Well, just because...

Randy loved his quarterback at Marshall, I think his name was Chad Pennington? Played for the Jets for a while I believe?

StickierBuns wrote:

Randy loved his quarterback at Marshall, I think his name was Chad Pennington? Played for the Jets for a while I believe?

Yes, Pennington had shoulders like Penix has knees. If Pennington could stay healthy, he was a damn good QB. His shoulder just couldn't keep up. Four surgeries I believe in his NFL career. I believe he could have been a good one.

StickierBuns wrote:

Randy loved his quarterback at Marshall, I think his name was Chad Pennington? Played for the Jets for a while I believe?

Correct.

His 1996 season, the Thundering Herd made it to the NCAA-Div 1-AA (now FCS) National Championships. They were 14-0. Their opponent? Defending National Champion YOUR MONTANA GRIZZLIES. Also 14-0. That was my first full year in Montana (30 years ago now) and I was just getting used to the fact that Montana had a pretty good college football scene (it's much better today with both Montana State (defending FCS champ) and University of Montana (ranked #1 and #2 in FCS preseason rankings right now).

But I was watching this game at a local sports bar and this Randy Moss guy scored FOUR touchdowns against the Griz in the National Championship game that ripped the Griz by a score of 49-29.

I was like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid..."who IS that guy....???? !!!!"

So imagine my enthusiasm come the NFL draft the following spring when the Vikings drafted this kid. Most major college fans had never heard of him.

SIDE NOTE: the Griz QB that year was a kid out of Hawaii...Brian Ah Yat. He went on to play in the CFL for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

His kid, Keali'i Ah Yat is the starting QB for the Griz, with two full years of eligibility left. He did not look that great in 2024, playing about 1/3 of the snaps. But last year he won the starting job that his Dad once had, and rewarded the Griz by throwing for over 4,000 yards and taking them to the national championship semi-finals, with a season QB rating of 161.2.

But yeah...back to that national championship game, the Griz got Mossed!

As a lifelong fan, mid 50's vintage, we have been able to support some of the best, Moss, Page, Eller, ..... A Lombardi would have been great, but man we have been able to cheer for some of the greatest to play the game.

As a draft nut since the 80s, there have been a lot of players I've liked, but only two players in all that time where I was left slack-jawed at the movement skills I was watching on video. One was Randy Moss, the other was Aaron Donald.

Love how he has been at practices, attending WR meetings and supporting the current WR group. Makes me wonder if he is interested in getting into coaching at some point.