Big Sky football: Griz, Cat coaches chew on preseason predictions

When you look at the 2023 Big Sky Conference football preseason polls, it's important to know that in 2022, the Montana Grizzlies were the pick, and finished 8-5.

Montana State, picked second and third by the media and coaches, and Sacramento State were co-champions.

In 2021 Weber State and Montana were 1-2 in both polls, and Sac State and MSU finished first and second.

So this is all pretty unscientific, though it’s notable that this year the Cats are unanimous favorites while the Griz are picked sixth by the coaches and third by the media.

Montana coach Bobby Hauck noted it, anyway, at the Big Sky Kickoff media event in Spokane over the weekend.

“I told (KTMF’s Shaun) Rainey, ‘As much as it hurts me to say this, the last four or five years you guys have been more right,’” Hauck said Monday.

Hauck is replacing a quarterback on offense, needs a punter (again) and saw three All-America defenders — defensive end/linebacker Patrick O’Connell, cornerback Justin Ford and safety Robby Hauck — graduate, but is aware how programs can reload.

An example would be his senior-laden 2007 team that entered the FCS playoffs unbeaten and lost a first-round home game. The Grizzlies reloaded and made the next two national championships.

The current Griz are not at that level, probably, but you can’t really know this in July.

“I think we’ve got a good team,” Hauck said. “Let’s not forget that we’ve won darn near 30 games the last three years, we won in the playoffs last year, we were ranked second in October. It’s not like we’ve gone any place.

“We didn’t win as many games the second half of the season as we wanted to, for a variety of reasons. One of them is, probably I didn't do a good enough job.”

A few tables away, Montana State coach Brent Vigen was sitting comfortably in the favorite's chair. The Bobcats entered last fall having to replace three guys who would make NFL rosters as rookies, and didn’t miss a beat.

“I think we have a group that understands it had better show up consistently each day and each week, and better not take anything for granted,” Vigen said. “I think the way it ended up for us last year was humbling enough” — MSU lost 39-18 at eventual national champion South Dakota State — “to be able to go into the offseason and really work.

“Our guys want to achieve big, but at the same time they know playing in December is something you have to earn.”

Having Sean Chambers back for a sixth season to play alongside “Touchdown” Tommy Mellott gives the Cats another year with a dynamic quarterback tandem — part of a winning-the-Big Sky formula. Just ask Sacramento State.

But as both Vigen and Hauck say, nothing is guaranteed.

“Nobody in this room knows how many games they’re going to win,” Hauck said. “Weber doesn’t know, we don’t know. I think we have a chance to win every week. I always do. I like our team — a lot. Because I’m with them every day.”