After last weekend's historic games and no 2020, Saturday might be the biggest home openers ever for Griz, Cats

The Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats both open their home schedules with what are likely to be sold-out night games in front of adoring fans who have been waiting literally two years to get back inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium and Bobcat Stadium.

Yes, Saturday night will be a long time coming for Montana college football fans.

And the hype surrounding Sept. 11, 2021, had been building and building, and it was always going to be a big night. COVID-19 made sure of that when the 2020 season was canceled, and neither team played much, or in MSU's case, any football at all since December of 2019.

So while the anticipation had been building, and the excitement around the Treasure State has been palpable for months, last week, both teams took it up a notch or two.

I'll quickly start with MSU.

Make no mistake, the Bobcats looked really, really good under new head coach Brent Vigen last Saturday in what was a narrow loss at Wyoming. To have led the Cowboys for that long, in that stadium - after having not played football for two years, and with a new head coach and staff, a new starting quarterback, and more - the Bobcats delivered a statement about the state of their program - and that statement was - MSU is good. No the Bobcats are really good.

That's right, the Cats should have had a win over a very good FBS program last Saturday, but the fact that Wyoming squeaked that game matters little. No, what matters is the Cats looked sharp, they looked physical and tough, and above all, they looked very talented. So, while the Bobcats may be 0-1 heading into Saturday night's game with Drake, I have a feeling they're not going to be losing many more games, and Cat fans know it. And so, it stands to reason that, Bobcat Stadium, and Bozeman will be rocking Saturday night in what is the first college football game to be played there since an early December playoff game in 2019.

Now to Montana. What can we say about last Saturday night? The Griz shocked the college football world when they took down then No. 20 Washington in famed Husky Stadium in Seattle.

Yeah, yeah I've heard the excuses. Washington is overrated. Washington's quarterback is terrible, Washington was down four receivers. Washington was looking ahead to its showdown with Michigan this Saturday in the Big House.

You know what all of you can do with those excuses? They mean nothing. Even with all of that, a Pac 12 team picked to contend for a conference championship should always, and I mean always beat a team like Montana on its home field, no matter how long the list of excuses were.

But that didn't happen last Saturday night. No, the bottom line is, fans, even some Griz fans, can rationalize and downplay Montana's win in Seattle all they want, but it matters none. The Montana Grizzlies beat the No. 20 team in the FBS, a Pac 12 powerhouse, and that has only happened five other times in the history of college football, and there's no downplaying it.

So, fresh off their win in Seattle, could excitement be any higher around Griz football right now? It was already building as the Griz have amassed a strong team in Bobby Hauck's return, and, they did play two spring games to give fans just a little taste of what was to come. So, even before the Griz took the field last Saturday night, the excitement around Griz football was at a fever pitch. Now though, the excitement has probably started to border on hysteria.

Imagine this. Montana is now ranked No. 4 in the country. The Griz are seven days removed from a historic win over Washington. Full fans haven't been allowed in the stadium since 2019, and the Griz are playing a really good Missouri Valley Conference rival in Western Illinois under the lights of Washington-Grizzly Stadium on what figures to be an emotional 20th anniversary of 9/11. If that scenario doesn't make the hair on the back of your neck stand up just thinking about it, it will by the time kickoff nears Saturday night in Missoula.

Yes, in Missoula and in Bozeman, Saturday night is going to be special. Montana's premier college football teams finally back at home, playing in front of packed houses, after two years of not being able to do that, and both teams are really good.

What a night Saturday is going to be, not matter what side of the divide you're on.

And one more thing, because Montana and Montana State are both really good, let the countdown to Nov. 20 officially begin. Yep, the Cats and Griz are officially on a collision course with each other.