Sperbeck, the new head coach at Sacramento State, is back in the Big Sky for the first time since 1982, his second of two years playing quarterback at Nevada.
Back then, it was called Nevada-Reno. The Wolfpack were on the upswing in the Big Sky, Sacramento State was 14 years away from jumping into the league, and the forward pass was king.
“All those guys threw the heck out of the ball. Back then you'd see 58-55 scores every week. It was crazy.”
The football still flies around the Big Sky - witness Eastern Washington's 342 passing yards per game in 2005 - but not at the rate it once did. And Sperbeck, one of four new coaches to the conference, figures it might take awhile for those days to return.
Of course another new addition, Portland State's Jerry Glanville, sees it differently. Glanville brought Mouse Davis with him from Hawaii, back to the birthplace, thanks to Davis, of the run-and-shoot offense. But the parts Glanville inherited from outgoing coach Tim Walsh don't necessarily fit his master plan.
“(Their) whole recruiting process was to run the football 45 times a game,” Glanville said Tuesday from the Big Sky's Football Kickoff meetings. “We won't run it 45 times a year. So the recruiting has got to change.”
The league is certainly going to change with the influx of four new coaches, the most in one season since the football league came into being in 1963 (there were three coaching changes in both 1982 and '83, and again in 1998 and '99).
Another certainty is the “new blood” - Glanville is 65, Montana State's Rob Ash is 52, Sperbeck is 47 and Idaho State's John Zemberlin is 51 - is glad to be back in the Big Sky.
Even if in Ash's case it is for the first time, though he is familiar with the league. The former Drake coach has been on the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly the I-AA) Steering Committee for 15 years, for starters.
“Doug Fullerton (the Big Sky commissioner) was at those initial meetings as the AD from Montana State,” Ash noted. “I really feel like I've got a pretty good connection with the whole level nationally, and the specifically I've got to know several guys from the Big Sky during that time.”
Ash's biggest problem is getting his players on the same page. He took over for Mike Kramer, who was dismissed after MSU completed spring ball. No coaching is allowed during the summer months, which leaves four weeks of practice for Ash, his staff and his players to get acclimated ahead of the Bobcats' opener at Texas A&M.
“There will be guys on this football team that I will meet for the very first time in August, when they report for practice,” he said.
John Zemberlin, the former Central Washington coach who takes over for Larry Lewis at Idaho State, has no such problem.
Who will hand off to standout running backs Josh Barnett and Ken Cornist and throw to Eddie Thompson is another matter.
“We're going to be young (at QB),” said the coach, who has sophomore Luke Butler and four freshmen vying for the job. “They made some very good strides in the spring. There's still going to be some wide-open competition this fall.”
The Bengals will be balanced, and have a proven winner in Zemberlin, who hired former MSU assistant Rob Christoff off to coach his linebackers.
Zemberlin, a former Eastern Washington (1992-94) assistant, owns a couple wins over Big Sky schools: His CWU Wildcats won at MSU in 2003 and at Eastern last year.
“I'm excited about being back in the league. It's been a while,” said Zemberlin, who played linebacker in the NFL for six seasons after graduating from Pacific Lutheran. “It's a tough conference, a well-respected conference. No gimmes.”
Sperbeck sees similarities in that regard.
“It's very balanced in the middle,” said the Sac State coach. “You have two teams at the top, and then 3-6 was always a fight. Then you'd have the lower teams that would change from year to year. I think it's still kind of that way.
“Besides Montana, you have the rest just kind of having a shot at those next two slots.”
That could be PSU, which has sold tickets and garnered media favor at a frenetic pace since Glanville's hire, or Northern Arizona. NAU's Jerome Souers, the dean of Big Sky coaches at going on 10 seasons, has been around the Big Sky since he came to Montana as part of Don Read's staff in 1986.
“Our conference has changed quite a bit in the last 21 or 22 years,” said Souers. “People have come and gone - a lot of great coaches, a lot of great personalities. I think Tim Walsh and Mike Kramer did a lot for Big Sky Conference, and Larry Lewis. You hate to see anybody go, in particular some of the ways that that happened. But that's the way our business is today.”
Sperbeck comes into a Sac State program wanting to build another solid Big Sky program. The Hornets are 0-11 against the Montana Grizzlies, and in one of Steve Mooshagian's four seasons brought in 41 new players. Sperbeck is most concerned with getting his Hornets on a consistent path.
“I think if we can take care of our own business and do things right, don't take shortcuts, and be in it for the long haul, I think we'll get where we want to be,” he said.
Sperbeck knows about the long haul. His only other coaching stop, at Foothill College in Los Altos, Calif., lasted 22 years.
It seems clear the Big Sky will keep running and, we assume, throwing.
“Rob Ash is an excellent coach and has a tremendous background,” Souers said. “The names that come into the conference are going to make it challenging. I don't think it's going to fall off. It's going be different, have different challenges, but it's going to be a great conference. It always is.”
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