There are plenty of questions surrounding the Idaho State football program as new coach Cody Hawkins settles in, including who will be on his coaching staff, and whether he will announce any new recruits during next week’s early signing period. While we wait on answers to those questions, there is also a lot of activity going on around the Big Sky Conference. In fact, this may be the most active off-season as far as coaching movement in many years.

Montana State is the last Big Sky school standing in this year’s FCS playoffs. The Bobcats, 12-1, will travel to South Dakota State to face the 11-1 Jackrabbits in the national semifinals Saturday afternoon (2 p.m. MT on ESPN2). So far as we know, no coaches or players have bailed from MSU — yet. But there’s been plenty of activity with MSU’s co-Big Sky champion, Sacramento State.

The Hornets, who were eliminated from the playoffs last weekend in an epic 66-63 shootout with Incarnate Word, lost their head coach and their best player immediately afterward. Hornet coach Troy Taylor was hired by Stanford immediately after Sac State’s loss. Then a day or two later, running back Cameron Skattebo, who was the Big Sky’s Offensive Player of the Year this season, announced he was hitting the transfer portal. The powerful Skattebo, who rushed for 1382 yards this season, didn’t say where he was headed, but would anybody be shocked if he showed up on Stanford’s roster next year?

To replace Taylor, who took a previously moribund Hornet program to new heights and is a three-time Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year, Sac State elevated defensive coordinator Andy Thompson to the head job. Thompson has deep roots in the Big Sky, having played linebacker at Montana, then coaching at Northern Arizona for 13 years under Jerome Souers, 10 of those as defensive coordinator.

Meanwhile, another perennial Big Sky power, Weber State, was also losing its coach and one of its better players. Brigham Young University hired Wildcat coach Jay Hill, who had turned Weber State into one of the best defensive teams in the conference, year after year, to be the Cougars’ new defensive coordinator. Hill reportedly tripled his salary with the move down I-15 to Provo, going from $300,000 per year at Weber to nearly $1 million a year leading the Cougar defense.

As of Thursday, the Wildcats hadn’t announced a replacement for Hill. Meanwhile, Weber State’s two top quarterbacks, starter Bronson Barron and backup Kylan Weisser, both hit the transfer portal. Barron is a third-year sophomore who has thrown for more than 5,000 yards in 26 games for Weber State. Weisser, a four-year junior, was 9 of 13 for two touchdowns in Weber State’s playoff loss to Montana State this season after replacing Barron, who suffered a concussion in that contest.

In addition to ISU, Sacramento State and Weber State, two other Big Sky schools have changed coaches this off-season: Northern Colorado and Cal Poly. The Bears ended their short-lived coaching experiment with former NFL star Ed McCaffrey, firing him with a 6-16 record over three years, including one season that was wiped out by COVID. UNC took advantage of the BYU house cleaning, hiring deposed Cougar assistant Ed Lamb, who also has deep Big Sky ties. Lamb was the head coach at Southern Utah from 2008-2015, winning a Big Sky title in his last season in Cedar City.

Finally, there’s Cal Poly, where head coach Beau Baldwin became the second conference coach to escape to Arizona State for an assistant’s job. Baldwin, who will serve as offensive coordinator for the Sun Devils, will join former Idaho State head coach Charlie Ragle on the ASU staff, where Ragle will coach special teams.

Baldwin will be replaced by Mustang assistant Paul Wulff, a former three-time Big Sky Conference coach of the year at Eastern Washington. Wulff, who left EWU to be head coach at Washington State, where he struggled mightily, led Eastern Washington to shares of two Big Sky Conference titles during his time in Cheney.

What have we learned from all the off-season machinations in the Big Sky? Here are some thoughts:

• Money talks, and there is a significant (and growing) gap between what FBS and FCS schools can pay their coaches. If an FBS school wants an FCS coach, they’re probably gone. Hill was the most successful coach in Weber State history, but when BYU comes calling with a $1 million a year offer, it’s hard to turn that down, even though you’re “only” going to be an assistant.

• The Big Sky is a respected FCS conference and it offers a safe “landing zone” for FBS coaches to return to if they are unsuccessful at the higher level. Baldwin, who was highly successful as Eastern Washington’s head coach, moved up to be offensive coordinator at Cal. He was fired after two seasons, then took the Cal Poly head coaching job. Now he’s getting another chance as a PAC-12 coordinator, even though he struggled as Mustang head coach.

Wulff left Eastern Washington to be head coach at Washington State, where he was 9-40 over four seasons. After his firing, he coached with the NFL’s 49ers, at South Florida and finally landed at Cal Poly, where he was the offensive line coach, then promoted to associate head coach. Now he’s back as head man with the Mustangs.

Lamb turned around a struggling Southern Utah program, won a Big Sky championship and then headed on to the FBS as a special teams coach and associate head coach at BYU. When it became apparent he was going to be let go in the Cougar staff shake up at the end of this season, he landed on his feet with Northern Colorado. He’s apparently taking BYU safeties and defensive ends coach Preston Hadley with him to Greeley as his defensive coordinator.

• The transfer portal is beckoning those FCS standouts who were originally under-recruited. Coming out of high school, Skattebo had one college offer, and that was to Sac State. Now he’ll likely be parsing through several FBS opportunities. Idaho State’s Xavier Guillory, the Bengals’ top receiver and probably best all-around player, has already reportedly received offers from Utah and Arizona State after entering the portal.

Lower division stars have always had the opportunity to transfer and look for opportunities on a higher level, but the portal and the change in NCAA rules that allow one free transfer to every player have created true free agency for athletes who want to test themselves at a higher level.

• While there’s seemingly never a good time to go through a coaching change and all the dislocation that goes with it, including the interruption of relationships with coaches, current players and recruits, this is probably as good a year for Idaho State to endure it as any other, with four other Big Sky schools in the same boat.

Brad Bugger has been observing athletics in southeastern Idaho for over 40 years as a sportswriter, broadcaster and fan. He can be reached with comments, questions and column suggestions at bpbugger@gmail.com