ISU to see Vancouver and British Columbia

ISU to make forays to the Land of the Strong and Free

Our haughty Missourian friend at the Idaho State Journal, Dan Angell, has just reported today that ISU will be travelling to Vancouver in August to play a few Canadian teams in order to get an idea of what he'll be working with for the 2010-2011 season. The NCAA amended travel rules last spring as to allow teams to let incoming players participate in foreign trips, so OB checked the budget (it's more of a hospital bill than a budget as far as ISU is concerned...heh heh), looked at the freshmen coming in (lots of them) and figured, what's not to lose? ISU will practice for 10 days before taking off and will be in Canada from the 14th of August to the 22nd. This should be a good chance (a VERY good one) to see what the new kids can do and what we can expect this year (hopefully more than 7 wins).

Montana State in HDTV

Now you can watch this, but in HIGH F'ING DEFINITION!

Montana State, as it was announced, is going HD for its regular season games! This is a major improvement over the usual grainy feed that even Bernie Biermann wouldn't be able to pick his way through. Seriously though, it's a big step in exposure for Montana State. Griz Nation, typically, is poking fun at the whole issue but I think it'd be cool. ISU getting HDTV for football, however, would be an outright violation of anti-torture laws as set by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Just saying...

ISU's 2010-2011 Campaign For Big Sky Conquest

Yeah, something like this

ISU Soccer Feldmarschall Ali Gibson released the soccer schedule a few weeks ago; now here's my take!

ISU will have another relatively young team this season, but it shouldn't be as bad as the 2008-2009 campaign that was comprised of 75% freshman players. ISU will be, sadly, without Lauren Hough, who due to a degenerating back disease, will not be able to play for ISU. Here's hoping Houghie good luck and a speedy recovery, and hopefully she'll finish her last year here at ISU. Also gone is Kat Ford, ALSO due to an injury, but of the catastrophic variety. While trying to block a goal in practice, she hit the pole and ground hard and it messed up her hip and lower back to the point where she cannot play anymore as well (she was in a back brace for much of the remainder of the spring). Best of luck to you as well, Kat, and good luck with pharmacy school! 4 of the freshman class are also gone due to various reasons: Amber Worthen (was on fee waiver, went home after 1 semester because it was cheaper), Krisha Read (also on fee waiver, went home after 1 semester due to costs and health reasons), Shailee Smith (back problems) and Shauna Fleming (decided not to play next year so she could focus on academics).

Other than those 6 losses (and counting of course the seniors in Annamarie Hofstetter, Christina Beseris, grad student Jana Davis-Boehler, and Kacey Ball. But as Soccerfanatic points out in his preseason analysis of our soccer team, ISU had the fewest number of seniors in the conference), ISU will have a young team with lots of very good freshman and returning sophomores hoping to make a splash.

I won't get into much with the player analysis; I'll leave that in Soccerfanatic's very capable hands (and ungodly information skills...as a history major, I am ashamed). He has a full analysis of the incoming class and returning players hyah:

http://bengals.bigskyfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3960

ISU will have 2 weeks to prepare for Marquette, an ironic season opener because former ISU assistant coach Hideki Nakada is now with them. Coach Hideki was well known to the religious followers of the program for his eccentric (and dare I say, well done) styles of dress and his dedication to reviving the program after it damn near flat-lined underneath the infamous Mark Salisbury, famous for alienating almost every player on the team before Ali came along. But I digress. After Marquette, ISU will traverse to Loyola-Chicago to play in front of Lauren Ryan's home fanbase (because Ali is SO awesome like that). Then, ISU will be home on the 27th of August (the season starts early with the Northern Midwest circuit starting August 20th) to host the College of Idaho, and then another game on the 29th against Utah State, who is quickly becoming a stable rival and part of the schedule.

September: ISU will start the month by hosting the Governor's Cup; the last time ISU hosted we won. I still have the newspaper cover from that game when I was just a freshman entering my first fall semester (I had started in the Spring 2007 and not Fall 2006 semester). ISU should finally piece together a good effort to reassert dominance as the premier soccer program of the state (because Idaho is still a few years from having good athletic programs on a consistent basis but is on the rise, and BSU is a football school who has other programs to make it look like they're not). ISU will play BSU first on Friday and will finish with Idaho on Sunday, the 3rd and 5th respectively. The lovely thing about this month is that, unlike last year's tomfoolery where everyone was on the road until October, this time ISU Soccer will have some home games first. The 9th and 12th will see Seattle and Southern Utah come to Pocatello; games ISU should win handily. After that ISU will go on the Big OMG ROAD TRIP!!! of the season to Reno (to play Nevada and San Jose State, giving ISU 4 WAC opponents for the season) and then straight over to God's Armpit (Provo, Utah) to play Utah Valley and BYU (who was SUPPOSED to come up here to play this year, but OK whatever, we'll still have your asses up here in Pocatello come 2011). ISU should beat UVU and hopefully stick it to BYU ala' Elizabeth Lambert, who I feel was wrongfully demonized by hordes of hypocritical, sniveling whiny-assed soccer moms and Internet Tough Guys.

October: ISU enters October hopefully with a bunch of laurel wreaths and victories and a revenge match in mind against Northern Arizona, which incidentally kicks off the Big Sky Campaign. The 7th sees NAU come to Pocatello and the 9th sees Northern Colorado arrive to do battle with ISU. The next week sees ISU traverse to Missoula and Cheney to start fights with Montana and Eastern Washington and then the weekend of October 21st sees the final home game and Senior Day against Sacramento State. The regular season ends with trips to Portland (the 24th) and Ogden (the 30th) to pick some more fights against Portland State and Weber State.

So there you go. Hopefully, November will see the return of the women before the leaves fall off the trees as the hosts of the Big Sky Conference Tournament and riding off into Ali Gibson's second NCAA Tournament appearance and getting ISU's first tournament wins in any postseason tournament since 2005, when the ISU Rugby Club finished 8th in the Nation. Many of the games here are winnable, and ISU could be the WAC's best team if it beats BSU, Idaho, Nevada and SJSU. The team needs to get clicking early and has to keep up the motor all season long. The incoming freshman class is, on paper, arguably the best in the conference and one of the best ISU has ever signed, out of any coach. The returning group is already hungry and one of the most talented in the Big Sky. Everything points to one of the best seasons in program history and the best since 2006-2007, which saw ISU shock Sacramento State 4-3 in a sudden death overtime. It will be a fun season for sure!

Random, Lengthy Thoughts on the Great Montana Move-Up Debate Because I Like Adding Logs to Fires.

College football is home to many, many traditions. The sheer amount of devotion to maintaining these traditions is a passion, pastime, and sometimes of a dubious time-consuming labor. The debate on the possible move up to Division 1 football (OMGBOWLGAMES) from Division 1-AA is one such aforementioned pastime at the University of Montana. No seriously, the only thing that could potentially be more exhausting as far as debates go can only be the Paris 1919 Peace Conferences in Versailles. If you go to egriz.com, you will find literally hundreds of threads, dating back approximately 115 years to the era of panhandling, that have covered damn near every potential awesome thing and pitfall to breaking free of the sinking ship that is the Big Sky Conference: From increased ticket prices to financial windfalls of bowl games and whether a bowl game fit for the petty kings of the Sun Belt is really better than the unseen clash of titans in the 1-AA Championship game that takes place in the barren hills of high-hilled Scotland, you can take in EVERYTHING about the Great Move Up Debate. Now, keep in mind that because Griz fans believe that Missoula IS the center of the college football universe, and that anything that happens there will send massive shockwaves throughout the college football world that will shatter everything you have ever held dear, you must take roughly 85% of those opinions with a grain of salt...Or a big sack of cattle crap.

Now, with this debate, there are several camps that could be condensed into two primary, polarizing forces. There are the Idealistic, Democracy-Loving types who embrace equality and the pure, sweet message of the every child getting his shot on the playground, and there are the more pragmatic, realistic types who, while liking the notion of equality in 1-AA and the playoff system, are looking to the future of their kingdom as the hard-faced cynics and world-minded men of 1400's Venice and wanting a move up to the more rough-and-tumble, Might Makes Right world of the bowl system (okay maybe those Griz fans aren't hard-faced but they are much more accepting of reality than the Woodrow Wilson crowd). The Idealistic side espouses the same stubborn, near-fanatical devotion to keep their idealistic world right and beautiful, to compete in a "pure" system of crowning a "true" national champion. They want to remain here in 1-AA so they can continue their close to 20 years of DYNASTY football running and at Warp Speed 10. They would likely rather die off then ever, EVER play in a bowl game because their view of the world specifically states that Montana shall never set foot in a game other than the one in Frisco, Texas (it was just moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee this past season). If one were to open the head and look at the mindset of these particular Griz fans, you would find their football universe shaped much like the Hereford Map:



At the center of this map is Jerusalem, the very center of the world as far as the denizens of the 1300's were concerned. You have Europe and Africa on the lower half and all of Asia taking up the upper half. Now, let's Grizzify it a little more. At the center of the world is Missoula, in place of Jerusalem. The Big Sky Conference and the rest of 1-AA football encompasses Europe (look for ISU where Ireland is!) and known Africa. Division 1 football with all the bowl games (OMG!) can be Asia. Bowl games to those idealistic Griz fans are an exotic yet evil land, much like how the Middle East was seen by rabid Crusaders before they settled down. If one were to identify the Vandals, Broncos and Wolfpack (Nevada) as the original crusaders who settled down (in 1996 and not 1100) in the bowl system, you'll see that they grew to like the new land very much, even if it didn't benefit them at first (the Crusaders came to adopt Eastern dress, ideas, currency and even a more open-minded view towards the conquered peoples as not demons but interesting folks...the Broncos established holds on bowl games and BCS bids, Nevada has done alright and Idaho is just barely climbing out of their hole to a healthier existence). The original 1-AA teams of BSU, Nevada and Idaho, while they semi-sorta miss their experiences for competing for "real" national championships, have grown into their bowl game kingdoms. Oh sure, they don't like the bowl system, but like the original Crusaders, what are they going to do about it with finite resources? Montana, at least the hard-line conservative types fresh from Europe (1-AA) complete with papal blessings, are looking at these bowl teams who have settled into the bowl system and wonder what ever corrupted these people into their new-found perverted ways? Oh SURRREEE they have new wealth and fancy trading contacts with dynamic, wealthy entities but they have clearly defied the Lord and all that is right! This typifies the prevalent thinking of the idealistic hard-line fans who desire to see Montana right where they are: crushing insolent feudal states and maintaining their hold on the vast, westernmost provinces of 1-AA with nary a challenger except from within and the usual, seasonal long march to the aforementioned lonely battlefields of high-hilled Scotland to do battle with the more populous (and pompous) states of the east.

And in the other corner of this debate lies the more pragmatic, grounded people of the move-up crowd. These folks do not disagree with the idealistic notions of the playoff system; they espouse it loudly and proudly. And yet they also recognize that their empire, while vast, is lacking of people to support it (this is, in case you didn't catch it, a reference to the fact that other than Cal Poly, Montana has little to no competition because there is a great lack of 1-AA power in the West. Most of the power players of the western half of 1-AA moved up 15-20 years ago. What I mean by "support" is that since there are no major 1-AA teams west of the Great Plains and Texas, Montana has no competition when it needs it the most). This is one of the reasons why the move-up gang is willing to swallow the bowl-game pill (the red pill, in case you're wondering). They want to see Montana survive and eventually thrive, and they are willing to risk a few down years to do it. The move-up gang also sees a major world-changing event the rabid defenders of the faith either don't see or refuse to acknowledge: the fading away of 1-AA. The idealistic hardliner Griz fans (using our Crusader image) have said that "God will provide for us!" (i.e., the NCAA won't let 1-AA fade; or they will merge us with the weaker crappy 1-A teams like Ohio-Athens, Marshall, New Mexico State...you get the idea)...both of those concepts are very wrong and dangerous to believe in. Sure, they will cover the playoffs on ESPN or ESPN2. But that's one time out of the year; indeed one time out of an entire season. The move-up gang realizes this and knows that the bowl games may suck and playing a few more road games than home sucks too but if it gets Montana on TV more, so be it (remember Florida State guys? They used to travel all the time during the season for one reason: exposure. It was gutsy and risky but it made them into a brand that's a household name today, even if they've sucked the past 7-8 years).

1-AA football, as I stated in an earlier post, is slowly dying. I'm not going to get into it much here, but I will say that it's like a window into the past of what 1-A football used to be like before the 24/7 News/Hype/OMGVENERATION culture took hold. More teams run the triple-option at this level than 1-A (Air Force, Army, Navy, Georgia Tech are the only major teams that run it today). I'll go into detail on this "window into the past" in another post (I have been meaning to for some time).

In my opinion (not that it's worth anything), Montana really needs to move-up. Yes, it will be costly. Yes, it will impact your W-L record in ways not seen since before Washington-Grizzly was built. But you gotta think about the future, and not 3-5 years. I mean 10-15, even 20 years. I bet you 1-AA isn't around in 20 years. If it is, it will be scarcely recognizable and very much less powerful. Montana, you don't want to be the decrepit old basileus in the ruined Palace Blachernae, staring at the smoking ruins of what used to be Constantinople, lost in delusions of past glories when you were the true successors of the Roman Empire (even if your half of the empire spoke Greek, you were the legitimate heirs to Roman glory). Nor do you want your program to be looking back at the incredible run of playoff games that will likely continue anyway if you remain 1-AA. Yeah you'll win national championships if you stay, that is guaranteed. But will they have any meaning in a 1-AA that has collapsed into a smoldering heap of ragtag teams and wannabes?

News that You've Already Heard

This image of a beautiful news anchorlady is unecessary...oh well

Updating blogs are like workouts. You miss one and more are bound to follow. And when you combine that fact with final exams, extra work hours, and funny/awkward attempts at dating, it's bound that the blog will be dead...like The Bengal Den, the Journal Sports Blog and the ISU Sports website. But I digress.

For news you all have probably heard, I'll go ahead and repeat them here just to give me a warmup back on this thing.

Freshman point guard Morgan Wohltman, who started in games a-plenty and factored in them with uncannily timed (and desperately needed) 3-pointers, and figured to be a crucial part of the ISU women's basketball program for the years to come, has left ISU to transfer to Western New Mexico to be closer to her family, as her father is ill. Best of luck to Morgan (known to this author as "Gila") in her adventures in the Land of Enchantment.

In other news, ISU Softball finished the season with a 3-1 outing vs Weber State; they graduated Megan Miller (all-time hits leader in ISU Softball history) and Kandis Clesson, one of the more talented pitches we have had. Idaho State ended their season 14-39, and 6-14 in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference, good for fifth place in the Mountain Division. As cold as this sounds (and I love those girls lots) but this was expected with as much turmoil as the program has had in the year. ISU Softball continues to be marred by transfers, players out and out leaving the program and the first two head coaches to be forced to resign. Which brings us to our next bit of news. Andrea Wilson has been forced to resign and will be working with the ISU Athletic Department in some capacity. ISU, having finished the investigation, has stonewalled everyone about what they were investigating in the first place and their reasons for letting Coach Wilson resign. Ask a wall for answers and receive cold silence, sirs.

Men's Basketball has signed 8 (yes, 8) new players for the upcoming 2010-2011 season to replace the lineup we have all come to love and adore for the past 3 years (and it's a strange transition for this author as he knows all of those seniors personally and has hung out with them countless times). The link to the recruits is right hyah at isubengals.com

For those who are the eternally optimistic or are downright sadistic (or sado-masochistic...you know who you are), ISU Football tickets have gone on sale for the 2010-2011 season. Hopefully the turnout is good this season but if not...hehehe *giggle*

Rugby ended the spring season 6-1-2 and looks to capitalize next fall with everyone (including me!) returning and hungry for some national tournament goodness.

ISU Track and Field continues Idaho State's lone foray into the great uncharted waters that are the NCAA postseason. John Ricardi (a buddy of mine) is looking for good performances in the NCAA Outdoor Regionals in Austin, Texas and will hopefully win it out today. The same is going for Cassie Merkeley, who hopes to go to Eugene, Oregon with Ricardi (who harbors the same hopes) and make a splash in the National Championships.

So that's the news and now that summer is finall calming down, I can hopefully post worthless bits and pieces under the guise of updating this thing more than once every two months. Ta for now!

The Ups and Downs of the Softball Season and Other Fun Stuff

Since my last post, softball has tried to rebound from their horrible skid in Oregon to the Ducks and Beavers. They've done really well in some games and Oregon-like in others but since they're still fighting, I give my props.

At the Antichri--I mean, BYU--Invitational, they went 0-4. They were beaten by UNLV in the first game 9-8 and would show strong efforts against Cal State Bakersfield and BYU before being wiped out in the 4th game by UNLV, who ran wild with a 19-4 score.

ISU would rebound against the Argos of Great Falls, Montana, by dishing out some frustration in the shape of a 16-1 beating and a much closer 6-5 game. This series against the Argos also saw little Megan Miller earn the All-Time Hits Leader in ISU history! Congratulations to you, Megan! ISU then trekked to Seattle and lost both games 13-3 and 11-9, one of which was lost after a fantastic rally (props!). The next day was all ISU with the Bengals winning 8-7 in the first game and 5-4 the second time around over Seattle.

ISU is home again on Tuesday, hosting cross-state pals Boise State University for like, the FIRST TIME EVERRRR! Hopefully ISU can pull this out and win and get rolling in conference and gain ISU's first conference title since the 2006-2007 season that saw the ISU Women's Basketball team win in Missoula and the ISU Soccer team beat Sacramento State in a dramatic overtime finish on penalty goals.

In other news, the football team has hosted their Spring practices and stuff and because 1) I'm lazy, and 2) Kelvin Ang of the Idaho State Journal has it covered, you can see how things are going hyah:


(On a sidenote, you can see me on there sometimes. Look for my posts as "Bengal Superfan")

On a note about the spring practices, Stew Tracy ran all over the defense with 203-rushing yards. Now I'm not saying I won't praise Stew for getting those yards. That's good, aggressive running, something we didn't bother to have with whatever the hell kind of offense we had last year (I'm still trying to figure out what we were attempting to do. All I saw were stretches and screens. Bah). What I am critical of is the defense for letting Stew run over them like that.

Speaking of getting run over, ISU Rugby ran into a brick wall against the Montana Men's League Bozeman Cutthroats Rugby Club. It started promising enough with some good runs and solid line play but then it deteriorated when the Cutthroats got their back line going. Seriously it is the BEST back line I have seen since joining Bengal Rugby in Spring 2009. We were beaten in the rucks and failed to put pressure on their back line, and we did not tackle well at all. We're hoping to rebound with a potential away match against the Boise Stingrays this Saturday (speaking of which we would have played them 2 weeks ago but the Idaho spring weather prevented much of the team from traveling to Boise).

ISU Rugby is still looking good with a 4-2 record this Spring and could finish 6-2 if we win against the Boise Lions and the match-unconfirmed with the Stingrays. (Both of which are full of Polynesians, which means this blogger will be lining up against 6'4", close to 280 pound mammoths. And I'm only 5'3" and 150...hehehehehhehe)

And as a last note, because every blog post needs a picture...

AWWWWWW! IT SOOO CUTE!

And have a random rugby clip of Georgian Giorgi Shkinin returning an interception for a try (it's just like a touchdown) against Ireland for your daily dose of awesome. To give you an idea how awesome this is, interceptions in rugby are rarer because the ball is being passed laterally, making it a pain to pick it off. Picking off passes in rugby requires skill, timing, and a good level of testicularity.

Kefka Continues Laughing

And Kefka continues to laugh. Softball lost to Oregon State in two games, 12-2 and 8-0. Hey, told you he'd continue laughing. Oh did I mention that before he became insane, Kefka deliberately used biological warfare on a town that was under siege...and he was winning said siege? He did it just because it was taking too long.

Anyways, there's the nerdy side to this blog. Hopefully softball can rebound at St. George, Utah before their first home match next Monday at noon (in this blog author's opinion, it's a ridiculous time. Seriously, whoever makes the schedule must open it up to students and the public better. I mean, Mondays at noon I'm in class and then I split for lunch. Schedule for Saturdays and Sundays at those times if you want, with the occasional Friday. But noon in the middle of the week is just crazy.)