Mercyhurst at Montana State - Skyline Sports

[Colter_Nuanez]

It's interesting, in this week's Big Sky Breakdown. Colter and Brooks criticize the scheduling of Mercyhurst saying they wish Msu would schedule a Southland team.
Well... the whole Mercyhurst thing came about because SFAustin canceled the game at MSU with only 3 months notice... So MSU had to scramble just to get anybody to travel to Bozeman for a game, and found Mercyhurst. Not really the fault of MSU, they did have a higher quality team scheduled.

It was my understanding that the Mercyhurst game this year was scheduled. ANd that SFA cancelled a non-conference game last year, so in an effort to fill the slot, MSU called Mercyhurst and said "Let's play 2!"

Also, don't read too much into that whole rant. It's basically us complaining about having to cover non-competitive games. Montana State is smart to schedule an exclusively D1 non-conference schedule. And as long as you are selling out, which MSU does always now, you are taking care of the business end and the competitive end of the football operation.

and after last week, mercyhurst is better or sac state really sucks.

The Sac State thing is super simple to me...they recruited 71 new players under the explicit premise that they were going to the Pac 12 or at the very least the FBS and they had a new stadium coming...then none of that happened and they are fast-tracking to playing an FCS independent schedule that includes playing the best of the Big Sky, Missouri Valley and UAC (worse for Sac than simply staying in the Big Sky).

Meanwhile, they run the "go-go offense", which is a zone-read option and RPO based offense where it's crucial that the QB is a threat to run the ball. And they have a bunch of prima donna QBs who were 4-star guys who are now making business decisions and refuse to keep the ball. Therefore, the offense doesn't work. At all. They had 6 first downs against South Dakota State LOL.

Karma's a bit**! Talk s**t and get hit

[Colter_Nuanez]

[Colter_Nuanez]

It's interesting, in this week's Big Sky Breakdown. Colter and Brooks criticize the scheduling of Mercyhurst saying they wish Msu would schedule a Southland team.
Well... the whole Mercyhurst thing came about because SFAustin canceled the game at MSU with only 3 months notice... So MSU had to scramble just to get anybody to travel to Bozeman for a game, and found Mercyhurst. Not really the fault of MSU, they did have a higher quality team scheduled.

After learning about the team against Oregon and SDSU a couple games to right the ship and fix issues is perfect. At least no D2 game.

Did they criticize um for scheduling a D2 CWU team that was thrashed by San Diego in ‘24?

This is going to shock you but it somehow did not come up. They did do a deep dive into the Mercyhurst wikipedia page though, so there's that.

Also they are keeping up with ‘Talking with Scmidtt’ with a promise last week of a MSU comparable, but they didn’t deliver.

My Schmidt counter part is former Bobcat offensive lineman JP Flynn. We had a scheduled time but then he had a kid break his collar bone (he coaches on Hunter Chandler's staff along with Brayden Konkol and Tucker Yates at Gallatin) and had to take him to the emergency room! Then I was out of town.

We just recorded! So I'll post that later this evening! His monologue as a retort of Schmidt is pretty funny hahahaha

[iaafan]

I don't listen to ones not specific to MSU or high school sports so they can have other shows that meet a different base. Good business. Tom makes a great point that you are either scheduling a patsy or you are one. With an Oregon SDSU start just hard to understand their context of criticism for a particular game.

I’m not sure why Colter is setup like he is. He only has one msu person on his show in Mikey Rider who equals out Tripp. He has Flynn coming to equal out Schmidt. So that’s cool.

However, that’s it. His two other regulars are his brother and Tootell. Neither one of them follows MSU closely but they know UM inside and out. Whenever Colter brings up msu their minds just go blank. That’s a slight exaggeration but you get my point. Colter knows MSU pretty well but clearly not as well as UM. So what you get with these two shows is two people enthusiastically talking about UM and then one person enthusiastic but less knowledgeable about MSU (Colter) and the other guy just winging it. Colter asks Tootell who MSU’s best player is and it’s just dead air for five seconds before he responds, “you tell me.” Wow. Not that he needs to know but say something besides “you tell me.” I like Tootell he’s got a good presence and voice and he’s funny. But c'mon man, you gotta get someone to counteract those two guys. I don’t think either are biased. I just don’t think they follow MSU anywhere near as close to UM, in fact, I know they don’t just by listening to them. Their lack of knowledge is compounded by the lack of confidence they have when speaking.

There’s also probably something going on politically. I have to think that a sports radio show in Missoula is going have a station manager/owner that’s a Griz fan. So, whoever that is might be dictating a few things.

[iaafan]

Just watched JP. It was great. Especially once they started talking MSU football. His takedown at the end was great and very funny too.

I forgot about Sam Akem. He’s actually Rider’s counterpart, according to Colter. So it’s still +1 for UM in the ex player category 3-2. It’s 4-2 if you count Brooks. The everyday guy is 1-0. So UM is +3 5-2.

Like I said I don’t know what the politics are but that’s decidedly pro-griz. I hope Colter keeps digging for more MSU representation.

[tetoncat]

On the main shows I don't care about representation. Just talk football, the weekend games, upcoming game and Big Sky in general. They do a pretty good job here but sometimes let fanndom or familiarity with Griz program impact their comments. On the other shows if you have ex players or coaches as long as your talking about the program they represent we as listeners can just choose to not listen to those.

[coloradocat]

This topic comes up regularly. Anyone who has listened to Colter's content for a while knows what they are getting with every guest.

We can complain about representation or how the Bobcats are analyzed by his non-Bobcat guests but ultimately he's a journalist in Missoula. We kind of have to just appreciate someone of his caliber is covering us at all.

[Colter_Nuanez]

First of all, if we were a fan of anything or anyone, I PROMISE YOU, we wouldn't be fans of the Griz.

Last week, I was out of town. I took my mom to the Sphere to see the Eagles for her birthday. Tootell was in Missoula, as was Brooks. So the coverage last week was admittedly UM-slanted because it was the better game and the one that we had workers at. We had two photographers and Stuber in Bozeman, perhaps I'll start having Tom on weekly to give you more content

Another note - Ty Gregorak was a weekly contributor with a Bobcat emphasis the last 5 years, but he has decided to contribute more intermittently than consistently this year. Although, we did have a hit with him this last week:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4TSwNO ... f410e64836


We've built Skyline Sports first and foremost about Montana State. That was the first Big Sky team we covered and my brother and I have dedicated our lives to covering MSU sports, first and foremost. The MSU fan base remains the slight majority of our website/podcast/YouTube traffic. If you have followed us the last 12 years, you know that Brooks has a deep knowledge of Montana State. And Tootell has a great deal of respect. Last season, 65-70 percent of all Tootell's hits were Cat-centric.

I also have been doing weekly interviews with MSU's assistants. I need to start putting those on YouTube and the podcast feed because it's clear you guys want and need more content. I also do weekly interviews with Bobcat players. I will also start posting those on Skyline channels.

Last point - we employ a beat writer (Stuber) to cover the Cats full time. We do not do the same for the Griz. I write about what I can when I can but I also focus 75 percent of my writing efforts on Montana State. I write a weekly column for Explore Big Sky and a series of 10-15 senior profiles each season on the Bobcats.

Last last point - Skyline Sports has very little to do with ESPN radio, and nothing to do with it when it comes to editorial content. There is cross over audio content because sometimes, we have interviews that fit both audiences. But my radio boss has literally nothing to do with editorial decisions we make at Skyline.

Thanks for the feedback! We will do our best to produce even more Montana State content for you moving forward, including the Montana State Minute player interviews, catching up with the MSU assistants, more commentary about MSU from our regular journalists (Brooks, Tootell), more hits with Gregorak, possible hits with Stuber, plus Rider, JP, Vigen, and our run of senior profiles. I'll start posting our Explore Big Sky stories here as well. Appreciate your engagement and interest!

[TomCat88]

I don’t need to tell you how much I love working for Colter.

[BroncoCat]

It's interesting, in this week's Big Sky Breakdown. Colter and Brooks criticize the scheduling of Mercyhurst saying they wish Msu would schedule a Southland team.
Well... the whole Mercyhurst thing came about because SFAustin canceled the game at MSU with only 3 months notice... So MSU had to scramble just to get anybody to travel to Bozeman for a game, and found Mercyhurst. Not really the fault of MSU, they did have a higher quality team scheduled.

After learning about the team against Oregon and SDSU a couple games to right the ship and fix issues is perfect. At least no D2 game.

Did they criticize um for scheduling a D2 CWU team that was thrashed by San Diego in ‘24?

This is going to shock you but it somehow did not come up. They did do a deep dive into the Mercyhurst wikipedia page though, so there's that.

Also they are keeping up with ‘Talking with Scmidtt’ with a promise last week of a MSU comparable, but they didn’t deliver.

My Schmidt counter part is former Bobcat offensive lineman JP Flynn. We had a scheduled time but then he had a kid break his collar bone (he coaches on Hunter Chandler's staff along with Brayden Konkol and Tucker Yates at Gallatin) and had to take him to the emergency room! Then I was out of town.

We just recorded! So I'll post that later this evening! His monologue as a retort of Schmidt is pretty funny hahahaha

@Colter_Nuanez
The podcast on Big Sky Breakdown cut off right when you asked JP about the Bobcats this year. around minute 26

[TomCat88]

It's interesting, in this week's Big Sky Breakdown. Colter and Brooks criticize the scheduling of Mercyhurst saying they wish Msu would schedule a Southland team.
Well... the whole Mercyhurst thing came about because SFAustin canceled the game at MSU with only 3 months notice... So MSU had to scramble just to get anybody to travel to Bozeman for a game, and found Mercyhurst. Not really the fault of MSU, they did have a higher quality team scheduled.

After learning about the team against Oregon and SDSU a couple games to right the ship and fix issues is perfect. At least no D2 game.

Did they criticize um for scheduling a D2 CWU team that was thrashed by San Diego in ‘24?

This is going to shock you but it somehow did not come up. They did do a deep dive into the Mercyhurst wikipedia page though, so there's that.

Also they are keeping up with ‘Talking with Scmidtt’ with a promise last week of a MSU comparable, but they didn’t deliver.

My Schmidt counter part is former Bobcat offensive lineman JP Flynn. We had a scheduled time but then he had a kid break his collar bone (he coaches on Hunter Chandler's staff along with Brayden Konkol and Tucker Yates at Gallatin) and had to take him to the emergency room! Then I was out of town.

We just recorded! So I'll post that later this evening! His monologue as a retort of Schmidt is pretty funny hahahaha

@Colter_Nuanez
The podcast on Big Sky Breakdown cut off right when you asked JP about the Bobcats this year. around minute 26

The podcaster hosting software keeps doing that! He’ll fix it here shortly.

[TomCat88]

It should be working now

[Colter_Nuanez]

[TomCat88]

This is something that's very near and dear to my heart and I know Colter feels the same way. Such a downhome, grassroots act helping out downhome, grassroots guys. I think you'll be hearing more of things similar to this in the future.

[Colter_Nuanez]

[MTmadeCat]

It's interesting, in this week's Big Sky Breakdown. Colter and Brooks criticize the scheduling of Mercyhurst saying they wish Msu would schedule a Southland team.
Well... the whole Mercyhurst thing came about because SFAustin canceled the game at MSU with only 3 months notice... So MSU had to scramble just to get anybody to travel to Bozeman for a game, and found Mercyhurst. Not really the fault of MSU, they did have a higher quality team scheduled.

It was my understanding that the Mercyhurst game this year was scheduled. ANd that SFA cancelled a non-conference game last year, so in an effort to fill the slot, MSU called Mercyhurst and said "Let's play 2!"

Also, don't read too much into that whole rant. It's basically us complaining about having to cover non-competitive games. Montana State is smart to schedule an exclusively D1 non-conference schedule. And as long as you are selling out, which MSU does always now, you are taking care of the business end and the competitive end of the football operation.

It would actually be interesting to get some clarification on this, Colter! It was the understanding of myself and my friend group of fans that SFA cancelled a home and home with MSU, so Mercyhurst filled both spots in the schedule gaining MSU an extra home game instead of one @SFA.

[iaafan]

It's interesting, in this week's Big Sky Breakdown. Colter and Brooks criticize the scheduling of Mercyhurst saying they wish Msu would schedule a Southland team.
Well... the whole Mercyhurst thing came about because SFAustin canceled the game at MSU with only 3 months notice... So MSU had to scramble just to get anybody to travel to Bozeman for a game, and found Mercyhurst. Not really the fault of MSU, they did have a higher quality team scheduled.

It was my understanding that the Mercyhurst game this year was scheduled. ANd that SFA cancelled a non-conference game last year, so in an effort to fill the slot, MSU called Mercyhurst and said "Let's play 2!"

Also, don't read too much into that whole rant. It's basically us complaining about having to cover non-competitive games. Montana State is smart to schedule an exclusively D1 non-conference schedule. And as long as you are selling out, which MSU does always now, you are taking care of the business end and the competitive end of the football operation.

It would actually be interesting to get some clarification on this, Colter! It was the understanding of myself and my friend group of fans that SFA cancelled a home and home with MSU, so Mercyhurst filled both spots in the schedule gaining MSU an extra home game instead of one @SFA.

https://406mtsports.com/college/big-sky ... c231c.html
Colter is mostly correct.
I think MSU was just showing its gratitude to Mercyhurst for bailing it out last year. MSU could’ve went looking for a home and home against a more recognizable team but had an opportunity to just bring in Mercyhurst and took the simplest path.