BOZEMAN — After earning a first down and points on the same possession just one time in Saturday’s 34-24 loss at Weber State, head coach Jeff Choate made changes to his offensive staff on Sunday.
According to two independent sources with direct knowledge of the situation, Bob Cole is no longer with the program as Montana State’s passing game coordinator and quarterbacks’ coach. Wide receivers coach Matt Miller will take over as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Brian Armstrong, in his second year as MSU’s offensive coordinator, will be the tight ends’ coach.
Montana State head coach Jeff Choate confirmed the moves during his weekly press conference on Monday morning.
“This is not an emotional or compulsive decision on my part,” Choate said. “This is based on a body of work and the progress of our offense overall…The one thing that will be different is Bob Cole will no longer be with the program. I think in fairness to Matt, I think it was important for us to have a clean break there and let him have the opportunity to take the reigns of the offense.
“It’s not something I came to overnight. Clearly, we have not been as productive as we need to be.”
Montana State offensive coordinator Matt Miller/by Brooks Nuanez
The 27-year-old Miller is in his third year of his first full-time college coaching gig. The Helena native was a four-year starter at wide receiver at Boise State between 2010 and 2014. Choate was on Chris Petersen’s staff at BSU in 2010 and 2011.
I feel like it’s important for us to get a new voice in that room,” Choate said. “I think Matt is a young guy who brings a lot of energy. He’s played at a high level, very competitive, very organized, very detailed, understands what we need to do to have success. And I think the players will respond to him.
“Matt will be the primary play-caller going forward. Brian will continue in his role as the run game guy. On game day, you will see Matt upstairs with Brian.”
Miller, the 2009 Montana Gatorade Player of the Year, finished his playing career with a Boise State record 244 catches in his career. His 3,049 yards and 29 touchdown catches are both among the best totals in BSU history even though he missed the second half of his senior season with an ankle injury which essentially ended his career.
Miller spent one season as the offensive quality control assistant at his alma mater in 2015 before joining Choate’s staff. Mitch Herbert earned honorable mention All-Big Sky honors last season, the only all-league nod earned by Miller’s pupils through two seasons. Kassis leads the Bobcats with 28 catches for 363 yards and three touchdowns this season.
“I think Matt is a rising star in the progression, very bright, very hard working,”Choate said. “He relates very well to the players. He’s demanding but has their respect, which for a lot of times for a young coach, young coaches often times walk that fine balance between I was a player not too long ago and what kind of relationship am I going to have with those guys? Am I going to have a big brother type of relationship or am I going to have that coach-player type relationship. I think Matt has a coach-player relationship. They respect him very much. They know he played the game at the highest level. I think he’s prepared to take this step and did a fine job.”
Big Sky Breakdown: Jeff Choate on MSU coaching staff changes, Idaho State game
Saturday in Ogden, Montana State used a pair of turnovers and a 71-yard touchdown run from Troy Andersen to build a 17-7 lead against Weber State, the No. 7 team in the FCS.
From that point, MSU earned four first downs, went three-and-out twice and committed two turnovers as the Wildcats went on a 27-7 run the final 36 minutes of the game. MSU finished with 221 yards of offense and seven first downs, converting just 3-of-15 third down tries.
Montana State tight ends coach Brian Armstrong (left) and passing game coordinator/QB coach Bob Cole/ by Brooks Nuanez
Montana State’s first touchdown came after a Jahque Alleyne interception 15 yards from the end-zone. Dante Sparaco’s interception gave MSU possession 27 yards from the end-zone. MSU got a first down, then scored a touchdown on a wide receiver pass from Kevin Kassis to Andersen. But the trick play was called back for an illegal man down field penalty. Two plays later, Tristan Bailey kicked a 27-yard field goal to give MSU a 10-0 lead. Andersen’s long touchdown capped MSU’s scoring with the long touchdown run. MSU’s last touchdown came on a 27-yard interception return for a touchdown by junior cornerback Greg “Munchie” Filer III.
Andersen rushed for 102 yards on 11 carries, the first time an individual ball carrier has surpassed 80 yards against Weber State. But the sophomore threw for just 53 yards on nine completions in 22 attempts with a long completion of 12 yards.
“This is not something that was done without a lot of thought,” Choate said. “These kind of decisions are always difficult. But I feel like there was a lack of progress on the offensive side of the ball regardless of our circumstances there. It needs to be better than it is.
“I really believe Matt is a guy who can bring new energy and perspective to that group and see what he can do for us moving forward.”
The unbalanced performance marked the third time in five starts Andersen did not reach 100 yards passing. MSU has rushed for more yards than it has passed for in 13 of the 18 games with Armstrong as coordinator. MSU averaged 26.3 points per game during that stretch. The Bobcats earned 17.6 first downs per contest over the last 18 games.
Montana State is currently sixth in the league in scoring offense at 27.9 points per game. MSU is second-to-last in the 13-team league by averaging 339.7 yards per game, although the last place team is Weber State, winners of 18 of its last 22 league games and a front-runner for a spot in the FCS playoffs for the third straight season.
Montana State is converting just 31.9 percent of its third downs this season, 12th in the league, and have just 108 first downs, an average of 15.4 yards per outing, also 12th in the Big Sky. MSU had 12 first downs in a 26-23 win over Western Illinois to start the season, six first downs in a 45-14 loss at No. 3 SDSU, 12 first downs in a 24-23 win over Idaho and seven first downs in Saturday’s loss.
“I even go back to the Idaho game where we’ve gotta be able to generate more offense at certain critical times,” Choate said. “I think the Eastern Washington game (34-17 loss) we had a big lull in the third quarter. I think we’ve become a little bit predictable.”
MSU has only turned the ball over eight times, have allowed a league-low six sacks and lead the conference converting 94.7 percent (18-of-19) of its red-zone chances. But the Bobcats are 12th in the conference with an average time of possession of 26 minutes, 29 seconds per game.
“I know you can always make excuses but that’s not my deal,” Choate said. “We’ve got 11 guys, they’ve got 11 guys and we’ve got to give ourselves the best opportunity to win. And I feel like what’s best for our program and what’s best for our players right now is for there to be a new voice in that room and that’s really what it came down to.
“The definition of a crazy person is to do the same thing and expect a different result. I may look crazy and I may act crazy but I’m not. I feel like in fairness to the players on our team and the direction I want to go with this program that we needed a change.”
Montana State quarterback Chris Murray/ by Brooks Nuanez
Over the last two seasons, Montana State’s rushing attack has been potent mostly because of the elite running ability of the Bobcat starting quarterbacks. Chris Murray ranked second in the league by rushing for 1,124 yards to spur on MSU’s Big Sky Conference-leading rushing attack.
Montana State rushed for more than 300 yards four times in 2017 and once this season. MSU finished with 323 rushing yards in a 43-23 win over Portland State. Last season, MSU rushed for 403 yards and beat Portland State 30-22 despite passing for just nine yards.
Murray completed 51.5 percent of his passes for 1,597 yards, 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 2017. He is sitting out this season to focus on academics.
A year after rushing for 245 yards per game, MSU is rushing for 186.3 yards per contest this season. Andersen has rushed for 788 of MSU’s 1,304 rushing yards this season, or nearly 60 percent of MSU’s production on the ground.
Montana State is throwing for 153.4 yards per game, 11th in the Big Sky, and have a team passer efficiency of 111.1, ahead of just Weber State. Andersen has completed 51 of his 97 passes (52.6 percent) for 488 yards, one touchdown and five interceptions.
Redshirt freshman Tucker Rovig started against South Dakota State and Wagner, throwing for 474 of his 584 yards and all four of his touchdowns in games where Andersen played running back and linebacker because of an injury to his left (non-throwing hand). Choate said on the ‘Cat Chat’ radio show with Voice of the Bobcats Jay Sanderson that “I mean, we were having discussions on Tuesday prior to practice saying ‘I think Tucker’s the guy, its time to move’,” referring to preparing Rovig as the starting quarterback during MSU’s bye week leading up to the Idaho game. But Rovig suffered a season-ending injury days later when he got stepped on during an inside run drill.
Former Montana State passing game coordinator Bob Cole/ by Brooks Nuanez
Cole came to Montana State when former running backs’ coach and recruiting coordinator Michael Pitre left to join Jonathan Smith’s staff at Oregon State. Choate moved DeNarius McGhee from quarterbacks’ coach to running backs coach, making Cole the QB coach and passing game coordinator.
Cole’s long and largely successful career started as a part of Tim Walsh’s staff at Sonoma State in 1988. He followed Walsh to Portland State, working as the Vikings’ offensive coordinator from 1993 until 1998, the last three seasons in PSU’s first three seasons in the Big Sky. Cole worked for Mick Dennehy in Montana in 1999 and 2000 before following Dennehy to Utah State, where he was the offensive coordinator from 2000 until 2004. Choate first broke into the college ranks as a graduate assistant at USU in 2002, then as a safeties coach and special teams coordinator the next two seasons.
Cole was Florida A&M’s OC for three seasons before serving as Wyoming’s offensive play-caller in 2008. He worked as Western Kentucky’s quarterbacks’ coach for two seasons before joining Dave Doeren’s staff at Northern Illinois in 2011. He moved to offensive coordinator when Rod Carey replaced Doeren when Doeren took the head coaching job at North Carolina State. In 2013, Cole’s first calling plays at UNI, quarterback Jordan Lynch was a finalist for the Heisman Trophy as the Salukis went 12-2. Before coming to Montana State, Cole was an analyst at Northwestern in 2016 and the wide receivers’ coach at Juanita in 2017.
“Bob is a very good teacher and he’s been around this game a long time,” Choate said about Cole earlier this season. “He’s an old, gruff guy on the surface but if you ask those guys, I think they all love playing for him. He’s kind of a teddy bear deep down inside. He’s seen a lot, he can make complex things simple for them. I think you are seeing an accuracy improvement, our decision making improve. I think he’s been a good addition to our staff.”
Choate said the quarterbacks and the wide receivers will now meet together. Choate said he will serve as a “facilitator” with the wide receivers during practice and on game day. Choate said Cole’s release was “nothing personal about Bob.”
“We’d reached that point where saying the same things and getting the same results wasn’t going to breed confidence in our offense,” Choate said. “It was time for a change. This isn’t about one individual. We all bare responsibility, starting with me. If one of our coaches fails, to help us succeed, it’s really me failing. I take that very personally. I certainly want to wish Bob all the best. He worked hard here and he fit in with our staff. It was not about an individual decision about a person, it’s about what’s best for us collectively as a group.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
