2024 marks a significant milestone in the story of Skyline Sports. Although the official anniversary comes later in the year, we’ll be celebrating our 10th birthday all year long with special content and retrospectives — including in this series, where we’ll peruse Skyline’s deep archive, looking back at stories and games from the past. Here are some of the top stories published by Skyline Sports in the month of January — a month that features rivalry hoops, coaching news and multiple trips to the FCS national title game.
International influence trickles down to Big Sky basketball
By Colter Nuanez (January 21, 2016)
International players have increasingly shaped the Big Sky Conference on the basketball court. In this story from January 2016, Colter Nuanez took a look at the trend.
“Jim Hayford likens recruiting abroad to fishing.
If you go to the convenient lake a few miles outside of your home town, you are sure to see a couple of hooks in the water. If you are willing to pack a few days’ food and trek further away, you will more likely find a pristine lake. And there, might be just the prized fish you have been looking for.”
FULL CIRCLE: Wiley left basketball only to find love for the game once again
By Colter Nuanez (January 17, 2017)
Former Montana hooper Jacob Wiley went through three schools and three sports before rediscovering his love for the game at Eastern Washington and going on to a long pro career.
“Jacob Wiley lost the love of his life as a young man living in the Garden City. Five years later, Wiley has discovered his love once again and the rest of the Big Sky Conference is feeling his passion full force.
“Through the first half of the current season, Wiley has established himself as a front-runner for the Big Sky MVP through his dominant play in Eastern Washington’s front court. Wiley has claimed the league’s Player of the Week honor two weeks running.
“On the surface, the 6-foot-7, 230-pound physical specimen looks like a senior reaping the benefits of a coaching staff accentuating his abilities during his final season on the block. Look deeper and one will find Wiley is taking advantage of his final chance to shine in a life filled with conquering adversity.”
Harkleroad’s unorthodox style breaking Big Sky records
By Colter Nuanez (January 17, 2017)
Bunky Harkleroad brought a completely unique coaching philosophy that included trying to shoot 50 3-pointers and 100 shots a game to the Sac State women’s basketball program. After eight seasons, Harkleroad was let go after compiling an 88-150 record. But when he first entered the Big Sky, boy was it a sight to behold.
Before each game, Bunky Harkleroad writes a list of unorthodox goals on Sacramento State’s white board. To the common basketball fan, the list looks surely unattainable.
Hoist 100 shots. Shoot 50 3-pointers. Secure 40 percent of the possible offensive rebounds. Force 30 turnovers.
For a basketball purest, it seems like a playground style filled with less than stellar shot selection, undisciplined defense and a skewed final stat sheet. But for Harkleroad, the mastermind of the second-highest scoring offense in Division I women’s college basketball, executing his unusual list of goals is the key to success for the Hornets.”
Baldwin leaving Eastern Washington for Cal OC position
By Colter Nuanez (January 16, 2017)
When Bobby Hauck left Montana to take the head coaching job at UNLV, Beau Baldwin promptly led Eastern Washington to the national title the next fall in 2010. Baldwin led EWU to the semifinals of the FCS playoffs three times in the next six seasons and had some of the most talented teams of the Skyline era (particularly the 2016 Eagles, rankings coming). But when Baldwin abruptly left the league following the heartbreaking loss in the semifinals of the 2016 playoffs.
“Beau Baldwin never hid from his Eastern Washington players his candidacy for the Nevada vacancy despite the fact that it came as EWU chased its second national championship under Baldwin.
Baldwin was one of two finalists for the job in Reno, eventually giving way to Jay Norvell. Baldwin barely had time to say a thing to his players this time around.
Cal fired Sonn Dykes on January 8. The Golden Bears named Wisconsin defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox its new head coach on Saturday. On Saturday night, Baldwin called EWU athletic director Bill Chaves. On Monday, Martin Luther King Day meant no school at Eastern Washington. Baldwin met with his team nonetheless.
Baldwin informed his charges he will take Cal’s offensive coordinator job effective immediately. An emotional Baldwin confirmed on Monday afternoon in a press conference that he is in fact leaving Eastern Washington after nine wildly successful seasons in Cheney.
Oguine reaches milestone, Griz reach Big Sky midpoint undefeated
By Kyle Sample (January 27, 2018)
Michael Oguine, the soft-spoken, explosively athletic guard from LA, was one of the most iconic Griz basketball players of the last decade. Kyle Sample was there the night he scored his 1,000th point.
“Oguine said he wasn’t aware of his place on Montana’s scoring list until he was told earlier this week in an interview that he needed 38 points to become the 32nd Grizzly to join the 1,000-point scorers club. Saturday morning, Griz play-by-play announcer Riley Corcoran alerted him he needed just 16 more. And about a dozen hours later, after hitting a transition 3-pointer that hit every part of the rim, Oguine joined the illustrious club.”
MONTANA HALL OF FAME: Dickenson’s greatness a catalyst for Montana’s rise
By Colter Nuanez (January 8, 2018)
Colter Nuanez’s deeply-researched portraits of the men inducted into the Montana Football Hall of Fame have been an annual pillar of Skyline’s content. In this one, he examined maybe the greatest Griz of all time, Super Dave Dickenson himself.
“At C.M. Russell High, Dickenson led the Rustlers to a 23-0 record including two straight Class AA state titles. At 5-foot-11, 165 pounds, he didn’t exactly garner a frenzy of college recruiters. His high school coach Jack Johnson said he wasn’t a particularly diligent worker away from the field or an astute student of the game. Dickenson himself will tell you he isn’t a great practice player.
“On Saturdays though, Dickenson was magic. In the first game of the 1993 season against Division II South Dakota State, with Dickenson still fighting off Bert Wilberger for the starting spot, the quarterback wrote the first chapter of his mythical career by leading a comeback for the ages.”
EASTERN IN HIS BLOOD: Best leads alma mater EWU into national title game
By Colter Nuanez (January 3, 2019)
Skyline Sports followed Eastern Washington’s run to the FCS title game in 2019, including this feature on the Eagles’ second-year head coach Aaron Best.
“The challenge that faces Best on Saturday will be one of the grandest of his young career. The 40-year-old will try to lead his alma mater past one of the great dynasties in the history of college athletics. What he’s accomplished already will resonate with his peers and mentors regardless of Saturday’s result.”
Stick leads North Dakota State past Eastern Washington for FCS national title
By Colter Nuanez (January 5, 2019)
2019 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IN PHOTOS
By Brooks Nuanez (January 7, 2019)
That included in-person coverage of Eastern’s 38-24 loss to North Dakota State in the title game as the Bison continued to cement their dynasty. The trip to Frisco marked the first for Skyline Sports
“As the sea of green and gold poured onto the field on a picturesque Texas day where temperatures flirted with 70 degrees, Eastern Washington’s players hugged the attendees adorned in red and black, many of the athletes with tears streaming down their faces.
“Jayce Gilder stood in the mob by the Eastern Washington sideline staring at the stage as Klieman took the microphone and thanked the largely partisan crowd for helping him “celebrate my senior day with this great group of seniors.” The blank look on the face of the EWU junior tight end summed up the disappointment for a collection of Eagles led by 27 seniors that fell short in their bid for the second national title in school history.”
Hall breaks Big Sky scoring record but Montana State falls at EWU
By Colter Nuanez (January 19, 2019)
Skyline had a front-row seat to the incredible career of sweet-shooting Tyler Hall at Montana State – a career that ended with Hall as the Big Sky’s all-time leading scorer.
“Tyler Hall caught the ball, cross over dribbled into his signature step-back jump shot. The Montana State star elevated, flicked his wrist and drilled the 371st 3-point shot of his record-setting career.
“The vintage take was Hall at his best, the 6-foot-4 combo guard using his skill to swish the 724th made field goal as a Bobcat. The buttery shot crowned Hall as the Big Sky Conference’s all-time leading scorer. With the pressure of passing former Eastern Washington star Bogdan Bliznyuk behind him, the record-breaking jumper opened the floodgates for Hall.”
Skyline Sports Montana football All-Decade team: Offense
Skyline Sports Montana football All-Decade team: Defense
By Colter Nuanez (January 6, 2020)
At the end of a tumultuous decade for Griz football, Colter Nuanez picked the standout performers of the 2010s for Montana.
“Linebacker –Dante Olson
Perhaps the best praise you could give Olson as a player is that his production on the field the last two years made Griz followers wonder if Olson was better than the three other linebackers on this list. In fact, when it comes to individual production, Olson has an argument as the most prolific and even the most talented linebacker in the history of Montana football.”
Need for indoor facilities more pressing than ever in Montana
By Colter Nuanez (January 3, 2021)
In 2021, the lack of indoor practice facilities at Montana and Montana State became glaring as the ‘Cats and Griz had to prepare for a potential spring season. Colter Nuanez examined an issue that’s helped explain why the Montana schools have not quite been able to match the Dakota schools at the top of the FCS.
“Regardless of the reality of a spring season, the pending preparation puts the need for the Treasure State’s two Division I football programs to build indoor practice facilities on full display.
Choate has been lobbying for upgrades to MSU’s facilities consistently since his first season leading the Bobcats to the playoffs in 2018. Before MSU headed to North Dakota State to take on the reigning national champions in the quarterfinals of the FCS playoffs, Choate said:
“We are in a cold-weather climate and we don’t have an indoor. That hurts us,” before complimenting Bobcat Stadium as a premier FCS stadium but reemphasizing MSU’s need to upgrade its football facilities — coaches’ offices, meeting space, training rooms, a football-only strength and conditioning center — for his program to compete on a national level consistently.”
CONFIRMED: Choate to Texas as co-DC, LB coach
By Colter Nuanez (January 22, 2021)
An era came to an end at Montana State in January 2021, as Jeff Choate moved on to Texas after four seasons in Bozeman.
“And just like that, the man who built a reputation as the greatest Griz slayer since Sonny Holland is on the way to the Lone Star State.
Less than a month after serving as a finalist for the head coaching opening at Boise State, Jeff Choate will be hired as the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Texas. Seven independent sources with direct knowledge of the hiring confirmed to Skyline Sports that Choate confirmed to his MSU coaching staff in a meeting that he will be joining Steve Sarkisian’s staff for the Longhorns.”
Vigen’s NDSU ties run deep with his Bobcats taking on Bison for national title
By Thomas Stuber (January 3, 2022)
January 2022 brought another run to the FCS national game — and another loss, as Montana State fell to North Dakota State’s dynasty. In the lead-up to the game, Thomas Stuber looked at the Bobcats’ first-year head coach Brent Vigen – a former NDSU man himself.
“Vigen is one of the architects of what is now the most dominant football team certainly in FCS history, but perhaps all of college football history in relative terms. He played for the Bison. He came up the coaching ranks there with then head coach Craig Bohl to win three FCS titles in three years between 2011 and 2013 before leaving with Bohl for the University of Wyoming ahead of the 2014 season.
Of all the attempts to bring the Bison back down to earth, this one seems to have as good or better chance of any, but despite all that Vigen also knows more than anyone just how difficult it will be.”
Mellott’s emergence evolves through trust, constant improvement
By Colter Nuanez (January 6, 2022)
Following Montana State’s 29-10 loss to rival Montana in Missoula, Brent Vigen decided to make a quarterback change despite his team’s 9-2 record. He benched Matt McKay and went with true freshman Tommy Mellott. The precocious rookie led MSU to three straight playoff wins and a berth in the national title game.
“For so long, drama at quarterback, not exclusive to this year, seemed to mitigate the rise of the Bobcats to the ultimate level of football,” former Montana State head coach Mike Kramer, who led MSU from 2000 until the spring of 2006, said. “We thought we had a chance with Travis Lulay. But we had a hard time staying healthy. And we always had to go on the road. That’s what makes the trip to Huntsville and the win over Sam Houston, and this run to the title game, so unbelievable.”
MINING CITY MEN: Butte tradition runs deep on Bobcats run to National finals
By Colter Nuanez (January 7, 2022)
Before the Bobcats’ title-game loss, Colter Nuanez paid homage to the men from the Mining City who have shaped the program.
“Sonny Holland is the greatest Bobcat of them all, although if you asked the icon for most of the last 20 years who he would give such a title, he would say Kane Ioane. And 65 years after Holland helped lead Montana State to its first national football championship as a player, 45 years since he led his alma mater to its second national championship as its head coach, Holland might have a new Bobcat great to compete with given all that Troy Andersen has accomplished.
“But only one statue watches over Bobcat Stadium. And that man is still alive. To have Holland still sitting in Montana State athletic director Leon Costello’s suite at each MSU home game is a true testament to the reverence for history that has always trademarked Bobcat football.”
SONG REMAINS THE SAME: Bison roll to 9th title in 10 seasons over Bobcats
By Colter Nuanez (January 8, 2022)
Down in Frisco, Texas, the dominant power of the last 15 years of FCS football made sure the song remained the same, with NDSU throttling Montana State in a 38-10 win.
“For Montana State, Saturday played out like a nightmare.
And for the Bison of North Dakota State, the afternoon was a near carbon copy to NDSU’s reoccurring dream.”
Montana State earns first rivalry win in Missoula in over a decade
By Andrew Houghton (January 22, 2023)
Cat-Griz hoops is a rivalry that’s guaranteed to bring raucous atmospheres and on-court drama. In January 2023, Danny Sprinkle led Montana State to its first win in Missoula since 2010.
“Coming off their worst conference loss of the season – 74-70 to bottom-dweller Idaho on Monday – it was a steel-spined rebuke, not only to the fans in the building on Saturday, but to the memory of last year, when the atmosphere overwhelmed a 27-win ‘Cats team in a somewhat shocking 80-74 loss in Missoula that wasn’t that close.”
Binford earns 300th career victory as Bobcat women hold against EWU
By Colter Nuanez (January 1, 2023)
Montana State head women’s basketball coach Tricia Binford has gone from green upstart to the don of Big Sky women’s basketball. In her 18th of 19 (and counting) seasons at the helm for MSU, she entered rare company.
“With the victory, Binford becomes just the third coach in Big Sky Conference history to record over 300 wins in the league, joining Robin Selvig (865, 38 years) and former Weber State head coach Carla Taylor (308, 23 years). Binford is also MSU’s winningest coach in either men’s or women’s basketball history.”With the victory, Binford becomes just the third coach in Big Sky Conference history to record over 300 wins in the league, joining Robin Selvig (865, 38 years) and former Weber State head coach Carla Taylor (308, 23 years). Binford is also MSU’s winningest coach in either men’s or women’s basketball history.
“I’ve been blessed to have great players and great coaches as part of my journey,” Binford said. “Bobcat Nation and the women’s basketball program are a special culture to be part of, and I’m so grateful for all that we have accomplished. We also have much more to achieve.”
EMERGING DYNASTY? Jacks hope to continue reign with Griz standing in the way
By Colter Nuanez (January 1, 2024)
2024’s FCS title game featured the South Dakota State Jackrabbits taking on the Montana Grizzlies. Colter Nuanez examined the rise of SDSU as the Jacks appear to be escaping the shadow of North Dakota State and becoming a dynasty in their own right.
“South Dakota State is in the midst of one of the greatest two-year runs in the history of small-school college football. Yet because it’s not quite as prolific as a pair of runs forged by the rival Bison, somehow SDSU enters this season’s FCS national championship game with an understated streak despite its utter dominance over the last two years.”
KING GUB: Griz DT has earned universal respect, cult following by anchoring UM
By Andrew Houghton (January 7, 2024)
Before the title game, Andrew Houghton profiled Montana’s All-American defensive tackle Alex Gubner, who rose from an under-decorated, late-blooming high school career to become one of the best players in the country.
“The Big Sky coaches chose Gubner as the best defensive player in the league this year although he had just 39 tackles in 14 games, a testament to Gubner’s talent that speaks as loudly as any number of glowing quotes.
If a defensive tackle has every coach who plays him gushing, then you know he’s a good one. Gubner is a very good one, the twisting, penetrating, relentless force at the heart of Montana’s defensive line, a “dancing bear” whose uniqueness is showcased in his versatility. He’s strong enough to stand up to double teams, agile enough to execute Montana’s endless stunts and skilled enough to drop back into coverage on zone blitzes, as he did for multiple of his four interceptions – the highest total on the team – as a redshirt freshman in 2019.
Most importantly, he’s selfless enough to revel in the punishing responsibilities of a defensive tackle, a position that takes the brunt of the opposing line’s attention and force, play after play, with little chance of recording a tackle to statistically confirm that effort.”
Griz overwhelmed in second half, lose title game to South Dakota State
By Andrew Houghton (January 7, 2024)
On the field, it was the same old story once again, as the MVFC team dominated the Big Sky representative in the title game. This time, it was SDSU beating Montana 23-3.
“But in the final game of a magical and captivating season, the Grizzlies learned the hard lesson of many a challenger: There are levels to this violence, and just because the Griz hadn’t yet run into a more bad ass team didn’t mean that they don’t exist.
With 16 straight points in the final eight minutes of the third quarter, South Dakota State pulled away for a suspense-free 23-3 win to win its second-straight title, affirming their status as the FCS’ new-age juggernaut and robbing the Grizzlies of their triumphant return to the national stage.”
A GAME IN PHOTOS: Brooks Nuanez on 2023 national championship game
A GAME IN PHOTOS: Blake Hempstead on the 2023 FCS national championship game
By Brooks Nuanez and Blake Hempstead (January 19 and 20, 2024)
Another Skyline trademark has been impressively thorough photo coverage of big games acros the Big Sky Conference. For the 2024 title game, both Brooks Nuanez and Blake Hempstead were on location in Frisco.
