Analysis: Montana appear to be class of Big Sky one month into season

Five games aren’t 12, and plenty of football remains for the 12 teams in the Big Sky Conference.

But five also aren’t nothing, and with September (and August) done, and all but two teams more than a third of the way through their regular -season schedule, those five games demonstrate a thing or two (or five) about Big Sky football.

1. Montana remains a difficult state for road teams to win football games.

The Montana Grizzlies are 4-0, including last week’s 41-30 victory over a ranked Idaho Vandals team (2-3) that a few years ago earned a victory at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The fourth-ranked Grizzlies have also yet to play a game anywhere other than at home (that changes this week at Idaho State), and they still have four more home games to play, including one against Eastern Washington on Nov. 8.

The Eagles just got back from Bozeman, where on Saturday they absorbed a 57-3 loss to the now fifth-ranked Bobcats (3-2), who have had to play elsewhere just once this season. They are 3-1 at home with three more home games left on the schedule.

With larger stadiums and larger crowds, both Montana schools are financially incentivized to schedule home games in nonconference play.

Notably, this year marks the first time the Eagles have played at Montana and at Montana State in the same season since 1999. Eastern’s last win in Bozeman was in 2018; in Missoula, it last won in 2017.

Idaho is not scheduled to play MSU this season.

2. Eli Gillman is the front-runner for Big Sky Offensive MVP.

Even with one fewer game played than most of his competition, Montana redshirt junior running back Eli Gillman has already built a sizable lead in rushing stats, with 542 yards and eight touchdowns.

His per-game average of 135.5 rushing yards is 42 more than that of Idaho State’s Dason Brooks, the league’s next-best at 93.3 per game.

“He’s a great player, a special guy to be around, a great guy in the locker room,” Montana redshirt senior wide receiver Drew Deck said during a Monday news conference. “The offensive line, those guys have been kicking butt up front. Eli’s been making plays.”

One other candidate to keep in mind: Northern Arizona junior quarterback Ty Pennington. Through five games, he has thrown for 1,347 yards, nine touchdowns and just one interception while completing 62.5% of his passes.

3. The Lumberjacks have ascended to early playoff position.

With Pennington at the helm, 13th-ranked Northern Arizona is off to a 4-1 start, its only loss coming 38-19 at Arizona State, which is also 4-1 overall.

Last year the Lumberjacks reached the playoffs with an 8-4 record – they finished the regular season with a 30-18 victory over Eastern Washington – that was built on a résumé without a victory over the other four Big Sky playoff teams. But three nonconference victories over FCS opponents will give them a bit more breathing room this year.

And, this weekend presents NAU with an opportunity to earn one of those ranked wins when Montana State visits Flagstaff.

“They’re a team over the last couple years that’s learned how to win,” MSU head coach Brent Vigen said during his Monday news conference. “Credit for that goes to (second-year head) coach (Brian) Wright and his staff, and then a bunch of good players at the same time.”

4. Cal Poly is at least the second-best FCS team in California.

With a nonconference 41-17 victory over San Diego in their season opener and then a 32-24 road victory over Sacramento State on Saturday, the Mustangs can claim to at least be the second-best team in the subdivision in their state. That’s something Cal Poly hasn’t been able to say in a while.

Paul Wulff, in his third year as Cal Poly’s head coach and sixth in the program overall, has already led the Mustangs (3-2) to as many victories this season as they had in each of the last two. If he wins two more this season, he’ll finish with his most as a head coach since leading the Eagles to a 9-4 record in 2007. That’s a stretch that includes four years at Washington State when the Cougars went a combined 9-40.

On Saturday, Cal Poly hosts No. 7 UC Davis (3-1). If the Mustangs win, it would give them victories over the Aggies and Hornets in the same season for the first time since 2016, which was also the last time Cal Poly reached the FCS playoffs.

5. Weber State has fallen on hard times.

From 2014 to 2022, the Wildcats went 68-39, won at least 10 games in four different seasons and reached the FCS playoffs six times, advancing as far as the semifinals once, in 2019.

But since Jay Hill left his position as Weber State head coach (to become BYU’s defensive coordinator and assistant head coach), the Wildcats have lost their bite.

Following a 6-5 season in 2023 and a 4-8 season in 2024, the Wildcats are off to a 2-3 start, including a 34-12 loss at UC Davis last week. Their two victories are a 42-41 win over a 1-4 McNeese State team and a 38-24 win over Butler, a nonscholarship FCS program that is 3-2 this year.

If the Wildcats finish with a losing Big Sky record again this season, it would mark the first time they’d done so in back-to-back seasons since 2014 and 2013, which bridged Hill’s first year and the last of two under Pullman native Jody Sears. Eastern will play at Weber State on Oct. 25.