Alright so this whole thing started ’cause my buddy Dave kept raving about Montana Western football. He’s from Dillon, been a Bulldog fan since diapers. Me? I barely knew where the school was. So I figured, hey, why not actually look at their recent season? See if they’re any good for real. Grabbed my laptop, poured a stupidly large coffee, and dove in.
Digging Up the Basics First
Started simple, right? Searched for “Montana Western football record 2023 season”. Needed the cold, hard facts. Found their official athletics site – felt like wandering into a maze built in the 90s. Clicked around forever till I landed on the schedule and results page. Scrolled through the whole list, week by week. Noticed something quick: lotsa green Ws early on, like they were crushing it. Felt kinda pumped for ’em. Then, bam. Hit the heart of their conference schedule. More red Ls started popping up. Especially against Carroll College and College of Idaho. Ouch.
The Devil’s in the Details… and the Stats
Just wins and losses ain’t the whole story though. Needed the meat. Searched harder for team stats. Ended up on the Frontier Conference site. Found their stats pages – dry as toast, but packed with numbers.
- Scoring: Points per game looked okay-ish, kinda middle of the pack in the conference. Not lighting the world on fire, but not bottom feeders either.
- Defense: This one jumped out. Points allowed? A lot. Like, “giving up points ain’t no thing” levels. Especially in those tough games. Couldn’t help but think the defense was the real problem child.
- Standings Snapshot: When the dust settled, they were smack dab in the middle of the Frontier Conference. Finished 5-5 overall. Perfectly average.
Trying to Connect the Dots
Sat back, scratched my head. Okay, 5-5. Beat up on some weaker teams, got beat by the big boys. Why? Stats don’t lied – that defense struggled big time against good offenses. Couldn’t shut people down when they needed to. Started wondering about coaching, or injuries, or just plain talent gaps. My buddy Dave ain’t an impartial judge, you know?
The Final Verdict (For Me, Anyway)
After sifting through all this? Here’s the honest take: They’re a solid mid-tier NAIA team. Seriously. Not terrible, not championship caliber this season. Fun to watch maybe? Probably for the offense sometimes. But man, they need to toughen up that defense if they wanna climb higher. Beating the teams you should beat is step one. They did that mostly. Step two is stealing wins against the contenders. That’s where the whole damn thing fell apart this year. Is the program good? Yeah, competitive in their league. But are they dominant? Nah. Not this season. Gotta tell Dave he might be wearing those rose-colored glasses a bit too tight.
