Big Sky notes: Mismatched series has odd history
The Idaho State Bengals are 0-4 under first-year coach Charlie Rangle, who made a name for himself mainly at Chapparal High School in Phoenix before taking over.
The Montana Grizzlies are 4-0, and lead the series 46-13. But this game is in Pocatello, so hold onto your butts.
True, the Griz have won every game since a 2003 double-overtime loss in which a guy named Jared Allen wreaked havoc for the Bengals. The current win streak is 13.
That Jared Allen game was in Pocatello. Odd things happen there.
In 2009 Bobby Hauck brought arguably his best UM team into the Holt Arena: The Griz didn’t lose until facing Villanova for the national title. They needed a last-second Brody McKnight field goal to beat the winless Bengals 12-10.
A 27-14 win in 2007 was harder than the score indicated; the Griz needed overtime to win 33-27 in 2015, with the best team Bob Stitt had as coach.
In 2004 in Missoula, with another team destined to reach the FCS title game, the Griz escaped with a 24-22 win thanks to a blocked field goal with 30 seconds left.
“I would say that Idaho State is definitely off to the start they wanted,” Hauck noted. “We’ve got to be aware that there have been a lot of teams favored in games this year that got beat.”
Kickoff is at 1 p.m. Mountain on Saturday.
Greeley gaffes
Idaho State had a bit of momentum late in the first half at Northern Colorado last week, getting a 51-yard scoring strike from Hunter Hays to Xavier Guillory to tie its game at 14-all.
Then the fourth quarter happened.
First the Bears drove 77 yards to a 2-yard TD run by Elijah Dotson at the 14:23 mark. Then Dotson — some may remember he was an all-Big Sky running back for Sacramento State in 2018 and ‘19 — fielded a Bengal punt and went 82 yards for a score at the 10:26 mark.
Barely a minute later a different Elijah, Taylor, returned a fumble 47 yards for another touchdown.
The final was 35-14, Bears.
“We’re not good enough to make mistakes and be able to come back from it,” Bengals coach Charlie Ragle told the Idaho State Journal. “We’ve done that two weeks in a row now, and that’s why we lost both these games. Plain and simple. The margins for this program and this team at this particular time are very, very thin for wins and losses.”
Idaho State got more bad news when quarterback Hunter Hays, who threw for 264 yards and two scores, was ruled out this week. Backup Sagan Gronauer, who threw five passes at UNC, will start against the Griz.
Hauck Squared
While Robby Hauck was making headlines with his career tackles record and field goal return in Montana’s 53-16 win over Portland State Saturday, his dad Bobby quietly reached a landmark.
Bobby Hauck passed former Nevada coach Chris Ault with his 112th win at Montana, putting him second on the Big Sky career win list.
Ault won 234 games at Nevada, with 111 coming before the Wolfpack left the Big Sky for the Big West after the 1991 season.
“He got the best of me for the most part down at UNLV so I’m glad I went by his (butt),” Hauck said. After a moment he smiled.
“We all know each other,” he added. “It’s an honor. He’s a Hall of Famer. Chris Ault is as good a football coach as I’ve ever come across. All kidding aside, it’s pretty humbling to go by a guy like that.”
Ault still has Hauck by four wins in conference play, with 68. Hauck moved past Mike Kramer to take over fourth on the career list by himself. Tim Walsh has 74 career conference wins, and former Northern Arizona and current MSU-Northern coach Jerome Souers has 85.
For the record Nevada went 4-1 against UNLV in Hauck’s five seasons in Las Vegas.
Cheers in Cheney
Montana State made it two straight vcitories in a tough place to play Saturday, winning 38-35 on the red turf of Eastern Washington.
In a game full of momentum switches, the biggest came with 3:43 left, when — as 406mtsports.com Victor Florence reported Tuesday — Bobcat linebacker Callahan O’Reilly popped the ball loose from EWU’s Micah Smith, and safety Ty Okada recovered.
Two snaps later quarterback Sean Chambers scored his third touchdown of the game and the Cats had the lead for good.
It was the fifth lead change of the game.
“There were certainly opportunities for us to take control of the game a little bit more,” MSU coach Brent Vigen said Monday. “Fortunately we were able to string together enough plays at the end on both sides of the ball to pull out the victory.”
There were plenty of heroes. Chambers, taking over full-time when starting QB Tommy Mellott suffered a concussion, ran for 160 yards.
Running back Elijah Elliott, slowed this year by knee surgery, ran for another 156 for his first 100-yard game since last October against Northern Colorado.
“To get some traditional run game from a running back was big,” Vigen said. “I think we’ll continue to get guys back and healthy, so that should continue to be part of what we expect each week.”
Running back Lane Sumner did return to practice this week, as did lineman Titan Fleischmann, but neither is on MSU’s two-deep for Saturday night’s game at UC Davis.
Mellott has been ruled out against the Aggies so Chambers, a transfer from Wyoming, will be the guy.
Able Aggies
UC Davis is 1-3, but the losses came 34-13 to Cal of the Pac-12, 24-22 at No. 2 South Dakota State and last week, 17-12 against No. 7 Weber State.
Tailback Ulonzo Gilliam, Jr., has run for 365 yards in four games, with 111 coming against Weber State. The Aggies outgained the Wildcats 417-356. Gilliam was first-team all-Big Sky in 2021.
“One-and-3 doesn’t tell the story,” Vigen said of the Aggies. “They were right there with South Dakota State, with a chance to tie. Weber State was back-and-forth. Offensively, (they’re) very diverse. A lot of weapons.
“(Quarterback) Miles Hastings had 39 completions (in 57 attempts). Gilliam is probably as good an offensive player as there is in the league.”
The game, which will be shown on ESPNU, is set to kick off at 8:15 p.m. Mountain.