Big Sky Conference

Ash fired as head coach at Montana State

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On the heels of a seventh loss to rival Montana in nine years, Montana State athletic director Peter Fields fired Rob Ash after nine years as the head coach of the Montana State football team on Monday afternoon.

“I had a meeting this morning with Rob Ash and I decided that Rob would step away as the head coach at Montana State University,” Fields said to open his noon press conference on the second floor of Bobcat Stadium. “I thank him for all he’s done for our program and appreciate all of his accomplishments.”

The firing was first reported via Twitter less than an hour before Fields’ press conference by Greg Rachac of the Billings Gazette.

Montana State finished with its first losing season since 2001 following Saturday’s 54-35 loss to Montana in Bozeman. The Big Sky Conference coaches tabbed MSU as the preseason favorite to win the conference but Saturday’s loss to the Griz stamped a 5-6 season that included just three wins in eight Big Sky Conference games.

“We had high expectations for the year,’ Fields said. “That’s Rob, too. That’s not just me. That’s everybody. From the fan base to the student athletes to the students on campus to our alumni, that was everybody. This season did not unfold like we wanted.

“This season was hard for everybody. The season was hard for Rob. The season was hard for the coaching staff and the players. When you watch the players leave the field after a loss, you see the dejection in their faces. It’s a process. It’s not one piece. It’s a process that happens continually and I’m on record saying we evaluate continually.”

Ash answered an interview request by simply saying he would not comment on his termination.

Ash signed a three-year contract extension in August. The Montana Board of Regents approved the contract earlier this fall. Fields said the deal was “not so much an extension” but rather a “three-year rolling contract “ with a buyout provision that Ash could be terminated at any time. The only guarantee in the contract is paid base salary until the deal expires in June of 2016.

Ash’s base salary in an incentive-laden contract is $174,538 annually. He makes $14,544.83 per month, meaning is due $105,567.32 for the next seven months and eight days remaining on his deal.

Fields said he will “execute the search” to find Ash’s replacement immediately. He gave a timetable of 10 to 14 days to have a new coach on board. Fields said the search will be a “national search” and will play out like his search for head men’s basketball coach Brian Fish did. A search committee will be formed containing a faculty member, a student athlete, a few members of booster clubs and community members and someone from the administrative staff, Fields said.

“I’m going to broaden the search,” Fields said. “I’m going to go find the person who is the best for the criteria that I laid out about the institution. That’s one thing I’ve seen over the past. If the person doesn’t fit the institution, they may be a really good coach but it doesn’t work well.”

When asked if any potential candidates are currently working in the Big Sky, Fields said:

“I will contact people out there,” Fields said. “That’s not fair to them. That’s not fair. You’ll speculate all you want and you don’t know until you are in the room what you are talking about. It’s not fair to people who might apply for the job if they are in the Big Sky Conference if I talk to them, that’s between me and them and if they then become to the next step, then it becomes a public piece. Until it’s a public piece, it needs to be private because if they don’t get the job, their standing in their community is tarnished. We have to respect that.”

The 10 members of Ash’s staff are under evaluation and each will be given a chance to interview with the new head coach. Fields did not name an interim head coach. He said third-year offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey will be the “point man” for the program for players.

“I think we have a lot of really good things here and we need to have somebody who is a good fit with Montana State that understands that we are a stem university, a land-grant and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and academics are important as well as winning football games are important,” Fields said. “It’s all important. Community service is important. We have to do it all. We are a little different university in that regard. I believe in the Big Sky we are the only top tier Carnegie research institution there is so that brings some qualifications to the table. We can’t recruit like some other schools can so we have to do a good job of recruiting and evaluating talent.”

Cramsey confirmed he will apply for the head coaching position. Cramsey’s offense led the Big Sky Conference in scoring offense (41.9 points per game) and total offense (520 yards per game). Cramsey’s units have scored more than 450 points each of the last two seasons but MSU has a 13-12 record throughout that time because of a defense that has given up more than 34 points per game each of last two seasons.

Junior quarterback Dakota Prukop, Cramsey’s disciple for running his spread option offense, will graduate from Montana State in December with a degree in economics. A source with knowledge of the situation said Prukop does not want to play for another coach other than Cramsey.

Monday’s announcement was the culmination of a steady slide after the Bobcats reached unseen heights earlier this decade. In 2010, the Bobcats won the first of three straight Big Sky Conference championships, the first group at MSU to do so. In 2011, the school unveiled a multi-million dollar renovation to Bobcat Stadium complete with a 7,200-seat addition and lights.

In 2013, with the most successful group of players in MSU history competing in their final seasons, Montana State ended the season on a three-game losing streak that included losses at Eastern Washington and to Montana at home. The Bobcats missed the playoffs for the first time since 2009 despite employing a roster that featured two-time Big Sky Offensive MVP quarterback DeNarius McGhee along with Buck Buchanan Award winning defensive end Brad Daly.

MSU bounced back to make the FCS playoffs but lost in the first round at home to South Dakota State. In four playoff appearances, Ash posted a 2-4 record.

Overall, Ash is 70-38 at the helm at Montana State, including 50-23 against Big Sky Conference opponents. Both are the most ever by a head coach at Montana State. But Ash is 20-16 since the beginning of 2013, including 14-10 in conference play and 15-16 against opponents from FCS power conferences or FBS opponents.

“All decisions like this are hard,” Fields said. “This is not an easy decision and you don’t take it lightly. There’s many, many people impacted. The tentacles go out. You have 10 assistant coaches who all have families. You have people who are associated with the program who have families. You have people internally. This is a tremendous burden. It’s hard.

“I truly believe we should be in the top 10 all the time. We are not going to win the championship every year, but we should be in the mix every year with the resources we are putting into it. I believe we should be a program that is up there.”

 

 

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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