MISSOULA, Montana — Bobby Hauck’s retirement lasted less than a week.
Hauck, who led Montana for 15 total years and 14 total seasons during two stints (2003-2009, 2018-2025), announced he was retiring from his alma mater on February 4. In his retirement press conference, Hauck said that he was retiring as a head coach, stating that he would never be a head coach again.
“If I wanted to be a head coach, I would do it here, at the University of Montana,” Hauck said.
Hauck did not rule out other coaching opportunities, however. And on Monday, just six days after Hauck told Montana athletic director Kent Haslam of his intention to retire, and just five days after he announced the decision to the public, Hauck’s next opportunity emerged.
Hauck is headed to the Big Ten. He will take the defensive coordinator position on Bret Bielema’s staff at the University of Illinois.
“I am grateful for the opportunity to join the Illinois football program,” Hauck in an Illinois press release. “Coach Bielema is one of the great head coaches in all of football and I am extremely excited to work for him and the student-athletes and staff here at the University of Illinois. I have a great feeling about the players, the coaches, and the future of this program. I will miss Montana dearly because of the relationships and the passion I have for the football program. I hope to bring some of that to the Illini. I can’t wait to get started.”
Hauck led Montana to 151 wins, the most in the history of the school and the Big Sky Conference. His Griz teams claimed eight Big Sky titles, including seven straight in his first tenure. Montana’s defenses have been salty under Hauck, although he has never been a defensive coordinator in his 37 years as a college football coach.
Per the release, Illinois athletics pointed out that “the Grizzlies finished in the top 20 in the nation in scoring defense three times over the last five seasons, using Hauck’s aggressive 3-3-5 scheme, which he adapted to Montana from legendary coach Rocky Long’s philosophies at San Diego State.”
Since bringing the defense to Montana in 2018 and teaching it to his staffs over the past eight years, Hauck’s defenses have ranked in the top five of the Big Sky in scoring defense, total defense, and sacks every season. His defenses have ranked in the top 10 in the nation in turnovers forced three times in the last five years, including finishing third nationally last season (27) and second nationally in 2021 (30).
“I am excited to welcome Coach Hauck and his family to our Illini FamILLy,” Bielema in the press release. “Since meeting Coach Hauck early on in my head coaching career, I have had tremendous respect for who he is, what he stands for, and the program he has built. He is a family man with incredible attention to detail and a great ability to teach the game to both his staffs and players. Coach Hauck’s aggressive defensive scheme, which he learned at San Diego State and developed at Montana, will be an exciting new style that has never been seen here at Illinois.”
When he stepped down at Montana, Hauck was the eighth-winningest active head coach in all of Division I football with 166 career wins and the third-winningest among all active Division I coaches at their current school. Last season, his Montana team went 13-2 with their only losses coming to eventual national champion Montana State in the regular-season finale and the FCS semifinals. Over the last three years, Montana has finished No. 2, No. 10, and No. 3 in the final FCS rankings.
Hauck has brought continued success in the FCS postseason to Montana with 20 playoff head coaching victories. He was the winningest active coach in FCS playoff history when he left Montana and the third-winningest of all-time in the tournament behind legendary coaches Jim Tressel (Youngstown State, 23 wins) and Jerry Moore (Appalachian State, 22 wins).
Hauck began his coaching career at Montana in 1988 and 1989 as the team’s defensive backs/defensive line coach, before stints at UCLA (1990-92), Northern Arizona (1993-94), and Colorado (1995-98). He then served as the defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator at Washington from 1999-2002 before landing his first head coaching job at Montana in 2003.
