Mike Kramer can remember the exact moment he knew Michael Rider was destined to become a football coach. And if Kramer had anything to do with it, Kane Ioane would be coaching for him.
On Saturday, Kramer will lead the Idaho State Bengals against Rider, Ioane and the Montana State Bobcats. Kramer is in his fifth season trying to rebuild an ISU program that was in tatters when he took it over. Ioane and Rider are defensive coaches for the Bobcats.
Former MSU head coach and current ISU head coach Mike Kramer/AP Jack Dempsey
Kramer has been here before. When he took over at Montana State in 2000, the Bobcats did not win a game as Ioane and a collection of freshmen were thrown into the fire right away. By the time Ioane was a senior, MSU ended “The Streak”, defeating rival Montana in two consecutive years as Ioane culminated his Hall of Fame career by earning Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP honors in 2003. By the time Rider signed with MSU before the 2006 season, Kramer’s last, the Bobcats had captured a share of three Big Sky Conference crowns. As Rider redshirted in the fall of 2006, he would watch Kramer lead the Bobcats to their first playoff victory since 1984.
“It’s a very poignant week for us in my household when we play Montana State,” Kramer said on Wednesday. “Hopefully we play well enough to show how much we’ve grown and risen since we left.”
Kramer’s staff includes former Montana State All-America linebacker Roger Cooper, ISU’s assistant head coach for defense and former defensive coordinator. Cooper played with Ioane on several Bobcat defenses and culminated his career by earning 2004 Big Sky Defensive MVP honors. Cooper wasn’t the only former pupil Kramer tried to hire when he took over in Pocatello in 2011.
“A few years ago, I tried awfully hard to hire that kid (Ioane),” Kramer said with his customary chuckle. “He’s been nothing but a great Bobcat since the moment he said, ‘I want to be a part of your program, Coach Kramer.’ That’s one of the cool things that a lot of people really need to understand. Kane is about being a Bobcat. He became a Bobcat when it was not fashionable, when it was not cool. As an in-state kid, if you said you wanted to be a Bobcat, you risked the derision of your classmates whether you were in grade school or high school or middle school.”
Former MSU Hall of Fame safety Kane Ioane vs. UM 2002/MSU Athletics
Ioane signed with Montana State when the Bobcats were entrenched in darker days. In the 13 seasons since Dave Arnold was fired, Earle Solmonson and Cliff Hysell combined to lead MSU to a 56-87 record that included losses to the rival Grizzlies every single season. Meanwhile, Montana was in the midst of an unprecedented run of success that would eventually reach 17 straight playoff berths, 15 Big Sky titles and a generation of consecutive wins over the ‘Cats.
When Kramer took over, he tried to change the landscape instantly. He signed more than 40 new players and started a slew of freshmen right away. The result was an 0-11 season but two years later, Ioane, Travis Lulay and a group of Bobcats led MSU to a 10-7 win in Missoula. The program has ridden the momentum of the turn around ever since, winning six Big Sky titles and advancing to the FCS playoffs seven times since 2002.
“Myself and all the people that have ever been associated with Montana State University always owe guys like Kane the guys who were in the first recruiting class we had in 2000 a real debt of gratitude because those guys became Bobcats when it was not fun to be a Bobcat,” Kramer said. “Kane has turned that into a profession. He’s turned that into an opportunity for himself to express his competitiveness by teaching and leading.”
MSU defensive coordinator Kane Ioane
After a brief stint trying to make it as an NFL safety, Ioane returned to Bozeman in 2004 and joined Kramer’s staff as a graduate assistant. When Kramer was fired in the spring of 2007 amidst a cloud of controversy, new head coach Rob Ash decided to retain Ioane. By 2009, Ioane was the Bobcats’ full-time linebackers coach. Last off-season, Ash promoted Ioane to defensive coordinator.
Ioane has never shied away from his relationship with Kramer. He always praises his former head coach and recollects fond memories of their time together. Saturday will mark the third time the two have competed against each other as coaches and the first time Ioane has called the defensive plays against Idaho State’s no-huddle spread offense.
“It’s like going against anybody really when it’s all said and done,” Ioane said on Tuesday. “We are both competitors and we both want to win. I know he wants to kick my butt and vice versa. But before the game and after the game, it’s big hugs, big smiles. He’ll give me the fist pound like he always does. But as soon as the ball is kicked, our eyes go back to right what we need to do. We are focused on winning the football game.”
Former MSU safety and current cornerbacks coach Michael Rider
In February of 2006, Kramer signed a small class of 13 recruits that included future Bobcat standouts like Mike Person and Rider. Rider was an undersized preferred walk-on safety from Billings West. During the fall of 2006 when Rider was a redshirt not receiving any sort of aid, Kramer could see the coaching lineage engrained in him. Rider’s father, Craig, played offensive guard at Texas, where he opened holes for legendary Longhorn running back Earl Campbell. Craig spent most of his adult life as a football coach.
“He has the innate ability being the son of a coach to be something special and it’s something I saw in him the moment I first talked to him,” Kramer said. “Before I ever gave him a scholarship, I told him I was going to try to hire him some day. He was a walk-on and he kind of looked at me inquisitively. I remember to this day, I said, ‘There’s going to be a time in years to come and you are going to look back at your first days as a walk-on at Montana State and you’ll be able to tell the players you coach at Montana State how far you have come.”
MSU cornerback coach Michael Rider
Of the group of 13 that Kramer brought in his second to last recruiting class at MSU, seven survived until Montana State’s 2010 Big Sky Conference championship season. Person and fellow offensive linemen Jesse Hoffman, running back Blayde Beckstead, tight end Kyle Begger, linebacker Tanner Ripley and defensive end Dustin O’Connell joined Rider as the Bobcats won their first of three straight Big Sky titles.
“I can only really speak on my behalf but I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Rider, now Montana State’s cornerbacks coach, said following MSU practice on Tuesday. “It was a stick together mentality. We did. We did lose some guys out of that class. I think there was six or seven of us that really stayed. The nucleus stayed, we stuck together and fought through and good things happened.
“It will be fun to see Coach Kramer down there. I’m grateful for him. He gave me the opportunity to play college football when nobody else really did. I’m forever indebted to him and I look forward to seeing him.”
Kramer’s story at Montana State ended in bitterness. After his controversial firing, Kramer filed a lawsuit against the university and the state of Montana that essentially kept him out of coaching until 2010. The following year, ISU athletic director Jeff Tingey hired Kramer to resurrect an Idaho State program that won just 16 games between 2003 and 2010.
Idaho State head coach Mike Kramer/ (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)
The rebuilding process has taken time — ISU won just two Big Sky games in Kramer’s first three seasons combined — but last year, ISU experienced a breakthrough. Kramer earned Big Sky Coach of the Year honors for the fourth time in his career at a third different school. Kramer coached for six seasons at Eastern Washington before coming to Montana State.
Last year’s Bengals went 8-4 but lost 44-39 in Bozeman the second to last week of the season, a loss that contributed to ISU missing the playoffs. Kramer was emotional after his first trip to Bozeman as an opponent in 2011, as he was last season as well. He knows he’ll feel it again this Saturday but he hopes to put the past behind him, at least for the afternoon, as he coaches against a pair of familiar faces.
“In my life, you put those two words, Montana and State together and a lot of emotions get welled up,” Kramer said. “The situation is important for me to realize that I’m the head coach at Idaho State and I’m going to do everything I can to lead our team to a win and all the other stuff has to just stay deep in my heart where it will never leave.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
