Big Sky Week 1

[catbob]

Griz run over (literally) Ft Lewis. 55-0. Hilliard is true to his preseason hype, rushing for 110 yards and 3 scores. But did they really progress as a team from playing such an easy opponent?

ISU pounds SUU, 38-13. SUU is known as a punching bag, but then again, so is ISU. Is ISU going to return to contention form? Their running game sounds solid, Barnett is going to be good, along with a couple new gunslingers in town.

NAU hammers Adams State. 52-13. NAU gets off to a slow start against a tradionally defensively sound team, Adams State, but picks up the slack and romps AS. Is Murietta back to his freshman form? 14-24 194 yards and 3 TDs in a little over 3 quarters. Many in Jackland will tell you yes, but it was a DII team!

Sac St hangs with Cal for a half, then Cal stops messing around. 41-3. Giving up a bunch of points to a DI school is expected, but only scoring 3 points? No stats to tell other than it was ugly.

EWU loses to SJSU, 24-35. EWU was up at half, but that quickly erased in the 3rd quarter. Meyer and Kimble did not dissapoint, however, and EWU is going to be scary good this year, but can they find a defense? Meyer went 23-38 for 372 yards, 2 TD, and an INT. Kimble had his 13th 100 yard receiving day, grabbing 9 receptions for 118 yards. Cole looks to be a force as well, rushing for 85 yards on 19 carries and a score.

PSU gets handled by Oregon State, 41-14. Rubin was able to rush over 100 yards, but Smith was completed just 44% of his passes for 178 yards 1 TD and 2 picks. No sign of their big IA transfer (forget his name).

MSU loses at OSU, 15-10. The Cats were in this the entire game, and couldn't make the big plays when they needed them late in the game. Forced OSU to play its 1s the entire game. Lulay threw for over 200 yards and no picks. Help OSU to just 15 points.

Weber whoops up on Western State, 61-0. Can McBride finally take a team that finished 1-10 and turn them into a BSC contender? Pizzaro looked good throwing 2 scores and 221 yards. Conway rushed for 208 yards and 3 scores.

There were no even games in the Sky, so it is hard to tell how we are going to be. The contenders (MSU, UM, EWU) all performed as expected, or better than expected. EWU and MSU gave a couple IA teams a run for their money.

[Grizo406]

As a Griz fan, it sorta' pains me to say it, but the shinning star, this week, in the BSC, are the Bobcats of Montana State.

They went into Stillwater, played Montana football, and made the BSC look better than anyone else did from our conference. I also thought they made I-AA look good too.

Nice job, Cats!

[Lumberjacks76]

NAU needs to cut down on the mistakes in the red zone. That's what cost them games last year against better opponents. Arizona will chew them up and spit them out if they fumble in the red zone.

Paul

[Cap'n Cat]

As a Griz fan, it sorta' pains me to say it, but the shinning star, this week, in the BSC, are the Bobcats of Montana State.

They went into Stillwater, played Montana football, and made the BSC look better than anyone else did from our conference. I also thought they made I-AA look good too.

Nice job, Cats!


Wish I coulda been with you, the old goat and the goatette at the game, Grizo!!!


:D :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D :D :D :D

[PhantomCAT]

As a Griz fan, it sorta' pains me to say it, but the shinning star, this week, in the BSC, are the Bobcats of Montana State.

They went into Stillwater, played Montana football, and made the BSC look better than anyone else did from our conference. I also thought they made I-AA look good too.

Nice job, Cats!

You need to say "played Montana State football, and made the BSC look better......"

[Proud Griz Man]

Congratulations to all the BSC teams, most of them performed well.

I was mildly surprised at the Montana State performance, but flabbergasted at the lack of Oklahoma State's success. Didn't OK State beat UCLA in last year's opener at the Rose Bowl?

Kramer has done a good job improving the Montana State football program, back to its distinguished high level of the 1970's of Sonny Holland/Sonny Lubick.

Predictions: How many fans in attendance for Montana State's home opener against SF Austin next weekend? No smack, just curious about MSU fan enthusiasm.

p.s. - to CatBob, I think UM needed a D-2 game to get our young quarterbacks some playing time and chance to succeed. We'll get our chance soon enough, to see how they perform against Oregon.

[PhantomCAT]

I think that the MSU-SFA game will be a packed house. Quite possibly highest attended opener (in the current stadium configuration). With our great showing at OK State, I think that there will be some momentum building with the excitement that Kramer and the boys are creating.

No smack intended, but I agree, the griz needed a tune up for their young qb's. I went to the game at WA-griz and honestly was not impressed by what I saw. I thought that Lex should have had the ball in his hands at least two times more than he did. 14 carries, come on, is he hurt? Give him the ball. I think that either qb would be the same result. Neither of them is what the griz are used to at qb. They needed the tune up, too bad they will run into the Duck buzz saw next week. Honestly, no smack intended, but maybe my blue-blocker sunglasses were speaking too.

[Grizo406]

You need to say "played Montana State football, and made the BSC look better......"

I see your point, PC, and thought about that very same thing before posting, but I'm not a Bobcat hater...never have been, don't plan on becoming one, or getting involved in the debate over the "State" discussion that has surfaced out here since Hauck became Head Coach.

If it's a team from Montana, playing an opponent from another state or division, I'll root for the Montana team EVERY TIME. And if that Montana team puts up a good effort, win or loose, be it UM, MSU, Carroll, or Western, I'm still gonna' think said effort was MONTANA FOOTBALL.

[OrneryAggie]

I was definitely impressed when I saw the MSU score on the bottom line last night. Great job by the Cats.

That Suc St halftime score was shocking but I was watching the game on TV and it was wholly crappy play by Cal and not anything impressive by Suc. I think Suc will be better with Hurd this season but the whole Sky looks stronger meaning it could be another long season in sacramento.

And I think you guys have the EWU-SJSU game all wrong. Wasn't the avg WAC score last year in the range of 59 to 56? (that's a joke but hopefully you get the point) Holding SJSU to 35 is decent for a IAA defense but I'da thought EWU would score a bit more.

[ucdtim17]

I think a lot of people (myself included) thought EWU should have won decisively against SJSU. I guess Tomey really does have the team turned around. I thought EWU was going to walk away with it in the first half, but SJSU came back and rolled in the second half. Surprised me

[MSUCats]

I think a lot of people (myself included) thought EWU should have won decisively against SJSU. I guess Tomey really does have the team turned around. I thought EWU was going to walk away with it in the first half, but SJSU came back and rolled in the second half. Surprised me

I heard Eastern had an O-lineman quit this past week. Can anyone confirm and was he a starter? :confused:

How is Eastern's depth? Can they offord any of their starters missing games?

[JALMOND]

The PSU-Oregon State game, I must say was closer than the score. We were right there in in the first half as OSU came out and tried to sleepwalk through the game. A key play I thought was, after we scored in the second quarter to make it 10-7, the Beavers completed a pass on third down at their 25, we caused a fumble and had a chance to recover. Instead of just falling on it, we tried to pick it up and run in in for a touchdown. The Beavers got it and, the next play, their punter kicked a 60-yard punt. The second half, they went to work. We did hold their running game down (that was to be an emphasis of theirs in this game), Rubin ran well against the Beavers D-line, and our QB never got sacked. The only problem was Mike Hass, the Beavers receiver. We had no answer for him (a lot of Beavers opponents won't this year either) and the Beavers exploited that weakness in the second half. Overall, we played pretty well (still have some kinks to work out). We never backed down so I think we represented the conference well.

I can't wait for this weeks Ducks-Griz game, especially if the Ducks try to use the same "sleepwalking" tendencies that the Beavers did this game.

[Obzerver]

No O-Lineman quit from EWU. When Perkins went down(in the SJSU game) his replacement did great as did all the lineman. Meyer will have the time that's needed to do his job. On the other hand I think our D is in question again. This is the third year of the revamped defensive formation and it's not working. We have the players not the right schemes. Depth, whats that?