The games we remember are played in November…
It’s an old adage used by more coaches than you can count over the years. If that’s the case this year in the Big Sky Conference, fans and followers are going to have plenty to memorize the next several weeks.
After a wild, competitive and, in some ways, unpredictable October, four teams enter this month with dreams of a Big Sky title still alive. And three of them — Montana, Montana State and Idaho — sit in a three-way tie atop the league standings.
For the first time since 2019, the Big Sky champion will not be undefeated. And for the first time since the league expanded in 2012, the unbalanced schedule has found balance as all four of the top contenders (Sac State is also still alive for its fourth straight share of a conference crown) will play one another.
Sure, Portland State, Idaho State and Northern Arizona all sport 3-2 league marks like Sac State. But none of the three have won a Division I game outside their three Big Sky wins and none will make the playoffs, unless they win the conference title.
The four Big Sky schools leading the pack entering the final month of the season have already played on national TV. The quartet are the top four teams in terms of attendance. And in the most recent national poll, Idaho is ranked third, Montana is fourth, Montana State is sixth and Sac State is No. 7.
“The Big Sky Conference began in 1963, and 60 years ago, there were five teams and three of those five teams are one, two and three in the Big Sky Conference,” said Mike Kramer, a four-time Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year at three different BSC schools who now serves as the resident Big Sky historian at Skyline Sports.
“That’s a poignant message to a lot of programs that have designs on moving to a different conference at a different level. It was a failed experiment by Idaho to move up and try to stay within the confines of Boise State. They have realized their mistake, come back down to earth and it fits.
“And that sets us up for what will be a wonderful and wild final month of the season.”
Some might say the Vandals are in the driver’s seat entering November. But that reality took a bounce back of epic proportions to get there. Idaho has already played all three of the other title contenders, beating Sac State to open conference play, losing 23-21 to Montana on national TV in mid-October and rebounding for a signature 24-21 win over second-ranked Montana State two weeks later, marking just the second Big Sky loss in two-plus seasons under head coach Brent Vigen for the Bobcats.
“I just loved celebrating there on the field,” Idaho head coach Jason Eck said. “Two weeks ago, the depths of the depths watching (Montana) coach (Bobby Hauck) dance on the middle of our field and coming back and seeing our players celebrate, the joy in their eyes, it was awesome.”
Sac State lost the Big Sky Defensive MVP to the New England Patriots, the three-time Big Sky Coach of the Year to Stanford and a pair of senior quarterbacks to graduation. Yet the No. 7 Hornets still enter Saturday night’s tilt against No. 4 Montana in Missoula with a chance to share the league title for the fourth season in a row if they can win out and get a little help.
The Bobcats looked like an unbeatable juggernaut for more than a month despite enduring a glut of injuries to a variety of key players. But Idaho’s game plan last weekend in the Kibbie Dome was masterful and the Vandals’ resilience was impressive as their ascension to the Big Sky’s elite continues under in the second season under Eck.
“I have so much respect for the football programs at Montana State and Montana,” Eck said. “You’d like to win every game, but to say we are 2-1 against those football programs in our first two years, I probably would’ve taken that the day I got hired. Tremendous, and the future is bright. We are going to keep building this and making it better.”
And then there’s the Grizzlies. Montana dominated the league like no other program ever has or maybe ever will during a run to 15 conference crowns in 17 years between 1993 and 2009, a run that included 12 in a row, including seven straight under Bobby Hauck. Since Hauck returned for his second tenure, Montana has been better than most, but not the dominant squad of yesteryear.
Pundits wondered how Montana would fare this season after a disappointing end to 2022 saw an All-American laden roster struggle, losing to Idaho, Sacramento State, Weber State and Montana State to limp into the playoffs before a second-round loss to North Dakota State.
The doubts around Montana were amplified by a lackluster non-conference schedule and a 28-14 loss at Northern Arizona to begin conference play. But October saw the Grizzlies morph into a ferocious, team-oriented squad led by a fast, physical defense that rattles opponents from start to finish with its violent, efficient tackling. The solidification of senior Clifton McDowell as the starting quarterback has helped steady the ship. And Hauck’s masterful art of building momentum within the scope of a season is conjuring memories of yesteryear once again.
“I like our team, I like how our team competes, I like how our guys in general are not fazed by negative plays and things that go against them,” Hauck said after his team’s 40-0 win over Northern Colorado, the fourth in a row for the Griz. “They just play hard throughout and don’t watch the scoreboard and when the game is over, they look up and hopefully, we have more points than the other team.”
Idaho plays at Northern Colorado this week and Weber State the following week before finishing up the regular-season with its fourth and final home game against upstart Idaho State at the Kibbie Dome.
Sac State will have played the other three powers by the time Saturday night is finished, then hosts Cal Poly before finishing the regular season with the 70th Causeway Classic against rival UC Davis.
The importance of Saturday’s clash in Missoula is highlighted by two primary story lines. First, Sac State has beaten Montana three straight times. Second, the league title dreams of the Griz, who haven’t claimed a conference crown since 2009, hinge on Saturday’s result, as does Sac State’s streak of three straight conference titles. The Hornets bounced back from the loss to MSU by drilling Idaho State 51-16.
“I think we saw a glimpse of what this team can look like when offense, defense, special teams play together,” Sac State first-year head coach Andy Thompson said. “We wanted to play four quarters and I think we got closer to that tonight.”
Montana hosts Sac and travels to Portland State before the 122nd rivalry showdown with Montana State. The Bobcats host Northern Arizona this week and Eastern Washington next week before coming into the belly of the beast for the rivalry season finale.
In other words, plenty is still to be determined in this heated race for conference glory and playoff seeding in the 24-team FCS Playoffs field.
“Whether you are in the driver’s seat in October, it doesn’t crown anybody a champion,” Vigen said. “It doesn’t. Where are you that middle week right before Thanksgiving, that’s what counts. For us to get to where we want to get to, we certainly can’t look ahead.”
The Hornets already have two losses – twice as many as the last three seasons combined — because they opened league play at Idaho (a 36-27 loss) and fell at home on October 21 to Montana State, 42-30. The Hornets’ Big Sky title hopes hinge on being able to win in Missoula for the second time in a row. Red-hot Montana has won four straight games entering Saturday night’s contest, the latest in a slate of “Big Sky After Dark” contests for both the Hornets and the Griz.
“You have to think about the recent history against Sac for motivation,” Montana senior linebacker Braxton Hill said. “You are motivated for any game, but they have beat us three years in a row, that lights a fire under us and it lights a fire under the rest of the team. We have to focus and prepare whatever the game plan is going to be.”
Although Hauck has become accustomed to talking about himself as an “ol’ ball coach,” he certainly didn’t delve into the old adage of the games you remember being played in November. When asked how his emotions changed this time of year, he deadpanned “My emotions are the same every week.”
The Grizzlies are 1-0 against their fellow title contenders but still have November dates against Sac State and Montana State, each of which will take place at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
Montana State won at Sac State but suffered its first loss the following week, falling 24-21 in the Kibbie Dome to Idaho. The Vandals have the most favorable schedule of the bunch remaining and also two big-time Big Sky wins, plus an FBS win over Nevada.
“This is win is huge and puts us right back in the driver’s seat,” Idaho senior All-American wide receiver Hayden Hatten said after the Montana State win. “This puts us where we want to be. We are going to continue taking it one week at a time and continue playing Vandal football.”
After Montana State pushed defending national champion South Dakota State all the way to the brink in Week 2, many wondered who else might challenge the Bobcats during the regular season. Now, for the first time in the Vigen era, MSU will have to prove it can bounce back from a regular-season loss.
The Bobcats’ only other Big Sky loss under Vigen came in the regular-season finale in 2021. Vigen’s staff benched Matt McKay, prompting his transfer and leading to the explosion of Tommy Mellott into the FCS consciousness.
MSU has navigated its brutal road schedule well so far, winning at Weber State (40-0) and Sac State along with the losses to SDSU and last week in Moscow. To make the matchup in Missoula for all the marbles, Montana State must take care of business at home the next two weeks against teams with losing records entering November.
“We have to live in a world where we don’t wonder what last week’s loss does to us in the grand scheme of things, just bouncing back from it,” Vigen said. “I think our guys came in this morning, took that message to heart and went to work.”
