George Ferguson Column: Not as bad, maybe not as good as it seems for Cats, Griz

It’s hard to believe, but if you’re a fan of the Montana Grizzlies, or the Montana State Bobcats, the season is already halfway over. But, on the bright side, the annual Cat-Griz game is now less than a month away.

And looking on the bright side is what a lot of fans of both sides of the Divide seem to being doing these days.

Take the case of the Bobcats for example.

Through seven games the Bobcats are just 2-5 and have lost four straight Big Sky Conference games. Yet Cats’ fans, at least the ones I see and hear, are looking on the bright side.

It’s no secret anymore that a lot of MSU fans were in support of the firing of Rob Ash. Not so much because they didn’t like, even love, or not respect Ash, but more so, because the program felt stagnant to fans, and they wanted a change. They wanted a new direction.

And yet head coach Jeff Choate’s first season in Bozeman hasn’t gone in the direction anyone was hoping for. Yes, MSU’s defense has taken a turn for the better, but a sputtering offense, a highly-touted transfer quarterback who hasn’t panned out, and injuries have caused the Cats to go in a direction no MSU fan wanted to see.

Right now, that direction is in the form of a four-game losing streak with mighty Eastern Washington coming to Bozeman Saturday.

But, even with all of the struggles at MSU, Cats’ fans have been surprisingly tolerant. The word “rebuilding” is thrown around a lot in Bozeman these days, and with young stars like quarterback Chris Murray and linebacker Mac Bignell to name a few, MSU fans, even through what is sure to now be a second straight losing season, are holding it all together pretty well.

Instead of lamenting about how bad their team is, and in all honesty, the Cats have been pretty bad thus far, MSU fans are looking at how good the future should be. After all, Mike Kramer went 0-11 in his first year in Bozeman, and, to many fans of the Bobcats, his tenure in Bozeman turned out to be pretty good.

So on that note, even in what has become an increasingly rough season at MSU, things don’t seem to be as bad as they might appear.

Now look at the Montana Grizzlies and where they are at the halfway point in the season. The Griz are 5-1 with a one-point road loss to a very tough Cal Poly team. Montana has won two straight games in which it scored in the 60s, and second-year head coach Bob Stitt has both a Top 10 offense and a Top 10 defense nationally.

And yet, ever the skeptics, some Griz fans are asking, are we really this good?

The answer for many Griz fans will come in the next two games. While some of Montana’s opponents haven’t turned out to be as tough as they seemed back in the summer, the next two games will be that tough.

And that’s because the Big Sky Conference is sending Montana on a road gauntlet with games this Saturday at preseason league favorite Northern Arizona, followed by a road trip to the high-flying Eastern Washington Eagles, where the Grizzlies have never won since EWU legend Michael Roos helped install that god-awful red turf.

So, as good as the Griz have looked, really since an ugly win at Northern Iowa, Griz fans are holding their breath a little. They want to believe the Griz really are that good and are poised to finally make a return to FCS prominence. They want to believe the Griz’ offense, led by quarterback Brady Gustafson, is really as hard to stop as it has appeared the last four games.

But Griz fans also want more proof. And beatdowns of Southern Utah, Mississippi Valley State and Sacramento State in the friendly confines of Washington-Grizzly Stadium aren’t proof enough for most Griz fans.

No, they want the Griz to go down to Flagstaff, Arizona, and beat Northern Arizona, whether the Lumberjacks have star QB Case Cookus or not. No, Griz fans want to see that losing streak on the red turf in Cheney come to an end. Then, and not until then, will they have their proof that the Griz are who they appear to be.

No matter what though, it’s already been, if nothing else, a very interesting season for the two biggest football programs in the Big Sky State. One might not be as bad as they appear to be, and the other might not be as good as they have looked so far.

For both, we’ll find out as the next few weeks unfold, and of course, even if the Cats continue to struggle, and whether the Griz are, or aren’t as good as they’ve looked in recent weeks, it will make no difference when the Brawl of the Wild arrives on Nov. 19.

When that day comes, at least for that afternoon in Missoula, as is always the case with the Cats and Griz, nothing that happened in the 10 weeks prior will matter much.