HELENA – The Montana Grizzlies are heavily favored to win the Big Sky Conference football championship, according to preseason polls of both coaches and media that cover the league.
The coaches unanimously voted Montana No. 1 while 40 of 42 media members polled picked Montana to win its 13th straight Big Sky Conference championship, despite a coaching change and the loss of several key seniors, including two who were drafted by NFL teams. Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.
“We lost a lot of starters, more than most in the league, and there were some pretty good teams in the league,” said new Montana coach Robin Pflugrad. “I know tradition is a big part of it, but those are some pretty good players we lost.”
Safety Shann Schillinger was picked by the Atlanta Falcons in the sixth round of the NFL draft while wide receiver Marc Mariani was taken by the Tennessee Titans in the seventh.
“Expectations are high,” said Pflugrad, who became Montana’s coach after Bobby Hauck resigned to take the head coaching job at UNLV. “You’d rather have it that way than not to have it high and have the stadium half full. We lost a lot of depth, and most of all lost an unprecedented amount of leadership. I’ve never been around a college football team that had a senior class with that much leadership.”
The coaches and media picked all nine teams in the same order in the polls released Tuesday.
Eastern Washington was picked second, just edging out Montana State in third.
“It’s always an honor when our fellow coaches and the media pick us near the top of the league,” said MSU coach Rob Ash. “Preseason polls are very tough to make a lot of sense of because it’s been so long since we’ve played games, but it’s still an honor. I think the closeness of the voting in the polls shows how much parity there will be in the league this year.”
Weber State was picked fourth, followed by Northern Arizona, Sacramento State, Northern Colorado, Portland State and Idaho State.