The announcement of Bobby Daly as Montana State’s new defensive coordinator last winter was no surprise. Daly was serving as an assistant head coach and linebackers coach last season, so when previous defensive coordinator Willie Mack-Garza didn’t have his contract renewed nearly a year after being hit with a DUI charge, it was Daly’s time.
Daly served as MSU’s defensive coordinator for the first game of the 2023 season while Garza served a suspension. Daly been the linebackers coach at his alma mater since 2019. He also coached at Idaho for several years. The Helena native’s selection has been welcomed with rave reviews by defensive players.
“I thought he deserved to be DC, because he’s just on top of his stuff all the time,” senior defensive tackle Blake Schmidt said. “For a couple games last year, he stepped up and became the DC and you could tell our preparation was on point. People want to follow him, people want to play for him so I think he’ll be an improvement to the defense for sure.”
“I think this program means everything to him,” senior safety Rylan Ortt said. “His brother (Brad) played here (as did Bobby himself along with their father, J), so he’s just a Bobcat for life. I think that’s going to show up on Saturdays in how he coaches and every other day of the week.”
Daly’s family is one of, if not, the most prominent football families in Helena. His dad, J, was an all-state player on both sides of the line at Helena Capital and his uncle, John, was an all-state defensive end for Capital’s first state championship team in 1978. J went on to be an All-America offensive lineman for the Bobcats and returned to Capital as an assistant coach for the better part of two decades helping lead the Bruins to numerous state titles.
Bobby was an all-state defensive lineman for the Bruins, setting the school’s sack record along the way. After walking on at MSU, he would go on to be an All-America linebacker. His younger brother, Brad, was the recipient of the Buck Buchanan Award given to the top defensive player in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision and was a multiple All-America selection for the Bobcats. Brad broke Bobby’s sack record at Capital High.
Daly joins a long list of prominent head coaches and coordinators that have ties to the Capital City. Cliff Hysell played for Helena High and Mike Kramer coached at Helena High before becoming head coaches at MSU in succession. The duo held that spot from 1992 to 2006. Between them, they methodically resurrected the program from the depths of despair brought on by Hysell’s predecessor Earle Solomonson, who had an abysmal 15-40 mark with two of those wins (and a loss) against Division II teams.
Hysell didn’t get the Bobcats into the playoffs or muster up a win over rival Montana, but he did lead MSU to a 7-4 mark in his second season. It was the first winning season for the team since it won the national title in 1984 – a span of eight seasons – and he also had three straight winning season from 1996-98 losing tight contests to the Grizzlies in ’97 and ’98 before dealing with illness through a rough 1999 campaign and resigning.
Kramer started out with an 0-11 mark in 2000, but two years later had MSU in the playoffs. Kramer led MSU to its first playoff win since 1984 when MSU beat Furman 31-13 in 2006. Kramer also led the Bobcats to a 2002 win over Montana that ended “The Streak” and he also picked up Cat-Griz wins in 2003 and 2005 as the Bobcats won Big Sky title in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
Brian Armstrong (Helena High) was a longtime (2016-22) offensive line coach for the Bobcats under Jeff Choate and Brent Vigen. He’s now with the Nevada Wolfpack as an assistant. Matt Miller was the offensive coordinator under Choate in 2018-19 leading MSU to the FCS playoffs both seasons. Miller is among the most prolific football players to come out of Helena, or Montana for that matter. He led Capital to three straight titles and four title game appearances during his career before embarking on a record-setting career at Boise State, where he is now an assistant coach.
So, to say Daly has some big shoes to fill is putting it mildly at the very least. His own track record to date is nothing to sneeze at, however, as he’s coached two NFL starting linebackers that are now Atlanta Falcons in Kaden Elliss (Idaho) and Troy Andersen (MSU).
Daly doesn’t anticipate much of a change to the defensive scheme that MSU has used under Vigen, but he may add his own twists to it.
“At the end of the day it’s getting those guys, playing fast,” Daly said on ESPN MT in February. “We’re certainly not going to make any wholesale changes, but the way I call it on Saturdays is going to be different. A lot of it is gut feeling and more of it is preparation going into games, how I see teams attacking us and how we’ll adjust on Saturday. Overall, structure is not a whole lot different, but definitely see myself calling it a little different.”
The Bobcats came out smoking to start the 2023 season, holding No. 1 ranked and eventual national champion South Dakota State scoreless for the first half and limiting the potent Jackrabbits’ offense to just 341 total yards in a 20-16 loss.
As the season progressed, the MSU pass defense began to falter, however, and that culminated in a rough 37-7 loss to Montana in the regular season finale that saw UM quarterback Clifton McDowell have by far the best passing game of his career as MSU allowed him to connect on 17 of 22 (77%) passes for 200 yards – a 168.6 rating, while McDowell finished the year with a 57% completion percentage and 131.5 rating in all other games.
MSU will begin to find out if Daly’s voice and play-calling will make a difference during its 2024 campaign beginning on August 24 when the Bobcats travel to Albuquerque to face the University of New Mexico in the season-opener for both schools.
