Tanyon Bissell remembers Jeff Choate’s door always being wide open.
Anytime the former Bozeman High quarterback needed an ear during his time playing at Boise State, he knew Choate would listen. Bissell, a wide receiver and special teams standout at Boise State between 2004 and 2008, remembers stopping into his special teams coordinator’s office and the conversation usually turned to the Treasure State.
[restrict paid=”true”]Choate, a former linebacker at Montana Western in Dillon, used to tell Bissell that he would love someday to be the head coach of the Montana State Bobcats. Choate told Bissell he loved the city of Bozeman and would be lucky to make a life there.
“Now he’s moving there and if he wants to, I know he’ll be there for a long time,” said Bissell, who now works at a talent agency for entertainers and athletes in Los Angeles. “Montana State is not a stepping stone for Coach Choate. It’s a destination job. He wants to be there. He would always talk about it at Boise.”
On Monday, Choate solidified his chance to put down roots in the Gallatin Valley. The well-traveled assistant is the 32nd head football coach at Montana State. He will finish his duties coaching the defensive line and coordinating the special teams at the University of Washington as the Huskies complete the 2015 season at the Heart of Dallas Bowl against Southern Miss.
“We were pretty upset because he’s a great guy and we were real close as a d-line unit but at least we get one more game,” Washington sophomore defensive lineman Will Dissly, a Bozeman High product himself, said. “He’s a great guy, great friend. We were sad he was going to leave us. He told us it was an incredible opportunity for him and his family so of course we understood.
“I’m pulling for him. I know he’s excited to be back in Montana and represent the Bobcats. He will work really hard to win. If it doesn’t go his way, he’ll work even harder to win. I think the future is bright for the Bobcats.”
Choate grew up in Saint Maries, a town of about 2,500 in north central Idaho about a 90-minute drive from Spokane. He graduated high school in 1988 and came Dillon to play for future Montana Grizzlies head coach Mick Dennehy.
When Dennehy took the Montana offensive coordinator job in 1991, Mick Delaney took over as the Bulldogs’ head coach. Before the 1991 season, Choate was in a car accident that put him in the hospital for 14 days and effectively ended his football career.
Delaney, who himself went on to become the head coach of the Griz, saw something special in Choate and retained him in the program as a student assistant. By 1992, Choate was coaching linebackers for the Bulldogs. By 1994, he took his first head coaching position at Challis (Idaho) High. By 1997, he was the head coach at Post Falls (Idaho) High.
“There was no doubt in my mind after being around him that he would be a head coach,” said Delaney, a Butte native who served as the head coach at Montana from 2012 until 2014. “You could tell from Day 1 with his energy, his enthusiasm and his work ethic that he would be a very good ball coach.
“He’ll be aggressive, very fiery, demand a lot of the kids and the players but in the same turn, he’ll be right there for them.”
At Western, Choate “wore a lot of hats”, he said, doing everything from painting the fields to doing the team’s laundry to game planning to coaching practice to helping mentor kids in the classroom. At larger schools, Choate said, most entry level positions include nothing but secluded film break down.
At Western, Choate also received the chance to be a teacher, ultimately earning his degree in secondary education. He has been teaching young people ever since. Choate estimates about 90 percent of the players he played and dealt with in Dillon still work in education. For many years, Montana Western was the only school in the state that offered an education degree. Many of those former teammates and coaches are still involved in public education throughout the state of Montana. Choate hopes it helps heighten his scouting abilities while also letting prospects know what the Bobcats have to offer.
“I think those lifelong connections, that mean something in Montana. A handshake means something in Montana,” Choate said. “Looking someone in the eye, being one of them, I think I am one of them. I think that will be tremendously helpful for us to make the strides we want to recruiting in the state.”
After five years as the head coach in Post Falls, Choate took a graduate assistant position on Dennehy’s staff at Utah State in 2002. He coached safeties and special teams in 2003 and 2004 before taking his first FCS job as the special teams coordinator at Eastern Illinois for the 2005 season.
His special teams prowess helped Choate land on Chris Peterson’s staff as the special teams coordinator in 2006, a position he held until 2011. He spent a year at Washington State in 2012 before joining Will Muschamp’s staff at Florida to coach special teams and linebackers in 2013. He rejoined Peterson’s staff in Seattle the following season.
“I think his reputation as a special teams guy is probably as good as anybody in the country,” said Dennehy, a Butte native who posted a 39-12 record as the head coach at UM. “The one thing I think that special teams allows you to get is you are hands on everybody on the football team on both sides of the ball.
“Jeff’s personality, people will take to him. His enthusiasm, his intelligence is very, very infectious. He won’t have any problem at all getting everybody organized, everybody pointed in the right direction and everybody paying attention to details. He’s very, very good at what he does.”
During his introduction speech in front of several hundred people at the Strand Union Building on the MSU campus, it took Choate less than five minutes to acknowledge Dennehy and Delaney as men who have helped him reach this point. Choate spoke of how the Butte duo helped mold his life. Delaney, he said, taught him how to treat people. Dennehy, he said, taught him all about toughness and the ability to connect to players.
“It didn’t matter if I was 18 years old or 44 years old, if I needed something, I could pick up the phone and call them and they have my back,” Choate said. “That’s what I want these kids to know now with me.”
Choate inherits a program with recent dominant success that is trying to redefine its identity. Montana State won three straight Big Sky Conference titles to begin the decade. But Rob Ash was fired after his ninth season, the first losing campaign for the Bobcats since 2001. The Bobcats led the Big Sky in scoring offense in 2015, averaging nearly 42 points per game yet still posted a 5-6 record. When asked what the program needed out of its new leadership, Montana State captain Chad Newell did not mince words.
“We need to erase the divider line between offense and defense,” Newell said. “We need to erase that line and become a team. Everyone is Bobcats. It’s not Bobcat defense, Bobcat offense. It’s the Montana State Bobcats. We want to leave that impression on people with whomever we play.”
That will be Choate’s first task upon his return to Bozeman. If his time from any of his stops over a 25-year coaching odyssey that led to this point is any indication, he should have no trouble erasing the divide.
“He cares about his guys on a personal level, not just a what can you do for me on the field level,” Bissell said. “You can talk to him about something completely unrelated to football and he’s generally interested. He genuinely cares about his guys. That’s why guys want to run through a wall through him.
“If that teams gives him a chance, that team is going to win games because that guy can motivate. I’ve played at Bozeman High, Boise State, went and played Arena Football, played a season over in Italy. I’ve been around several different staffs. And you don’t hear many guys talk about coaches like they do about Coach Choate. He really has something special.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez or Noted. All Rights Reserved.
