Cats, Griz in much different places right now

Talk about night and day. Because that's exactly what sums up where the Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats are after one week of Big Sky Conference play.

In the case of the Bobcats, they're about where most thought they'd be. A close loss to South Dakota State, but otherwise rolling along. That's what I thought, and boy are the Cats rolling. They just dismantled the No. 10 in the country, Weber State, on the road, and without Tommy Mellott. 

Honestly, I don't even care about the SDSU loss. When the Cats are on, they're easily the best offense in the FCS, and, arguably the best team in the FCS.

Of course, those kinds of things are always up for debate, but you know what's not up for debate? The fact that the Cats are the best college football team in Montana, and it's not even close.

After watching Montana fall flat on its face against a team that got crushed by Utah Tech six days earlier, it's easy to see that, four games into the season, the gap has actually widened between the Cats and Griz. And that's saying something considering how wide the gap was last November in Bozeman.

But it's true. The Griz' loss to Northern Arizona wasn't a fluke. They're just terrible offensively, and they're not getting any better.

Again, that's night and day from what MSU is. The Cats are an offensive machine that no one in the Big Sky will stop, while the Griz are one of the worst passing teams in the FCS, and will have trouble beating any Big Sky team if doesn't get fixed.

Yes, that's right, for the first time in a while Montana and Montana State may very well be on opposite ends of the Big Sky standings when the Brawl of the Wild gets here. 

And while I'm not writing the Griz off just yet, as September turns to October, the two programs are so far apart, you could drive 10 Mack trucks between them, and that's just reality.

Montana will look to right the ship when it faces Idaho State this Saturday for homecoming. The game kicks off at 1 p.m. in Missoula. The game will be broadcast on MTN and ESPN+. The Bobcats host Portland State for homecoming at 2 p.m. in Bozeman. That game is also on MTN and ESPN+.