Hey, what's up everyone? I'm Nick, living in Tacoma, WA, but originally from Missoula, MT. I'm 23 and just graduated from the University of Puget Sound. I played football for the Loggers, a DIII school in the Northwest Conference (2004 National Champ Linfield and 1999 Champ Pacific Lutheran are in the conference). I played linebacker and D-End in college and love watching defensive struggles. I'm currently looking into getting into the scouting profession

As far as a fan, I'm not much into the NFL, but if you had to tie me down to a team I'd say the Tampa Bay Bucs. But college is a different story. Big time Montana Grizzly fan.

I look forward to sharing my input here.

Nick,

And we are certainly excited to have you here with us. How did your college career go? How big a guy are you?

Welcome Nick, any Grizzly players we should be paying more attention to?

My friend has a sister than goes to puget sound. You play against Brett Elliot?

I'll try to give a quick summary of my college career.

Freshman year-I came in as a 6-1, 190 MLB, but ended up plaing all three linebacker positions. I played in every game but the first one, mostly on kickoff and kickoff return, but also played quite a bit in a few games on defense. Our team was horrible, though. We finished 0-9, being outscored by an average score of about 45-10. Quite a turnaround from the year before, where they were 5-4.

Sophomore year-We encountered a coaching change and struggled in the transition, although we did improve a lot from the year before. I beefed up to 225 before the season, and began the season at 215. Started 4 games, but I really struggled. Team finished 1-8, but wasn't too competitive in most games.

Junior year-Probably the toughest year. We had high expectations, but couldn't quite pull everything together. Finished 0-9, but were very competitive in every game but against Linfield. I moved to D-End, as our coacheswanted more speed on defense, and started all 9 games, but dislocated my ankle in the final game (damn artificial turf).

Senior year-We finally turned the corner. Finished the season 5-4. Were close to the playoffs, losing twice when we were up in the 4th quarter and another by two in which we had to go for two because we missed an extra point. Played on the #1 defense in the conference. We held Linfield to their lowest total offense on the season and the least amount of points before the Championship game. I ended up leading the conference in sacks, tackles by a lineman, and second in tackles for loss. I was named 2nd team all-conference.

Ok, didn't mean to make it that long. Oops. Just got caought up in the moment.

Nick,

I enjoyed reading all that, actually. Very cool the way you guys finally turned things around. That must have been very satisfying to finish your career the way you did, and to be named all-conference to boot!

Congrats man! Again, very nice to have you with us.

No one on the Griz for this year's draft. Next year, watch out for RB Lex Hilliard, C Jeff Marshall, and SS Van Cooper, Jr. The Griz are an extremely young team and will be scary for the next couple years, especially after adding transfers Craig Chambers from Washington, Josh Swogger from Wazzu, and Reggie Bradshaw from Louisville.

Shoot, i forgot. I did play against Bret Elliott in the 2004 season, my senior year. As I mentioned earlier, we held the team to their lowest total offense output and 35 points, their lowest point total other than the National Championship game.

Our game plan was to force them to run the ball. We felt that they wouldn't have the patience to run the ball, as they were so set on Elliott going for the TD record, and other passing records. We dropped 8 in coverage every play, with a blitz once in a while since they ran basically 3-step drops each play. We played just a 3 man line and had 6 DBs on the field, as they were mostly in a 1 RB, 4 WR set or a 5 WR set. But the funny thing was that we shut down their favorite run, the zone/stretch play, as well as screen passes. They were only able to run the ball w/ the draw and on a broken play by Elliott.

As far as Elliott goes, he's solid. It's tough to say how he'll do in the next level. Not only was he a D1 talent playing D3 football, but his receivers were D1-AA or D2 caliber receivers. Their offense was built on spreading the defense and hitting quick, 3-step passes. But, Elliott has a decent arm, as he was able to throw a nice fade and hit a post on a rope against us. Overall, he's a solid QB.