Cat-Griz Feature: Successful Ash now a Brawl veteran

Even with a win in the 115th Brawl of the Wild Saturday inside Bobcat Stadium, the Montana State Bobcats won't be a part of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs next week. And that's a bit shocking considering the Bobcats were picked to win the Big Sky Conference back in the summer, and have one of the best offenses in all of the FCS.

But, there's no need to think the Cats are just going to lay down and be a red carpet for their hated rival, the Montana Grizzlies, to make the playoffs. No, this is Cat-Griz, and MSU's up-and-down, and somewhat disappointing season has no baring on how the Cats will play against the Griz come Saturday.

No, MSU is playing for pride, and a lot more than that. The Bobcats haven't beaten Montana in Bozeman since 2005, and while MSU head coach Rob Ash has done almost everything else in his nine years in Bozeman, one thing he knows he hasn't done enough is, beat Montana. The Cats are just 2-6 in Brawl's coached by Ash.

However, don't let the record fool you. Ash knows and understands what it means to beat the Grizzlies. And though, like his counterpart on Saturday, UM head coach Bob Stitt, Ash isn't a native Montanan, after eight Cat-Griz games, he might as well be now.

"It's one chance, once a year, to go play this game," Ash said. "Yeah, the stakes are very high. But that's what makes it exciting. That's why you sign up for this job."

Ash, an Iowa native, was an outsider to the rivalry when he was hired at MSU in 2007 after spending 18 seasons at Drake. It took him four tries to beat the Griz when the Bobcats finally prevailed 21-16 in Missoula in November 2010. His other win in the series was also on the road, a 16-7 victory in 2012 in which quarterback DeNarius McGhee became just the second quarterback in Big Sky Conference history to win twice at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.

Outside of those two wins in Missoula, the Griz have certainly had the upper hand against Ash-coached Bobcat teams. And, three different Montana head coaches have beaten the Bobcats in that span, including the now retired Mick Delaney, who led UM to a current two-game winning streak in the Brawl, with a road win in Bozeman in 2013 and a 34-7 shellacking of the Cats last November in Missoula.

In fairness though, Ash has had some bad luck when it comes to the Cat-Griz rivalry. In four different meetings with the Griz, a backup quarterback has had to start, or play for MSU. And against a Montana team that seems to always peak in November, no matter who the coach is, that's not an easy task.

"The first couple years we were rebuilding, trying to start the program up and Montana was on quite a role at that point in time," Ash said. "Then we sort of took over and won two out of three and knocked them out and had a chance to be the dominating team for a while. And then the last couple times the injuries at the quarterback position have really hurt us."

While beating the Griz means so much to MSU fans, and fans don't think the Cats have done it enough lately, again, Ash has had his high moments too. With a win Saturday, the Bobcats will have still never had a losing season under Ash. He's also won more games in his MSU career than any other coach in Bobcat history, he's led MSU to 70 wins, and his teams have among the highest APR rates in the Big Sky Conference every year.

Yes, under Ash' watch, the Cats have never been so good, so consistently. The Cats have captured or shared three Big Sky championships under Ash, they've won 68 percent of all their games, and they've reached the FCS playoffs four times, including a stretch of three straight years, from 2010-2012, and they went back to the playoffs again last fall.

Outside the lines, the program continues to thrive too. Bobcat Stadium got a beautiful expansion during Ash' time in Bozeman, season tickets are always sold out, and Montana State has been in the Top 5 in FCS attendance in each of the last five seasons. So, it's no wonder that it was a no-brainer for the school to extend Ash' contract for another three years. He signed the extension back in the summer, and it will keep him as MSU's head coach through at least the 2018 season.

So, even with what some fans consider a down year for the Bobcats, the football program at MSU has never been in better shape than it has with Ash at the helm. And that's not surprising considering Ash was already Drake's all-time winningest coach when he arrived in Bozeman back in 2007.

But, for all the shine and spotlight on MSU these days, there's one thing left for Ash to do before his time in Bozeman is up, at least from a passionate fan-base perspective, and that's beat the Grizzlies a little more often, and perhaps a little more consistently. And while it might not seem like it to some, Ash knows and wants to do that badly. After all, after nine seasons at MSU, Ash is a Montanan now, and he's a big a part of the Cat-Griz rivalry as any coach that's come before him.

And, no matter what his record is against the Griz prior to Saturday's 115th meeting in Bozeman, he cherishes the rivalry, and understands why it means so much to so many.

"This is a year-long rivalry," Ash said. "You win it, you get 365 days of being a winner. You don't win it, then it's 365 days of trying to win the next one. That's the way it works."