Sky waits for a second
Much of the conversation around the Big Sky Conference this week centered on whether the conference deserves to get a second team in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs this year.
Montana (9-0 overall, 6-0 in the Big Sky) locked up the conference’s automatic playoff bid with last Saturday’s 34-31 win over Portland State, and there is some talk about the Grizzlies being the Big Sky’s only representative – particularly if Eastern Washington (6-3, 4-2) fails to win its final two games and finishes the regular season with more than three losses.
In the past, Big Sky teams with four losses have been largely overlooked for one of the FCS’s eight at-large playoff berths. Montana State made it as an at-large entry last season after going 7-4 during the regular season. But the Bobcats, who won their first-round playoff game before falling to eventual national champion Appalachian State in the second round, posted an upset road win over Colorado, a Football Bowl Subdivision school from the prestigious Big 12 Conference, in last year’s season opener.
No Big Sky team has a Colorado-like win to its resume this fall. The conference went 0-9 against FBS opponents and was outscored 439-81.
Those dismal numbers, coupled with the growing perception that the best FCS football is being played back East in the Southern, Colonial and Gateway conferences, have many believing that the Big Sky’s only hope for a second berth in this year’s playoffs rests solely with EWU – provided the Eagles beat Northern Arizona on the road Saturday and hold serve at home against Weber State in their Nov. 17 regular-season finale.
Eastern coach Paul Wulff, when asked if a fourth loss might put the kiss of death on his team’s playoff chances, said he would rather not have to find out.
“I always like to think our conference should get two bids, no matter what,” Wulff said. “But I know people in the Midwest and East think all of those conferences are really strong this year. The way they talk … it sounds like there’s a lot of other strong teams out there and that if a Big Sky team doesn’t have a solid enough overall record, or conference record, the chances of us getting a second team doesn’t sound good – which I don’t think is right.”
Sound of silence
EWU’s Wulff was asked earlier this week if he planned on doing anything special at practice – such as pump in amplified music and crowd noise through a set of speakers – to prepare his team for the thunderous environment it will face inside Northern Arizona’s 15,000-seat Walkup Skydome on Saturday.
“Well, if we had the money to put speakers out there and that kind of stuff, I’d do it,” Wulff said. “But we just go out and practice – go out on our grass field and if it’s raining, it’s raining.”
Block watch
Northern Arizona linebacker Cyrus Igono blocked two punts in the third quarter of the Lumberjacks’ 29-14 win over Montana State last Saturday, raising his season total to four and tying the single-season Football Championship Subdivision record shared by Davidson’s Ryan Crawford (2000) and Sam Houston State’s Robert Herron (2004).
Quick kicks
Montana Bobby Hauck and Eastern Washington’s Paul Wulff both picked up the 50th win of their coaching careers last weekend when Hauck’s Grizzlies outlasted Portland State 34-31 and Wulff’s Eagles turned back Northern Colorado 17-7. … Montana’s win gave the Griz at least a share of the Big Sky title for the 10th straight season and earned them the automatic berth in the FCS playoffs. … Idaho State’s D.J. Clark tied a school and Big Sky record by returning an interception 100 yards for a touchdown in last Saturday’s 52-37 loss to Weber State. … Northern Colorado’s Cristian Sarmento had a career-high 20 tackles in last Saturday’s loss to EWU, giving the junior linebacker seven straight games with double digits in tackles.