The Day the Big Sky Made Husky Stadium Stand Still

On Saturday night, the Huskies will host yet another entry from this courageous yet lower-level FCS conference, UC Davis, a solid program but one that shouldn't come any closer than three touchdowns to Jedd Fisch's team.

The UW holds a 21-1 record against the Big Sky.

There's that solitary setback to Montana and games otherwise won by the Huskies on the average of 27.7 points per outing.

The UW has scored 50 points or more on seven occasions against Big Sky opposition, piling up a series-high 63 points -- against a far less opportunistic Montana team in 2017 -- which means these games are rarely close.

Now Montana and Idaho were once considered equals to the UW, with everyone members of the Pacific Coast Conference, but the Grizzlies withdrew in 1950 and the Vandals dropped out in 1959, lowering their football profiles.

Lake made everyone forget just about anything positive he ever did for the Huskies over nearly a decade by having his team nowhere near ready to play the gimme game on the 2021 schedule.

The offense, as devised by the forgettable John Donovan, was a total abomination. The UW scored on its first drive of the day five minutes in and then went 0-for-the-next-55 minutes on the clock.

Quarterback Dylan Morris threw three interceptions, twice to safety Gavin Robertson, now a secondary coach at a college level lower than Montana.

Equally disturbing was Lake's somewhat blase postgame reaction after losing to Montana. He should have been pounding the table and making stern promises of redemption.

Instead, he sort of shrugged, especially when pegged for his emotional response after losing to a team directed by Bobby Hauck, a former Husky assistant coach.

"I don't know if the word is shocked," he said that night. "I wouldn't say I'm shocked. Again, we have a lot of respect for coach Hauck and his team. We told our team all week long this is a formidable opponent. It's always one of the the top opponents in the FCS division. I wouldn't say it was shock."

For everyone else, it was incredibly embarrassing, an ashen-faced, low-pulse response to an incredible fall from grace.

Just one Husky player remains today who played in that game, senior safety Makell Esteen. Only four others are still around from the roster back then in senior tight end Quentin Moore, senior linebacker Anthony Ward, senior edge rusher Milton Hopkins Jr. and senior offensive guard Geirean Hatchett, none of whom saw any action.

It was a wild week, for sure. Leading up to the game, this SI website published a story stating several reasons why a UW-Montana game shouldn't be played anymore, mainly because the Grizzlies hadn't beaten the Huskies in 101 years.

Montanans in large droves got wind of the story and responded indignantly. Every well-meaning fan from Billings to Bozeman weighed in. People felt greatly disrespected.

After the game, the response increased ten-fold. Montana fans left gloating messages, dark threats, an unending flurry of insults. They found every last forgotten email address and Instagram page belonging to the story author and unloaded their feelings.

Imagine an entire state mad at you and determined to be heard.

Full disclosure, the web traffic was so high that week and the resulting payoff so generous we could only thank those outraged Montana football fans for their persistent outrage.

A year ago, the Huskies faced the Big Sky's Weber State, this after they met fellow conference member Portland State in 2022, and both visitors lost badly.

So here they go again, with the UW taking on one of the best teams the Big Sky has to offer but no reason whatsoever to think Jedd Fisch's team won't put in a three-hour workout and move on with another convincing win.

The Big Sky will never beat the Huskies again. Not in 100 years. Right?