Big Sky notebook: Kickoff game between UC Davis, Mercer disrupted by lightning storm; Montana State names starting quarterback

Since 2014, the annual FCS Kickoff game on Saturday has traditionally marked the start of the college football season.

But if a football game is officially ruled “no contest,” did it really happen? And by extension, has the football season really started for UC Davis and Mercer?

“You have to hope that enough people were watching that game on TV to remember that at the end of the year,” UC Davis head coach Tim Plough said during his Monday news conference. “Maybe it’s not in the record book, but it did happen. If you used your eyes, you saw it.”

Davis, ranked eighth in the FCS Stats Perform Top 25, flew to Montgomery, Alabama, to face an 11th-ranked Mercer team that drove a bit more than three hours from its home in Macon, Georgia, to play what was to be the season opener for both teams.

They played three and a half quarters of football, and over that span the Big Sky’s Aggies built a 23-17 lead. But then the lightning strikes started in the vicinity, triggering a required 30-minute delay. And the lightning only continued, restarting the 30-minute clock time and again.

“Mercer only has to drive home, and what I was told is if the game was under five minutes, we would have won, or if we were up by two scores we would have won,” Plough said. “But because it was a six-point game and there were seven minutes left, there had to be a decision on if we were going to play.”

Staying much longer into the night wasn’t an option due to travel logistics, Plough said, and since the storms didn’t abate, the game was declared a no contest. That nullified any of the stats accumulated by either team, including a 13-for-24 start for redshirt freshman quarterback Caden Pinnick. He also had 62 rushing yards.

“We knew we were taking a huge risk with the travel and the humidity, but the opportunity to get the team on national TV (was big),” Plough said. “How that affects later in the year with rankings, that’ll only matter if we handle our business in the other games anyway, so I’m not too worried about that.”

UC Davis’ season starts – officially – this Saturday at Utah Tech, which will join the Big Sky Conference next season.

Eastern Washington played in the first Annual FCS Kickoff in 2014, when it hosted Sam Houston State. The Eagles won, 56-35. The Big Sky’s only other appearance in the series came the following year, when Montana beat North Dakota State, 38-35.

Last season, EWU’s second opponent, Drake, also had a game declared a no contest. It came against Division II Quincy, one week before the Bulldogs traveled to Cheney.

This season, Eastern is not scheduled to face UC Davis.

Montana State names starting QB

The competition in Bozeman to replace Walter Payton Award winner Tommy Mellott ended on Monday, when head coach Brent Vigen named Justin Lamson as his team’s starting quarterback.

“I think our team has really embraced him because of who he is,” Vigen said during his Monday news conference. “Beyond his ability, I think what played a key role in his continued growth is that he’s a really good teammate. He’s clearly got leadership capabilities, and we feel like he’s got some playmaking abilities as well.”

Lamson, a junior, didn’t practice with the Bobcats until this summer, after he transferred from Stanford. He appeared in 12 games for the Cardinal in 2024, completing 24 of 47 passes for four touchdowns and two interceptions.

Lamson’s ascension to the starting role settles one of the many quarterback battles in the Big Sky this preseason.

Second-ranked Montana State opens the season Saturday at Oregon; it hosts Eastern Washington on Sept. 27 in both teams’ Big Sky openers.

Idaho State visits past, future Big Sky foe

One of the issues the Big Sky needed to resolve when it agreed to add Southern Utah and Utah Tech was related to scheduling, because so many of the league’s current members had agreements with the two programs to play nonleague games over the next few seasons.

While the league has worked to settle those – adding a ninth conference game starting next season resolved most – this weekend’s games give the newcomers a chance to show how they stack up.

The SUU Thunderbirds play at Idaho State on Saturday, while the Trailblazers host UC Davis.

Idaho State is coming off a 38-31 loss to UNLV, a game the Bengals led by seven points early in the fourth quarter.

Southern Utah, which was a member of the Big Sky from 2012 to 2021, is scheduled to host Northern Arizona on Sept. 13 and to play at UC Davis on Sept. 20 before playing its final slate of conference games as a member of the United Athletic Conference.

Utah Tech, also a member of the UAC, will play at Northern Arizona (Sept. 6) and at Idaho (Sept. 13).