If you are searching for clarity, the second week of Big Sky Conference play did nothing to clear up the unpredictable league. Only two teams — Eastern Washington and North Dakota — even managed to win its first two league games while Northern Arizona, the preseason favorite, is one of three teams still in search of a conference win.
Each Wednesday for the rest of the season, Skyline Sports will break down the Big Sky Conference race with weekly power rankings. These rankings are based on strength of schedule, quality of wins, most recent performance and each team’s future in regard to momentum, health and upcoming match-ups.
BIG SKY COMPOSITE SCHEDULE
Saturday, October 8
Northern Colorado at Eastern Washington
Northern Arizona at Montana State
North Dakota at Sacramento State
UC Davis at Southern Utah
Portland State at Weber State
Mississippi Valley State at Montana
1. Eastern Washington — Another Saturday, another explosive performance by the Eastern Washington offense.
EWU quarterback Gage Gubrud/by EWU Athletics
EWU jumped out to a 14-0 lead against UC Davis thanks to touchdown catches from Cooper Kupp and Kendrick Bourne only to see Davis score 23 unanswered points to close the first half up nine. But EWU put the pedal to the metal in the third quarter, scoring five touchdowns in a 35-point frame. D’londo Tucker’s interception return for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter was the final nail in UCD’s coffin and Shaq Hill’s touchdown with 11 minutes left was the icing on the cake in the 63-30 win.
EWU piled up 627 yards as Kupp continued his historic senior season. After missing a game and a half with an injured shoulder, Kupp returned in full force to catch 12 passes for 274 yards and two touchdowns. His yardage total was one short of his school record but boosted him to the all-time Division I record for receiving yards in a career. Kupp now has 352 catches for 5,417 yards and 63 touchdowns, the latter two the most ever by any receiver in Division I football.
Sophomore quarterback Gage Gubrud continued his prolific play, throwing for 486 yards and six touchdowns. Bourne and Hill each caught two touchdowns.
EWU hosts Northern Colorado on Saturday.
2. North Dakota — After an 0-2 start, North Dakota is suddenly one of the hottest teams in the league.
UND lost by a combined five points at Stony Brook and Bowling Green before earning a double-overtime 47-44 win over South Dakota in its home opener. North Dakota hung on for a 17-15 win over Montana State in Bozeman and then posted one of the signature wins of 2016 last week. Against a Cal Poly team coming off a 42-41 win over No. 6 Montana, North Dakota stuffed the Mustangs.
UND wide receiver Torrey Hunt (16)/by UND Athletics
UND allowed just one first-half first down and allowed just 203 yards rushing overall. Cal Poly entered the game rushing for nearly 400 yards per game. UND allowed just 4.4 yards per carry, forcing Cal Poly to throw the ball 21 times. Dano Graves completed 15-of-21 passes for 219 yards and three touchdowns for CP but threw two interceptions, one each by junior Zach Arnell and true freshman Torrey Hunt. A second straight standout performance from Brady Oliveira and quarterback Keaton Studsrud’s best game of his junior year lifted UND to a 31-24 win and back into the Top 25 rankings.
North Dakota lost star running back John Santiago to a leg injury in the first quarter. The Big Sky’s leading rusher reemerged from the locker room on crutches. In his place, Oliveira posted his second straight 100-yard game, rushing for 127 yards and a touchdown to boost a UND rushing attack that totaled 203 yards. Studsrud comlpeted 15-of-21 passes for 249 yards and two touchdowns, including a 74-yarder to Luke Stanley to give UND a 31-17 lead with 11 minutes left.
Nose tackle Tank Harris spearheaded UND’s defensive effort with seven tackles as the hosts exploited a Cal Poly offense missing fullback Joe Protheroe, the Big Sky’s leading rusher.
UND plays at Sac State on Saturday.
3. Montana — Montana bounced back from its Big Sky opening loss to Cal Poly in a big way, putting forth its most explosive offensive performance since Bob Stitt took over as head coach before last season.
UM running back Jeremy Calhoun/by Jason Bacaj for Skyline Sports
Montana turned a 14-9 deficit into a runaway by scoring 27 unanswered points between the last minute of the first half and the 6:32 mark of the third quarter. All told, senior Brady Gustafson threw for 415 yards and two touchdowns, including a 28-yard strike to running back John Nguyen, a 43-yard bomb right before halftime to redshirt freshman Justin Calhoun and a 10-yard toss to a wide open Josh Horner to give UM a 29-14 lead. Jeremy Calhoun’s first of two touchdown runs pushed the lead to 36-14 over the defending Big Sky champions Southern Utah in Missoula.
UM rolled up 627 yards of total offense, its most since 2000 and the first time the Griz went over 600 since 2013. Redshirt freshman Jerry Louie-McGee (118) and junior James Homan (103) both had more than 100 yards receiving while Calhoun (90) and Nguyen (87) helped Montana rush for 202 yards.
Montana’s defense also looked mean as seniors Caleb Kidder and Ryan Johnson and junior Tucker Schye harassed SUU quarterback Patrick Tyler relentlessly, knocking him to the Washington-Grizzly Stadium turf on nearly every one of his 41 pass attempts. The Griz surrendered 298 yards, their third performance in four games allowing less than 300.
Montana hosts Mississippi Valley State in the only non-conference game of the weekend.
4. Cal Poly — Without Joe Protheroe, the Mustangs are not the same on offense.
Cal Poly offensive lineman Matt Fisher/by CP Athletics
The junior is averaging 139.2 yards per game and 6.0 yards per carry as the battering ram fullback who also has big-play ability in Cal Poly’s triple option offense. With Protheroe on the shelf, fullback Jared Mohamed managed 96 yards rushing and Kori Garcia added 60 yards on just six carries but Graves was rendered almost completely irrelevant in the triple option, managing just seven yards on nine carries.
Protheroe’s health will be a key for Cal Poly to get back on track. The defense, led by linebackers Josh Letuligasenoa, Joe Gigantio and Chris Santini, is one of the fastest units in the league and will give most teams in the Big Sky fits. But the Mustangs’ ability to dictate the tone of a game with their unorthodox offense is the most crucial factor in everything Cal Poly does on both sides of the ball.
Protheroe will need to get healthy during Cal Poly’s bye this week.
5. Northern Colorado — Other than EWU and UND, Northern Colorado and Weber State are the only two teams without a conference loss yet this season. UNC started Big Sky play as the lone team with a bye, then notched one of the surprising wins of the young league slate thus far in Greeley last weekend.
by UNC Athletics
Even without All-American quarterback Case Cookus, who suffered an injury in Northern Arizona’s 50-35 loss to EWU, NAU’s offense still rolled up 493 yards and notched 25 first downs as backup Blake Kemp threw for 273 yards. But Kemp and Corbin Jountti each fumbled in the red zone, and Northern Colorado capitalized.
UNC got 107 yards from stud running back Trae Riek and caught a 27-yard touchdown. Quarterback Kyle Sloter threw a touchdown and ran for another as Northern Colorado hung on for a 21-18 win to move to 3-1 overall, including 1-0 in league play.
Northern Colorado’s first two wins come with some skepticism — the Bears beat Rocky Mountain of the Frontier Conference and new FCS program Abilene Christian — but beating the preseason Big Sky favorites, even without Cookus, is one of UNC’s better wins in its 10-plus years in the league.
UNC will get an even stiffer test this week as the Bears head to Eastern Washington to play the No. 4 team in the FCS.
6. Weber State — As lackluster as Northern Colorado’s three wins might appear, Weber has only beaten two of the bottom four teams in the Big Sky thus far. But the Wildcats are fresh off an early bye that should help accelerate injured junior linebacker Emmett Tela’s recovery, a huge key for WSU’s defense to operate at an optimum level.
by Robert Casey
Weber State played stout defense in a 14-7 win over Sacramento State, holding the Hornets to 270 yards of total offense. Sac State piled up 510 against Montana State and scored 41 in a three-point win. Sac piled up 547 yards and scored 34 points in an eight-point loss at Idaho State.
Weber held UC Davis’ power rushing attack to just 98 yards on the ground and held on for a 38-35 win.
If Tela can come back healthy sooner rather than later, his presence plus Tre’von Johnson’s explosive play on the outside and the emergence of Landon Stice since Tela went down will give Weber one of the league’s stoutest linebacker crews.
Weber will look for its third straight win with Portland State playing in Ogden on Saturday.
7. Portland State — PSU head coach Bruce Barnum said he intended to simplify the game plan heading into his team’s matchup at Idaho State following a third straight game filled with PSU turnovers.
Alex Kuresa threw four interceptions in PSU’s 45-31 loss to SUU, including a pick-6 that Jarmaine Doubs took 98 yards with 12 seconds left. Against ISU, Kuresa threw the ball just five times.
Portland State did not have a pass reception in Pocatello. The Vikings instead rushed 58 times for 531 yards, averaging 9.2 yards per carry and missing the Big Sky all-time single-game record by eight yards.
Senior Nate Tago rushed for 199 yards on 12 carries, including a 72-yard touchdown. Senior Paris Penn rushed for 184 yards on 16 carries, including touchdowns of 22, 24, 4, and 56 yards. Kuresa rushed 12 times for 92 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown. Michael Doman notched two tackles for loss, a sack and forced a fumble to lead the PSU defense.
Portland State is one of this week’s biggest movers thanks to finding the identity helped the Vikings win nine games last season. PSU will try to keep its ground attack rolling at Weber State on Saturday.
8. Southern Utah — The Thunderbirds came into Washington-Grizzly Stadium as the reigning Big Sky champions fresh off a convincing win over PSU and the No. 4 team in these rankings. Southern Utah left the premier venue in the Big Sky as a team searching for answers on both sides of the ball.
SUU played without junior outside linebacker Taylor Nelson, the team’s second-leading tackler, and senior safety Kyle Hannemann, the veteran leader of SUU’s otherwise young secondary. The offense went with quarterback Patrick Tyler even though opening-game starter McCoy Hill dressed and played for the first time in four weeks. Southern Utah hung tight for most of the first half before Montana exploded and won going away, 43-20.
Montana’s ability to have its way with SUU’s short-handed defense went into overdrive during a 27-point run that turned a 14-9 Southern Utah advantage into a 36-14 Montana lead. The Griz piled up 627 yards of total offense while the UM defense put Tyler on his back at least two dozen times.
Southern Utah will look to bounce back from its second Big Sky loss in as many years by hosting UC Davis on Saturday.
9. Idaho State — The Bengals earned a breakthrough win against Sac thanks to two explosive touchdown runs by true freshman Michael Dean and a pair of late interceptions. But Idaho State reverted to its old ways as Portland State rushed for the second-most yards in the history of the league.
Idaho State is still trying to find its footing defensively and at quarterback. Tanner Gueller is completing 62.3 percent of his passes for 217 yards per game but he has seven touchdowns and six interceptions. His efficiency rating of 116 is outside the top 10 in the league. The Bengals rank last in the league in rushing defense and are allowing 35 points per game.
The Bengals have a bye this week.
10. Sacramento State — The Hornets moved out of the basement of these rankings for the first time this season after notching their first win in comeback fashion.
Sophomore quarterback Nate Ketteringham threw for 356 yard and four touchdowns, including two to Jaelin Ratliff in the fourth quarter as Sac rallied from a 38-21 deficit for a 41-38 win.
After scoring more than 30 points just twice in Big Sky play last season, Sac is averaging 37.5 points and 529 yards of total offense through two league games this year. Sac moved from No. 13 to No. 10 thanks to its first league win, the one thing the bottom three teams are still searching for.
Sacramento State faces North Dakota in Grand Forks on Saturday.
11. Northern Arizona — NAU still has top-five talent in the league, especially at the offensive skill positions, but four straight losses to Division I teams to begin a season once filled with lofty expectations is enough to drop the Lumberjacks out of the Top 10.
NAU piled up 493 yards of total offense but fumbled in the red-zone twice in losing 21-18 at Northern Colorado last week to fall to 0-2 in conference play. With six games remaining, NAU would need to run the table and get some help to earn the Big Sky crown or a playoff berth.
With quarterback Case Cookus on the shelf indefinitely with an injury, NAU could be in for a long season. But the Lumberjacks will still be able to chew up yards with receivers like Emmanuel Butler and Elijah Marks and running backs like Kendyl Taylor and Joe Logan to get the ball too.
Northern Arizona plays at reeling Montana State on Saturday.
12. UC Davis — Davis edges out Montana State thanks to playing competitive football for almost three quarters against the league’s top team on the road, holding a 30-28 lead midway through the third quarter before EWU avalanched the Aggies. Montana State on the other hand lost to the only winless team on the road by giving up a 17-point fourth-quarter lead.
Davis is at Southern Utah this week.
13. Montana State — The Bobcats saw Chris Murray’s electrifying running ability in Sacramento as the true freshman rushed for 187 yards and scored touchdowns of 17, 59 and 58 yards. But Montana State’s passing game was largely inconsistent, the defense gave up 510 yards of total offense and dropped two sure interceptions and miscues across the board plagued MSU.
Montana State lost to the lone winless team in the league, MSU’s first loss to Sac State since 2004, the week after Sac lost to perennially poor Idaho State, landing the Bobcats in the cellar of this week’s power rankings. A win over Northern Arizona could be the first step in salvaging the season. Kickoff is at 5 p.m. MST.
