Big Sky Notes: Check out the new guys

Montana wasn’t the only Big Sky Conference football team to unveil a true freshman quarterback this past Saturday — the Grizzlies’ next opponent  did the same with more impressive results.

Sacramento State brought in Carson Conklin late in the first half and he quickly put the Hornets up for good, 21-16, finding Devin Gandy with a 13-yard touchdown pass at 3:13 of the second quarter.

The product of Yorba Linda, Calif., went on to throw for 235 yards and three touchdowns and it could have been more: The Hornets’ first two drives of the second half ended with a fumble into the end zone by receiver Marshel Martin, at the end of a 37-yard pass; and another fumble in which Conklin bobbled a low snap and then lost the ball to Idaho State.

Sac State still ended up scoring the last 37 points in a 51-16 win and Conklin, listed as the No. QB a week ago, is now the “OR starter,” along with the talented Kaiden Bennett. The No. 7-ranked Hornets kick off with No. 3/6 Montana Saturday at 6 p.m.

Meanwhile up in Missoula, true freshman Keali’i Ah Yat was making his debut with the Grizzlies in their 40-0 win over Northern Colorado.

“We’ve intended to play him in each of those games. There just wasn’t a juncture in any of those games where we felt good about plugging in a true freshman in his first college game,” said Grizzlies’ coach Bobby Hauck, though it’s notable that playing Ah Yat earlier than these last four regular-season games might have burned his redshirt season. 

Ah Yat (first name is pronounced: KAY-a-LEE-ee) threw for 89 yards and one touchdown Saturday, leaving him 88 TDs behind Brian Ah Yat, his All-American dad who played for the Griz from 1995-98.

“It’s good to see him spin it,” Hauck said after the game. “He throws a nice pass. We’ll watch the film, but I thought he held up his end of the bargain today.”

Montana’s game notes were released late Tuesday evening and the two-deep showed Clifton McDowell as the starting quarterback, with Ah Yat making his first appearance as McDowell’s back-up..

“We’ve intended to have a two-quarterback system all year long,” Hauck said.

Vandalized

The game of the week of course was in Moscow, Idaho, where Idaho and the Montana State Bobcats traded the lead four times in the second half of the Vandals’ 24-21 win.

It was quite the bounce-back for the Vandals, who dropped a 23-21 decision to the Montana Grizzlies two weeks before, then had a week off to think about it.

“You talk about two weeks ago, the depths of the depths, watching their coach (Hauck) dance on our field,” Idaho coach Jason Eck said. “And then coming and seeing our kids celebrate and have joy in their eye. …  

“I coached them a little bit better. Against Montana, I didn’t have them ready. To see a game like that in the Kibbie Dome, to beat the No. 2 team in the nation? Awesome.”

Idaho is now ranked No. 5 (Coaches) and No. 3 (Stats Perform) in the polls, while MSU drops to 8 and 6. 

Bobcat coach Brent Vigen isn’t happy with his field goal kicker missing half of his 12 attempts this season, including a 43-yarder that would have tied the game with 18 seconds left. But there was also a dropped touchdown pass in the first half and, well, the Bobcat defense had a hard time getting Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy to the sideline.

“Like any game, it doesn’t come down to one play, or our last play,” Vigen said. “There were plays all over that game that if we make them — we stop them and we get them off the field on defense, we make a particular play on offense — the game doesn’t come down to that last kick to get it into overtime.”

We should mention here that Idaho kicker Ricardo Chavez, who hit a 53-yarder Saturday to put his team up 3-0, is the Big Sky’s special teams player of the week.

Bobcat kick Brendan Hall had his troubles certainly, but MSU went 3-and-out on its first three possessions while Idaho built its 10-0 lead.

“I think we missed a couple things on those first three drives, and now they’re magnified,” Vigen said. By the end Idaho had 73 offensive snaps and the Bobcats had 46. 

The Cats also ran 16 times for 111 yards the second half, while Tommy Mellott was 9 of 10 passing for 153 before the final, pass-heavy drive in which he went 2 of 11. The yards were there; just not enough snaps.

Cranked-up Kibbie

Announced attendance at the Kibbie Dome Saturday was 13,073, which pleased Eck greatly.

“The first game I was here, against Drake, our home opener last year, I think we had about 5,000 people in the stands,” he said.

Dangerous Jacks

Northern Arizona visits Bozeman Saturday at 1 p.m., and it’s not lost on Vigen that the Lumberjacks’ three Big Sky Conference wins all came against ranked teams: Montana (28-14), Weber State, which started the season in the Top 25 (27-10) and then-No. 25 UC Davis (38-21).

They also lost narrowly, 31-30, at Sacramento State and at then-No. 15 North Dakota 37-22.

“I think we saw firsthand how dangerous they can be last year when we went down to NAU and ultimately we squeaked a win out,” Vigen said. The final was 41-38, and Lumberjack quarterback RJ Martinez threw for 452 yards and three TDs in the loss.

Martinez later transferred to Baylor, where the junior is listed as the Bears’ No. 3 quarterback.

Freshman Adam Damante, who led the Lumberjacks over Montana, is listed as their No. 1 QB this week though Vigen noted NAU switched QBs at halftime of last Saturday’s win over UC Davis. 

Angel Flores, who is not on the two-deep, threw a third-quarter TD pass and also ran for 80 yards and a score against the Aggies.

Vikings or Aggies?

Portland State plays at UC Davis Saturday and the winner likely has the best shot at getting the Big Sky Conference to five playoff teams, though a lot would have to happen besides.

The game features Dustin Chachere of PSU and Miles Hastings of the Aggies, two more talented slingers in the quarterback-rich Big Sky. 

But it was Jobi Malary that ran for 241 yards and six TDs in the Vikings’ 47-35 win over Eastern Washington last week, which landed Malary the league’s offensive player of the week honors.

The six touchdowns tied the PSU record set in 1976 against Eastern Montana — what is now called MSU-Billings dropped football after the 1978 season — by Jeff Salta; the 241 yards ranks just 14th. It will take a little bit more to catch the likes of Ryan Fuqua, who ran for 393 yards in 2001 against Eastern Washington, or Joe Rubin (356 in 2005) and Charles Dunn (324 in 2000).