Although he was just a young boy in Butte, America, Guido Ossello he vividly remembers wanting to be Marc Mariani.
The Butte Central senior and recent University of Montana signee is the grandson of Mick Delaney. For most of his youth, Ossello had an affinity for Colorado State because Delaney was the running backs coach there on Sonny Lubick’s staff.
When Delaney returned to the Treasure State to serve as the running backs coach on Bobby Hauck’s staff in 2008, Ossello got his initial first-hand taste of Mariani and the Grizzlies. And that’s when he first found a hero in Mariana, a UM All-American and former walk-on from Havre who went on to earn Pro Bowl honors for the Tennessee Titans of the NFL.
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“I grew up wanting to play in that stadium so bad, pretending I was Marc Mariani, and then going down to the field after the games, that was huge when I was a kid,” Ossello said. “And that was huge in my decision.”
Deep family ties — Delaney took over as UM’s head coach from 2012 until 2014 before retiring to his hometown of Butte — and a rooting interest in the Grizzlies from a young age were enough to sway Ossello to sign with the Griz during the early signing period in December of 2019.
During his two years coaching running backs on Hauck’s staff in 2008 and 2009, Delaney helped mentor Chase Reynolds, one of the great ball carriers in Montana history. Delaney, who was the head coach at Montana Western in 1991 and 1992 before spending 1993 until 2007 on Lubbick’s staff in Fort Collins, was retained by Robin Pflugrad as UM’s assistant head coach and running backs coach when Hauck left for UNLV following the 2009 season.
Delaney held that post for 2010 and 2011, also serving as Pflugrad’s assistant head coach. When Pflugrad was abruptly and controversially fired in the spring of 2012, Delaney was suddenly thrust into a head coaching role at the age of 70.
The relatable, popular coach with Mining City roots led Montana to a 24-14 record over three seasons, including 19 wins over the final two. He went 15-9 in Big Sky play, including back-to-back 6-2 league campaigns in 2013 and 2014 before he retired.
Despite his Griz roots – Delaney has Bobcat roots too, having first hooked up with Lubbick when he was the head coach at Montana State from 1978 until 1980 — the grandfather did not put any pressure on Ossello to join the Grizzlies. When he found out his grandson would play for Hauck however, Delaney rejoiced.
“To start, he didn’t want me to make my decision because of him because that’s the type of guy he is but when I told him that I made my decision, I’m going there, that’s the type of guy he is,” Ossello said. “He said he was so excited he could do backflips.”
Aside from his family ties and history rooting on the Grizzlies, the Montana coaching staff liked Ossello’s production as a senior as well as his upside as an athlete. He also comes from a solid prep program led by Don Peoples, who has been involved in youth sports in Butte for more than 30 years.
Coming out of his junior year — “I didn’t have my best year but I knew it and that motivated me so I worked really hard in the summer,” Ossello said — Butte Central did not know if the Maroons would be able to field a full football team. A co-op with Anaconda was proposed while many of the founding fathers of the Mining City and the Smelter City rolled over in their graves.
“We just wanted to play football in the end and if we needed to co-op, we would’ve done it but I don’t think anyone wanted to do it,” Ossello said. “If we needed to do it, we would’ve done it. We didn’t have to.”
The Maroons ended up being able to field their own team with a small roster than featured three future Big Sky players. Ossello, future Montana State offensive lineman Aaron Richards and future Griz tight end Matt Simkins helped Central overcome an 0-3 start to make the Class A playoffs. The Maroons had to play Hamilton, Frenchtown and Dillon, all final eight teams with Hamilton and Dillon each playing in the Class A semifinals, to begin the year but went 5-1 down the stretch to qualify for the postseason.
“We didn’t even know if we were going to have a team at Central. We thought we might have to co-op with Anaconda so I didn’t even know what my senior year was going to look like,” Ossello said. “I was really excited we didn’t have to co-op. We were glad to have it all Central. We have a lot of players who have been signing and I think Central made us the best football players we could be going into college.”
Ossello said having players chasing similar goals like Simkins and Richards as classmates helped “drive us all to be better every day.” That paid off in the fall as each earned Division I chances.
During his senior season, Ossello caught 39 passes for 698 yards and seven touchdowns, earning Class A all-state honors. The 6-3, 195-pounder also was an all-conference honorable mention at inside linebacker.
Ossello is also a four-year tennis player and planned on participating in both track and tennis before spring sports around Montana got put on hold earlier this week.
About two weeks into his senior football season, Ossello remembers “looking down at my phone, seeing a text and realizing it was Jace Schillinger”, the former tight ends coach and Central Montana recruiter for the Grizzlies.
“I was pretty pumped,” Ossello said. “I had spent quite a bit of time in Missoula, have a bunch of aunts and uncles who live over there and I went over there to watch my grandpa coach pretty much every weekend when I was a kid.”
Ossello received attention from Montana State as well as from Frontier Conference schools around Montana. He considered staying home to play for Montana Tech but ultimately decided he wanted his “next chapter” to be written somewhere other than Butte.
Montana wanted that chapter to begin and end in Missoula.
“He’s long and rangy and has really good ball skills,” Schillinger said in a video produced by UM and released the day Ossello signed. “He comes from a family that bleeds maroon and silver. We think his best football is ahead of him. We are really excited about Guido and welcome him to the Griz family.”
The feelling of family is one thing Ossello said was a “huge selling point” for him. The future business major said he “loves the campus, loves the coaches and felt the coaches generally cared about me.”
Another selling point is Montana’s winning tradition, particularly under Hauck. In nine total seasons under Hauck’s direction between 2003 and 2009 plus the last two campaigns, Montana is 96-26. Getting a chance to be a part of helping the Griz return to a nationally elite level impacted Ossello more than he thought it would the day he officially signed.
“I didn’t think it would be any different but it was more of a moment than I thought,” Ossello said. “My heart got pumping when I signed it. When I was thinking about it earlier that day, I didn’t really think anything was going to change. But when I wrote down my name, it really hit me in the face that I was finally a Griz.”
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