It is fun to have Mike Kramer back in the Big Sky Conference, as this column from Wednesday probably illustrates. Back in my days at the Billings Gazette, Monday was my Friday and I eventually used that day to build a Big Sky Conference notebook.

The fact that Kramer, as part of his outreach duties at Montana State, was in Billings every Monday got those notebooks off to a great start. During Tuesday’s Big Sky teleconference he didn’t disappoint. Idaho State’s new coach mentioned a couple front-running JC quarterbacks before turning to Brad Kragthorpe, a freshman whose grandfather Dave coached Idaho State to its 1981 national title.

Kramer said the football IQ is high in that one.

“I think for breakfast instead of oatmeal he got a bowl of Xs and Os,” he said.

Tennessee’s Derek Dooley is in his second year coaching the Volunteers, but — mindful that in 2010 he became the third head coach in Knoxville in three seasons — he prefers to call it Year 1 or, in a compromise, Year 1.5. As Montana coach Robin Pflugrad gets his second fall camp up to speed, he might be forgiven for thinking the same thing. But, as he knows, UM is in the 3 percent of programs where 7-4 — the Grizzlies’ record last season — isn’t quite good enough.

Going 6-7 isn’t good enough for Tennessee fans, either.

- Fritz Neighbor