Big Sky Notebook: Two top coaches take FBS jobs, three programs hire new coaches

Montana State advanced to its third straight FCS semifinals. Sacramento State lost a quarterfinal shootout to Incarnate Word. Two top coaches took FBS jobs and three programs hired new coaches.

Troy Taylor was hired by Stanford as the new head coach. He will replace David Shaw. Sac State lost 66-63 to UIW on Saturday night. On Monday, star running back Cameron Skattebo entered the transfer portal. Taylor is the fourth coach in the Pac-12 to take over a team that plays in that conference. He was drafted by the New York Jets in 1990. His first coaching job was at Colorado. After two seasons in Salt Lake City, he was named head football coach at Sac St. in 2019. It was the Hornets' first Big Sky title and their first FCS playoff appearance.

Jay Hill is leaving Weber State for BYU. Hill will make close to $1 million per year at BYU, his base salary at Weber was less than $370,000. Weber is still looking for a new head coach. Hill played cornerback and defensive back at Utah. He spent nine seasons as a position coach at the school.

Ed Lamb was hired as the new head coach at Northern Colorado. Lamb is a former head football coach of Southern Utah. He is succeeding Ed McCaffrey, who was fired after two 3-8 seasons in Greeley, Colorado, and is aiming for multiple championships. The Big Sky added a coach from BYU around the same time it hired Hill. It's Lamb's second BigSky head coaching job.

Hawkins takes over at Idaho State after Charlie Ragle resigned to become Arizona State's special teams coordinator. Hawkins played quarterback at Colorado and was an offensive coordinator at Ohio State, Westview High and Los Angeles Valley College. He also coached Bishop Kelly High in Boise. ISU went 1-10 last season. McCallan Castles announced his commitment to the SEC's Tennessee last week.

Paul Wulff was promoted to head coach at Cal Poly. CalPoly lost its head football coach Beau Baldwin to Arizona State. Wurff played offensive line in the 1980s. He was Eastern Washington's head Coach from 2000-07 and then at Washington State from 2007-10. In 2012, he was a senior offensive assistant for the San Francisco 49ers.

Idaho quarterback Gevani McCoy received the Jerry Rice Award for the FCS freshman of the year. UC Davis defensive back Rex Connors placed fourth in the voting and Montana punter Patrick Rohrbach tied for ninth.