that game in 2002," Verlanic says, his serious demeanor instantaneously shattered by an electric smile. "We watched Travis (Lulay, MSU's all-time quarterback, who was a freshman that year) roll up and down the field. It was a great day."
Verlanic, like his father Ken before him, plays for the Bobcats. A junior from Anaconda, he has started every game at center for the Bobcats this year. And like so many Montanans this week, Saturday's 107th Bobcat-Grizzly clash is much more than a football game. It's about tradition and friendships, it's about hometowns and alma maters. And it's about family.
"It was a big deal," Verlanic says of growing up in a Bobcat family. Ken graduated from Montana State, and played on the 1976 National Championship squad, and Jim's uncle Mike Tocher also played at MSU. Jim's mother Teresa didn't graduate from MSU, but remains a die-hard Bobcat. "I'm a Bobcat through-and-though."
This year's contest pits the Bobcats against a Grizzly team seeking its second perfect regular season in the past dozen years, and one which seems poised for a deep playoff run. Mobile quarterback Cole Bergquist, who has proven deadly inside the opponent 20-yard line and late in games, leads an efficient offense that leans heavy on a power running game. Lex Hilliard and Thomas Brooks-Fletcher combine to form a battering-ram tandem in the backfield. Dominant defensive end Kroy Biermann, who has registered 16 quarterback sacks this season, is a candidate for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented to the FCS' top defensive player each year, and he leads a ferocious front seven.
November has been a trying month for first-year head coach Rob Ash. A plague of injuries descended on the program, leaving several All-Big Sky caliber defensive players (linebacker Epikopo King, linebacker Chase Gazzerro, cornerback Kory Austin and defensive tackle Chris Kolone) watching the past few games in street clothes. The offense has undergone a similar transformation, with six projected starters in June lost for the season for varying reasons.
With young players forced into the void, MSU stemmed the tide of a two-game losing streak with an emotional and stunning 50-36 win at Portland State last Saturday. Jack Rolovich threw for nearly 300 yards and the Bobcat defense, so productive during MSU's 5-2 start, stepped up in a big way. "How many games do you allow 36 points and 400 yards and feel good about the defense?" Rob Ash asked rhetorically after the game, but he was right. Cornerback Michael Beach romped across PGE Park's artificial turf much of the afternoon, scoring one touchdown and setting up another on interception returns.
That win in the old ballpark in downtown Portland went a long way toward restoring the confidence that flowed through the Bobcat program early in the season, Ash said. "You want to think that winning or losing one game doesn't change how you feel about your team and how you feel about your teammates, but that win really helped us," he said. "You could see it in the kids' demeanor after the game. It was a good win."
As Ash braces for the culmination of his first Cat-Griz week, he acknowledges the significance of the event and his status as a newcomer. "I can't really say that I've been involved in a game that really resonates across an entire state like this one," he says. "I grew up around the Iowa-Iowa State game, and that's similar, and certainly I've coached in a lot of big games. The Drake-Dayton game decided our conference championship for 15 years, and I think in terms of what happens on the field that is very similar. But this game is unique."
One of Saturday's keys stands to be the play of Montana State's offensive line, for which Verlanic serves as the fulcrum. Left tackle Peder Jensen is the only senior in the group, and until Mike Person went down with a season-ending knee injury was the only starting offensive lineman from outside Montana. Guards Jeff Hansen (Great Falls) and Chris Smith (Laurel) and tackle Jeff Miller (Pocatello, Idaho) join Verlanic and Jensen up front.
Verlanic typifies the intelligence and tenacity of MSU's offensive line. A Cell Biology major with plans on medical school, Verlanic was recently named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Region VII (along with tight end Elliott Barnhart, another starter unlikely to play because of injury). He started a couple of games as a freshman last year before being replaced, but his determination to return to the lineup as a junior this year allowed the Bobcats to move Hansen back to guard, where he has played at an all-league level.
The Cat-Griz game's unique nature stems from many things, but at its core is the human relationships the contest touches. "I think this game personally touches every person in the state," says MSU Senior Associate Athletic Director Dan Davies, who played for the Bobcats and whose wife, Jan, was a Grizzly cheerleader. "In that way, it's so important to so many people."
It's that importance that led the Verlanics to take a Saturday drive west on I-90 five years ago, and which led Jim Verlanic to make the trip a few hours the other way on that same road when it came time to choose a college. And it's that importance that will lead thousands of people to gather across the world at satellite parties to cheer for his or her team.
And, as with the Verlanics, it almost always comes back to family.
Wednesday, June 10
Friday, March 27
Monday, March 23
Friday, March 13
