THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: No strings attached at Big Sky Football Kickoff

Monday, we’ll get some answers.

The Big Sky Football Kickoff has rolled into Spokane this weekend for the third time in four years (COVID-19 got in the way in 2020), and Monday is media day.

That’s when coaches and two players from each team get grilled with questions by the assembled media.

OK, maybe not exactly grilled.

It’s more like a version of speed dating, where players and coaches sit at tables around a big room, and the media shuffles from table to table, a few minutes at a time.

SINCE MOST of the media will be from the Inland Northwest, the closer schools will get most of the attention — Eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Montana State, perhaps Idaho State.

Some will stop by to chat with Cal Poly coach Beau Baldwin, who had a successful run at Eastern, including an FCS title in 2010.

Others might stop by the tables of Sac State coach Dan Hawkins and Portland State coach Bruce Barnum because, why the heck not? Both usually have interesting things to say, even if the teams you cover might not necessarily play their teams this season.

I’d already heard the story of Hawkins, when he took over at Colorado, getting an anonymous letter from a parent complaining the players didn’t get enough of a break in their offseason conditioning program.

His response:

"It's Division I football! It's the Big 12! It ain't intramurals!" he said.

It was funny at the time. And, hearing it live from him years later, it was still funny.

Last year, as a guest on sports columnist John Canzano’s statewide radio show in Oregon, Barnum offered to buy a beer for anyone who would come watch Portland State play.

IT WILL be the first media day for both coaches of Idaho schools, Jason Eck of Idaho and Charlie Ragle at Idaho State.

Paul Petrino, who was fired last year after nine seasons at Idaho, is the Vandals’ winningest coach since Chris Tormey in the 1990s. And Rob Phenicie, let go at ISU, always had some good stories, especially about Matt Troxel, who coached with him, and Van Troxel, who helped out a bit in Pocatello when visiting his son.

THE BIG Sky itself seems in pretty good shape in football, with five teams in the 24-team FCS playoffs last year, and one of them, Montana State, reaching the championship game. Jeff Choate, the former St. Maries football star and Post Falls High football coach and athletic director, is in his second season as an assistant coach at Texas. But he built Montana State into a conference power in his four years in Bozeman and last year, first-year coach Brent Vigen took the Bobcats a step further.

Conference realignment at the FBS level, with Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC and USC and UCLA to the Big Ten, doesn’t seem like it will have a trickle-down effect to the Big Sky, as none of the current top Big Sky teams have made any noise about moving up a level.

Publicly, anyway.

If a school or schools are working on something behind the scenes, hopefully Big Sky commish Tom Wistrcill isn’t as blindsided as his cohort in the Pac-12, George Kliavkoff, apparently was.

Nationally, North Dakota State, which has won nine of the last 11 FCS national titles, doesn’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

But with Sam Houston State, the No. 1 seed last year, and James Madison, the No. 3 seed, moving up to FBS, the door opens even more for the Big Sky to win its first national title since … Eastern in 2010.

It will be interesting to see where Idaho is picked to finish in the Big Sky by the league’s coaches and media. The Vandals, who thrived in the Big Sky in the 1980s and early 1990s, have yet to make the FCS playoffs since returning to the Big Sky in 2018.

Eck has created a much-needed buzz in Moscow after being lured West from South Dakota State, which played for the FCS title in the 2021 (spring) season.

Of course, there’s usually a buzz when a new coach takes over.

What Vandal fans want to know is …

Will this buzz lead to victories, and playoff appearances?

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.