Big Sky Conference Notebook: Dismal opener for some Big Sky teams

Only five of the nine Big Sky Conference teams will take the field this weekend.

Eastern Washington, Montana State, Sacramento State and Weber State welcome the bye week. Of those four teams, Eastern Washington was the only one to win its game last weekend. The other three teams all played against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.

Weber State head coach Ron McBride said he’s glad his team has a week off to work on its weaknesses, adding that he wasn’t happy with the Wildcats’ performance at Boise State last Thursday.

“I didn’t see much I liked because we didn’t play well at all,” he said. “We’ve got to get a little more in sync on the offensive side, and defensively we didn’t tackle well enough.”

McBride didn’t make any excuses for his team, even though they were playing an esteemed Broncos team.

“The floodgates opened, and we didn’t do much to close them,” he said of their one-sided defeat.

McBride said Weber State was going to focus on fixing the team’s weaknesses before preparing for the next opponent on the schedule — Cal Poly.

Injury-filled openers

One of the downsides to playing high-caliber opponents the first game of the season is that players often get hurt.

That was the case for the Montana State Bobcats in their game against Texas A&M last weekend. MSU running back Aaron Mason suffered a hip injury in the first half and is listed as day-to-day. Defensive lineman Brandon Hoffenbacker could be sidelined for four to six weeks after suffering a knee injury in the loss to the Aggies.

Portland State head coach Jerry Glanville has bigger medical concerns to worry about. The Vikings lost two sophomores to serious injuries in their loss to McNeese State. Fullback Bobby McClintock and quarterback Tygue Howland are out for the season with injuries requiring surgery.

McClintock suffered a torn ACL and a torn lateral meniscus. Howland hurt the second metatarsal in his left foot. This is the second season he has been injured — in 2006, Howland tore his ACL in the game against Cal.

As a result of Howland’s injury, senior Brian White becomes the Vikings starting quarterback. He threw for 150 yards on 11-of-18 passing against McNeese State.

Northern Arizona also lost three players in the season opener — offensive tackle Justin Tyler and running backs Josh Sayles and Aaron Jackson — to injuries.

Weekend of milestones for NAU

As if a win isn’t good enough.

Northern Arizona head football coach Jerome Souers notched his 50th career victory in the Lumberjacks’ 47-0 thumping over Western New Mexico. Now, Souers is tied for 10th on the Big Sky’s all-time win list with former Weber State coach Sark Arslanian. Souers is in his 10th season with the Lumberjacks and needs just one win to tie former Montana coach Jack Swarthout for ninth place.

Thursday’s victory also marked the 400th win in the history of the NAU football program, which began in 1915. It was also the first shutout since beating Sacramento State 24-0 in 2004, and was the largest margin of defeat since a 75-0 win over Western New Mexico in 1996.

No luck in the end zone for Vikings

Portland State couldn’t find a way to punch it in the end zone on Saturday.

The Vikings didn’t score a single touchdown in their loss to McNeese State. The only points the Vikings put on the board came from four field goals, courtesy of kicker Chris Chalmers.

MSU puts up first points

Montana State held a brief lead over Texas A&M, when the Bobcats drew first blood at the 9:44 mark in the first quarter.

Quarterback Jack Rolovich hit tight end Elliot Barnhart on an 8-yard touchdown pass, but the Aggies would go on to score 38 unanswered points.