Frontier Conference Football: Week 3 top performers, storylines to follow, players of the week
HELENA — Only two Frontier Conference football teams were in action on Saturday as the other six enjoyed an open date, or bye week, to mark the quarter poll of the 12-week regular season.
Conference play resumes on Saturday for all eight programs as they work toward settling a four-way log jam for third and a two-way tie for first in the league standings.
One streak ends and another begins
For the first time under second-year head coach Kyle Samson, the Montana Tech Orediggers are ranked in a national football poll. At No. 21, it is the highest Tech has been ranked since Nov. 4, 2019 (No. 17).
The Orediggers are 2-0 this season with victories over Eastern Oregon and Carroll College. They currently pace the Frontier in passing yards per game (272.5), are second in points per game (32), and third in yards per game (412).
Seven teams from the preseason edition were knocked out of the NAIA Coaches’ Top-25 poll released on Monday.
One of them was Rocky Mountain College.
It is the first time since Sept. 27 of last year that the Battlin’ Bears have not been ranked inside the top-25, snapping a streak of nine consecutive rankings.
That was tied for the 14th-longest active streak in the NAIA.
The Battlin’ Bears, who shared the Frontier regular-season title with Montana Western and College of Idaho last season, are off to a 1-1 start in 2022 and received seven votes in Monday’s poll after garnering a 19th-place ranking in the preseason.
A year ago this week, Eastern Oregon beat Carroll to begin the 2021 season 3-0. It was the first since 2011 that the Mountaineers had accomplished that feat.
From that point, EOU lost six of its final seven games to finish 4-6.
Unfortunately for the Mountaineers, a new season hasn’t brought different results. A 33-7 non-conference loss to Whitworth (NCAA Division III) on Saturday dropped EOU to 0-3 (0-2 Frontier).
It is the first time EOU has begun a season winless through three games since 2015.
EU has now lost eight of its last nine conference games and nine of its last 10 overall.
The Mountaineers currently rank seventh in the Frontier in points per game (8.5) and sixth in yards per game (206). They also rank near the bottom of the conference in points allowed per game (43) and yards allowed (432).
A new team
By the time Arizona Christian University joins the Frontier Conference as a football-only member next fall, it will have been nine years since a new team joined the league’s ranks.
On Thursday, the conference announced ACU would become its ninth football-playing member beginning in 2023, adding yet another top-25-caliber team to an already competitive lineup.