BOZEMAN — Idaho’s return to the Big Sky Conference means the renewal of true rivalries with four neighboring football programs.
When the Vandals host Montana on November 10, the old enemies will battle for the Little Brown Stein for the 85th time, but the first time since 2003.
Eastern Washington and Idaho played annually between 1983 and 1999 but have only played twice since 2000.
Idaho State and Idaho are among the eight charter members of the Big Sky, playing every year from the founding of the league in 1963 and Idaho’s move up to the FBS following the 1995 season. UI and ISU played in 1997 and 1998 but not again until 2006. Before Saturday’s 62-28 beat down by the Bengals of the Vandals in Pocatello, the schools had not played since 2008.
While the Grizzlies, the Eagles and the Bengals all have rich history with Idaho, the Vandals might have more direct ties to Montana State than any other program in the league. The Vandals play their second traditional rival in a row Saturday with their first game in Bozeman against Montana State since 1995.
“Last time we played them was 1995 and 1995 was a long time,” Montana State head coach Jeff Choate, a Saint Marie’s, Idaho native, said on Monday. “This is what Big Sky football should be. That’s one thing I hope they get squared away. We need to be playing Idaho every year. Montana needs to be playing Eastern Washington every year. These are things that need to get squared away. I think it’s great for our fan bases, better for the league and improves the cache of the league overall. We don’t play Idaho next year so this is an opportunity to play them.”
Idaho’s strongest stretch its first go-round in the Big Sky began in 1982 under Dennis Erickson, a former Montana State quarterback who led the Vandals to 32 wins and a pair of playoff berths before leaving for Wyoming following the 1985 season. Idaho won or shared the league title eight times between 1982 and 1992, qualifying for the Division I-AA playoffs 11 times since Erickson’s initial postseason appearance his first year at the helm.
Choate remembers driving from his hometown of Saint Marie’s on the White Pine scenic highway to “watch the Kamiah Kid (Ken Hobart) sling it around the Kibbie Dome.” Choate was 12 when Erickson took over and installed his vaunted single-back offense, sparking Hobart to throw for 6,676 yards and 56 touchdowns his junior and senior years.
With John Friesz quarterbacking Idaho to a No. 4 national ranking and winning the Walter Payton Award along the way in 1989, Choate was beginning his first season as a linebacker at Montana Western.
A year earlier, Idaho head coach Paul Petrino earned the NAIA National Player of the Year by quarterbacking Carroll College to an undefeated regular season playing under his father, the late Bob Petrino Sr.
“Old man Petrino was a big time winner at Carroll and did a lot of things for football in the state of Montana,” Choate said. “There’s a lineage now with not only his sons but his cousins and nephews and on and on. They are football royalty in the state of Montana.”
Idaho special teams coordinator Troy Purcell was one of Paul Petrino’s classmates at Helena Capital and played at Carroll College. He rose through the high school coaching ranks in Montana, leading Havre to the Class A state championship, its first in 36 years. In 2010, he led Bozeman High to its first Class AA state championship since 1917. The Hawks went undefeated in 2013.
Montana State senior middle linebacker Grant Collins earned Class AA Defensive MVP honors as a senior on Purcell’s last Hawks squad. Bobcat senior wide receiver Johnny D’Agostino caught 11 touchdowns that 2013 season. Will Dissly, an eventual 4th round draft pick by the Seattle Seahawks last spring out of Washington where he was recruited to by Choate, was also on that Bozeman High team.
MSU sophomore outside linebacker Balue Chapman was a contributing sophomore on the 2013 state title team and the Gatorade Player of the Year after leading Bozeman to the 2015 state title in Purcell’s last season at the helm. MSU redshirt freshman inside linebacker Callahan O’Reilly was a contributor as a junior on that team before quarterbacking Bozeman in Levi Wesche’s first season in 2016 after Purcell left for Moscow.
When Choate was hired as Montana State’s 32nd head coach in December of 2015, his son Jory was in the middle of his sophomore year of high school. Choate remembers driving Jory to the high school to talk to Purcell to make sure his son received the off-season program, checking in on Chapman along the way.
“I respect the job (Purcell) did at Bozeman High during the time he was in Bozeman,” Choate said. “The guys who played for him that are in our program really think highly of him and that’s all you need to know as a coach is how his players feel about him.”
Idaho inside linebackers’ coach Bobby Daly was a three-time All-Big Sky selection during his four years starting for Montana State. He was an All-American in 2007 and led the Big Sky in tackles each of his last two seasons. He stared his coaching career at Bozeman for Purcell, mentoring Collins for most of his high school career.
The connections and natural rivalries do not stop there. Nowhere close in fact. Idaho offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Kris Cincovich was an all-conference offensive lineman blocking for Bobby Petrino Jr., Paul’s older brother and also a quarterback. Idaho wide receivers coach Tony Spencer was an All-American cornerback at Carroll in the 1990s and began his coaching career with the Saints.
Montana State defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak grew up in Spokane and was recruited heavily by the Vandals for his skills as a talented linebacker that ultimately went to Colorado. Gregorak coached at Montana from 2003 until 2009, then again from 2011 until 2015.
Idaho defensive coordinator Mike Breske served in the same role at Montana on Joe Glenn’s staff from 2000-2002, then again on Robin Pflugrad’s staff in 2010 and 2011. Gregorak coached linebackers under Breske during UM’s 2011 run to the FCS semifinals. Idaho cornerbacks coach Vernon Smith played at Montana from 2000 until 2004.
“It’s crazy the ties between there and here and me being in Missoula for 12 years…there are just so many Montana ties,” Gregorak said.
“I think it’s awesome and I think it’s exciting they are back in the league. I’m sure some of their fan base is not but I think it’s awesome. Growing up in that area, they weren’t just a good Big Sky school. They were a really good Big Sky school. I think it’s cool for them to have natural rivals again.”
Montana State offensive coordinator Brian Armstrong grew up in Helena. He remembers in middle school going to Vigilante Stadium to watch Paul Petrino lead the Saints to undefeated regular seasons in 1986 and 1988. Armstrong also attended “Putter” Petrino’s camps each year and thought for a good portion of his youth he might end up a Saint. Instead, the Helena High product went to Montana Western where he first met Choate.
“I had a great amount of respect for Coach Petrino (Sr.),” Armstrong said. “He was about as old-school as you could get and he took a lot of pride in that. That’s how they played when I played at Western. They had historically always been the team in the league and because I was from Helena, playing Carroll was always a big game.”
Choate is just the beginning of the Idaho connections among his staff and roster. MSU defensive line coach Byron Hout and wide receivers coach Matt Miller both starred at Boise State during Choate’s time there as an assistant on Chris Peterson’s staff. Like the Petrino’s, Miller went to Helena Capital. Bobby Petrino Jr. offered Miller a scholarship following his senior season.
Van Troxel, who played quarterback at Montana, coached Hout at Lake City High in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Troxel’s dad, Ed Troxel, was the head coach at Idaho from 1974-1977. Mike Kramer, Montana State’s head coach from 2000 until 2006, got his initial entry point into what would become nearly 40 years in and out of the league playing for Troxel and the Vandals, ending his playing career in 1975.
Hout earned interest from all across the Northwest, including an offer from Idaho about an hour up the road in Moscow.
“Being recruited by Idaho was awesome because my older brother had gone to Idaho and was a freshman during the time I was being recruited,” Hout said. “I’d go to the games, spend the day with my brother, get to see the environment there and really see if that was a place I wanted to spend the next four or five years of my life.
“It just felt like it was a little bit too close to home at the time. I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to grow and become the person I was going to become staying so close to Coeur d’Alene.”
Instead, he went eight hours away to Boise State, another former Big Sky Conference school that has had a rapid trajectory to the elite ranks of the FBS.
“This game, there’s a huge group of guys there that get that even if there isn’t a recent history, there is a rivalry there and that this is a big game for them from the standpoint that it’s a little bit of a homecoming for a lot of those guys,” Choate said.
Choate has recruited a handful of players from Idaho to Montana State. Redshirt freshmen Tucker Rovig, center Zach Redd and starting right tackle Connor Wood are all from the Boise area. True freshman defensive end and long snapper Todd Payne is from Idaho Falls.
A total of 18 Vandals are Idaho natives, including All-American candidate punter Cade Coffey, who hails from Rathdrum, and sophomore Colton Richardson, the 2016 Idaho prep Player of the Year from Lewiston who splits snaps at quarterback with Paul Petrino’s junior son, Mason.
The lone Montana native on Idaho’s roster is Seth Schneider, a running back who was a first-team all-state selection in 2017 at Helena Capital.
About a third of Idaho’s in-state products come from Boise. All but sophomore offensive lineman Connor Vrba — an 11-game starter last season at center last season and a starter at guard the last three games of this season — went to high schools in the city. Vrba went to Rocky Mountain High in Meridian, where his offensive line coach was Art Roper, a Montana Western graduate who played with Choate. Redd and Wood also went to Rocky Mountain.
“This game is huge because I know a lot of guys from Idaho that play there so it would be cool beating them because I could almost rub it in their faces in friendly competition,” Redd, MSU’s backup at center and both guard spots, said on Wednesday. “One of the offensive lineman, Connor Verba, was a senior when I was a sophomore in high school. It would be fun to go talk a little trash to some of the guys on the team.”
Choate, Gregorak, Redd interviews courtesy of Brooks Nuanez. Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
