Chattanooga, Tenn. ? A day after losing their third game of the season, the Richmond Spiders had a players-only meeting.

“We sat down with the team and said, ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to pack it up and go home?”‘ defensive lineman and team captain Lawrence Sidbury said. “We knew the conference championship was out of reach, but we could still make it to the playoffs. Once you reach the playoffs, the sky’s the limit.”

After the 4-3 start, Richmond hasn’t lost a game and will face Montana tonight in the Spiders’ first Football Championship Subdivision title game, a game that’s been dominated in the last three years by Appalachian State.

The Grizzlies (14-1) only tripped once in their path to Chattanooga: a 45-28 loss at Weber State, which they would later avenge in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.

Montana has appeared in five national championship games in the last two decades, winning twice, and was the team to beat this season in the Big Sky Conference.

“We have a good tradition every year and a lot of the teams in our conference mark us down as the red-letter game, so we have to bring it every week,” said linebacker Tyler Corwin. “I think that kind of prepares you for the playoffs. You’re everybody’s rivalry game every week.”

That wasn’t exactly the case for Richmond (12-3), which was starting over under new coach Mike London, who was returning to his alma mater after working as Virginia defensive coordinator. London replaced Dave Clawson, who left to become offensive coordinator at Tennessee.

The Spiders dropped Colonial Athletic Association games to Villanova and James Madison as well as one to Virginia, but London made sure to keep his team’s energy high.

Montana upset top-seeded James Madison 35-27 last weekend with the help of four turnovers and three touchdown passes by Cole Bergquist.