The 2004 season was supposed to be the year the Big Sky Conference would turn into a multi-team dogfight for the league title.

It still may, but early returns show that the ever-powerful Montana Grizzlies are clearly ahead of the pack.

The Big Sky has just four wins in 13 games and Montana has half of those. The Grizzlies have downed a pair of what appear to be solid Division I-AA teams. The other two league' wins (Montana State over Adams State and Portland State over Western State) have come against Division II teams. In the Big Sky's defense, four of the losses have come against Division I-A squads.

The Grizzlies are now 2-0 and go on the road for the first time this year when they travel to Huntsville, Tex. to take on Sam Houston State. MSU and PSU, both at 1-0, take on Cal Poly and Fresno State respectively this weekend.

Montana used its full arsenal Saturday in a 41-23 win over Hofstra. The Grizzlies had a kickoff return, an interception return, a 75-yard pass play and two running touchdowns to go along with two field goals by true freshman Dan Carpenter, who is now 4-for-4 on the season.

The Grizzlies play four of their next six games on the road and should they come away from that unscathed, could be looking at a perfect regular season mark.

MSU appears it still needs to work out a few kinks on offense, but is more than ready on defense and had some positive signs from its special teams.

Transfer kicker Travis Dorowski had touchbacks on three of his four kickoffs and would've been a perfect 4-for-4 had MSU not been offsides on one. Michael Williams, who replaces consensus All-America kick/punt return man Corey Smith, ran a punt back 59 yards to set up a late MSU TD.

The Bobcat offense was out of sync in the first half for a variety of reasons. Namely nerves, as Coach Mike Kramer and several players noted after the game.

Another team considered a contender, league tri-champion Northern Arizona, suffered its second straight loss, this one 24-17 setback in overtime to Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks fell to Arizona the first week and have the week off before beginning league play at home against Weber State.

Eastern Washington, a team that returned 16 starters from a year ago, is also struggling. The Eagles fell hard for the second straight Saturday as Air Force put them down 40-24. They look for their first win this weekend against Central Washington.

Idaho State suffered a humiliating 35-20 defeat on its home turf at the hands of Cal Poly, which scored three defensive touchdowns. The loss drops the Bengals to 0-2 with a game at Northern Colorado, and the league opener at EWU looming.

Weber State fell to 0-2 after losing 32-0 to Texas-El Paso in the Sun Bowl. Cal-Davis comes to Ogden this weekend.

Sacramento State started its season with a resounding 59-7 loss to Nevada. The Hornets host Southern Utah this week, before playing two straight on the road, including the league-opener at NAU.