Big Sky Conference

Amidst heated rivalry, EWU holds recent edge over MSU

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DeNarius McGhee remembers during his playing days, the road to the Big Sky Conference championship went from Cheney, Washington to Bozeman, Montana with a stop in Missoula in between. Lately though, that road has made a full circle around Roos Field, nothing more.

McGhee led Montana State to three straight Big Sky titles between 2010 and 2012. The Montana State quarterback led MSU to 37 wins in his four years as the starter under center, including a resounding 30-7 win over EWU in 2010, a signature win during MSU’s first league title season of the decade. That EWU team did not lose again, ripping off eight straight victories en rout to the national championship, the last FCS crown claimed by a Big Sky team.

McGhee, the 2010 and 2012 Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year, and the Bobcats shared the league title with the Grizzlies in 2011. EWU posted a 27-24 win in Bozeman over MSU in 2012 to help the Eagles share the league crown with the ‘Cats that fall.

Eastern Washington has won three of the last four league crowns and five of seven dating back to McGhee’s redshirt freshman season. McGhee led the Bobcats to the conference championship as a junior in 2012 but the Bobcats have been searching for similar form ever since.

On Saturday, the Bobcats continue their rebuilding quest against a suddenly surging Eagle outfit that has won four straight this year. EWU enters the matchup having won 56 of its last 63 Big Sky games dating back to 2009, including four straight wins over the Bobcats.

Montana State quarterbacks coach DeNarius McGhee/ by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State quarterbacks coach DeNarius McGhee

Those were some great competitions between some really good teams,” McGhee, Montana State’s quarterbacks coach now, said on Monday. “It was either Eastern, Montana or us at the time that was winning the Big Sky title. Whoever won those two games usually won the title. Whoever was the best player on one of those three teams was usually the one who is winning the defensive MVP of the league or the offensive MVP of the league.

“Every game is a big game, of course, but this is a big game. This is a game we need to continue on the path to accomplish our goals.”

Ty Gregorak has no shortage of memories against Eastern Washington. Montana State’s second-year defensive coordinator spent 11 seasons prior at Montana. Saturday in Cheney will mark his 15th career matchup against EWU. He carries a 10-4 mark into the game against Eastern. But Montana’s 57-14 win over EWU in Missoula in 2015 is one of only two wins since 2011 that Gregorak has posted as a coordinator over the Eagles.

Still, EWU’s coaches and players remember Gregorak and expect another competitive showing in Cheney on Saturday.

“Coach Gregorak has been a thorn in our side for a lot of years,” EWU first-year head coach Aaron Best, the offensive line coach for more than a decade before taking over, said on Wednesday. “We have had a lot of great battles when he was in Missoula and then his first year in Bozeman last year. He gets his guys to play, No. 1. They play hard, they play relentless. It doesn’t matter who he’s coaching or the scheme they are in. They will play relentless. When you are relentless, good things happen.”

Montana State defensive coordinator during MSU's 30-22 win over Portland State/ by Brooks Nuanez

Montana State defensive coordinator during MSU’s 30-22 win over Portland State

McGhee’s Bobcats owned Eastern at the beginning of the decade only to see the trend reversed. Behind then-freshman quarterback Vernon Adams, the Eagles posted a 27-24 victory over Montana State in Bozeman in 2012, MSU’s only regular-season loss during a 11-2 season. In 2013, the Bobcats gave up eight touchdowns in eight possessions, a premonition of things to come in terms of MSU’s defensive demise.

In 2014, Adams rallied EWU for an epic 52-51 victory in Bozeman. The following year, MSU rolled up more than 700 yards of total offense but lost 55-50.

“My first few years here, it was straight shootouts,” MSU senior captain wide receiver Mitch Herbert said. “Last year, have jumped on us and ran away with it (41-17 in Bozeman). We are going to have to put points on the board to compete offensively.” 

Montana State is fresh off a 30-22 win over winless Portland State that was not as close as the final score. The Bobcats rushed 57 times for 407 yards, the sixth-highest total in school history. If not for a collection of missed red-zone opportunities, the Bobcats would’ve run away from the Vikings. The Bobcats only threw the ball nine times in the win, partially because of a stiff north to south wind, partially because they did not need to throw.

Montana State's Mitch Herbert makes a one-handed catch in a 55-50 loss to Eastern Washington in 2015.

Montana State’s Mitch Herbert makes a one-handed catch in a 55-50 loss to Eastern Washington in 2015.

“I always chuckle when people talk about being one-dimensional,” MSU head coach Jeff Choate said. “There’s a huge difference in my mind from being one-dimensional throwing the ball because you can’t run it and being one-dimensional and running it because they can’t stop you. If you have ever been on the sideline when that is taking place, there is no more demoralizing feeling than watching a team line up in 21 personnel, line up, hand it to the running back and chunk off seven yards per carry.”

The Eagles have been the class of the Big Sky for the duration of the decade, including during last season’s undefeated run through the league. That group claimed three conference championships in four seasons led by the standout wide receiver group of Cooper Kupp, Kendrick Bourne and Shaq Hill, all who got shots in the NFL.

Kupp was a third-round draft pick and is starring for the Los Angeles Rams. Bourne is on the active roster for the San Francisco 49ers. Hill played with the Tampa Bay Bucs until the final cut. Last season’s EWU team also included All-American defensive end Samson Ebukam, a fourth-round draft pick by the Rams.

“Eastern has always done a great job of getting athletes,” Gregorak said. “Tough to replace the one for sure in Cooper. Where Cooper Kupp was so dang good, other guys around him were great players. I don’t think you can replace those three dudes but they have guys who are are really, really good players.”

Eastern stumbled out of the gates. Texas Tech and North Dakota State made the Eagles’ high-powered offense look pedestrian as Eastern started 0-2. Since then, junior quarterback Gage Gubrud has been red hot — he’s thrown for at least 399 yards in four straight games — and the Eagles are 4-0 over the last month. EWU scores 42 second-half points in a 48-41 win at Montana to spark the current four-game streak.

MSU's Grant Collins misses a tackle against EWU's Cooper Kupp in 2015

MSU’s Grant Collins misses a tackle against EWU’s Cooper Kupp in 2015

“Late in games, when we are facing adversity, we know how to keep our composure,” EWU junior wide receiver Nsimba Webster, who is second on the team with 40 catches for a team-best 488 yards, said on Wednesday. “We always try to find a way. We keep ourselves in the right mindset that the game is never over. We know we will give ourselves an opportunity to make the plays to come out on top.”

Eastern Washington claims its rival as Montana even if the Grizzlies deny the notion. Montana State has long considered EWU a secondary rival to the Griz as well. The 2014 and 2015 versions of the matchup were non-conference games because of the nature of those seasons’ Big Sky Conference schedules, yet the teams still chose to play. Even those matchups early on in the campaigns held huge ramifications. That has not been the case as the Bobcats enter the second game under Choate’s direction against EWU, including the first on the Inferno. Yet the Bobcats still conjure up some extra juice for the trip West on I-90.

“Definitely a rivalry game,” MSU senior cornerback Bryce Alley said. “This is one of the biggest games of the year ever since I’ve been here. It’s going to be a great one. This year, we are going to the red field. This is always a battle.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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