Griz Greats: The Silver Anniversary of the 1995 National Champions

Corey Falls was a junior defensive end from Medford, Oregon who led the Grizzlies with nine sacks during the 1995 run to the national title. Falls, who hails from the same town as future Griz Buck Buchanan Award winners Dante Olson and Tyrone Holmes, now works in law enforcement in the Portland area. 

Kelly Stensrud is a Missoula native and a Hellgate alum who was a senior starting running back for Montana's 1995 national title team. He scored 10 touchdowns during that 1995 season. 

Randy Riley and fellow Butte, Montana native Brian Toone converged to make one of the biggest plays of Montana's 22-20 national title game victory over Marshall in December of 1995. The Butte safety proved to be the final margin of victory as the Grizzlies won their first Division I-AA national title. 

Sean Goicoechea hailed from just down the road from Missoula, growing up in Stevensville, Montana. He rapidly rose to become a starter and key contributor at safety during his junior year to help the Montana Griz to the 1995 Division I-AA national championship.

Brent Pease was a record-setting quarterback during his time playing for the Montana Grizzlies. During the middle and end of his professional playing career in the early 1990s, the Moscow, Idaho native returned in the off-seasons to help coach various offensive positions on Don Read's staff. 

Pease, who went on to become an offensive coordinator at several Power 5 schools including Kentucky, Baylor and Florida, primarily worked with quarterbacks during Montana's 1995 run to the national championship, meaning Pease had a key hand in developing Walter Payton Award winner Dave Dickenson. 

David Sirmon was a senior linebacker for the 1995 Montana Grizzlies and finished his final season at UM as the team's third-leading tackler. He piled up 65 tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss to go with a pair of pass break ups and one near interception that led to a pivotal safety in Montana's 22-20 win over Marshall in the 1995 Division I-AA National Championship game.

David's nephew, Cy, was an All-Big Sky offensive lineman for the 2019 Grizzlies. His other nephew, Camden, was the quarterback on Missoula Sentinel's 2020 Class AA state title team. David's son, Jacob, was a 4-star quarterback recruit who started his career at Washington and is now at Central Michigan. David is a professor at the University of Washington. 

Jon Kasper is a native of Great Falls, Montana who went to C.M. Russell High with former Montana All-American quarterback Dave Dickenson. Kasper attended the University of Montana, working for the student newspaper and radio station before becoming a staffer at the Missoula. Jon worked covering the UM football beat from 1997 until 2004 before taking a job at the Big Sky Conference office. He currently serves as a Senior Associate Commissioner for Championships at the Big Sky. 

Dave Dickenson is widely considered the greatest player in the history of the Big Sky Conference and the most legendary Griz of all time. The dynamo quarterback from Great Falls led UM to three straight playoff appearances, culminating with a Walter Payton Award winning senior season in 1995 that also included guiding his team to their first-ever Division I-AA national title. 

The Legend of the Fall went on to have a stellar career in the Canadian Football League and is also a championship-winning coach for the Calgary Stampeders. But the College Football Hall of Famer is best remembered for his unforgettable career with the Grizzlies. 

Before Jim O'Day started working for the Grizzly Scholarship Association or as an athletic administrator at the University of Montana and before he became UM's athletic director (2005-2012), the native of Cut Bank was a newspaper man who helped spread the good word for Grizzly athletics on Montana's Hi-Line. O'Day was integral in setting up a charter flight from Great Falls to Huntington, West Virginia so hundreds of small-town Montanans could cheer on the Grizzlies in the 1995 Division I-AA national title game.