But this isn't the two-time national champion Grizzlies and there aren't 25,000 cheering fans.
The stands on this Sunday afternoon are mostly barren — as they have been all winter — save 15 or 20 dedicated fans. They've come to see their friends or family during the postseason run to the intramural flag football championship.
Sunday marked the end of the fourth season of UM Campus Rec's winter flag football season. The league consisted of teams of four on half of a field and included 20 men's teams and eight co-rec teams.
Montana has hosted intramural football for years, said Intramural Programs Manager Natalie Hiller-Claridge, but leagues have historically played during the fall. After interest built in 2007 for winter ball, Hiller-Claridge talked with the athletics department about securing a time slot for the games on the real football field. Field space is limited in the early spring because of other intramural sports and weather conditions, she said, and Washington-Grizzly Stadium is really the only place left to play.
The athletics department approved the usage.
The spring-semester version of flag football differs greatly from its fall counterpart, even though most teams and players compete in both leagues. For squads in the fall game, seven players line each side and game halves are longer. In the four-on-four contests, said sophomore Spencer Davis, fewer players means more room to run.
"The key here is speed, speed, speed, speed," said Davis, a receiver with deep-threat capabilities for the Hawthorne Hawks, a team named after all the players' mutual elementary school in Helena.
A few teams — like Davis' Hawks — sported matching uniforms to go with football gloves and cleats. "People do take it very seriously," Davis said while lacing his cleats.
For some players, like Tyler Dalton Jr., intramural sports are the only athletics they have left. Dalton Jr., a junior from Glendive, who lined up at receiver for the team Blood, Sweat and Beers this season, said he's involved in nearly every sport offered by Campus Rec.
"It's our only competition for those of us who don't play Division I athletics," he said. "We live in the United States, where sports are everything for a lot of people. People who play sports will always play sports. If a campus got rid of [intramurals], they'd break a lot of hearts."
Luckily for Dalton Jr., the University's intramural programs are thriving. In fact, Hiller-Claridge said, she's hoping to add to the school's long list of intramural activities in the near future. To go along with indoor and outdoor soccer leagues, she said Campus Rec is looking at scheduling four-on-four tournaments next year.
"Gosh, there's so many [benefits of intramurals]," she said. "I obviously wouldn't be doing this job if I didn't think it was important."