Big Sky Conference

MSU LB coach Kane Ioane joining Washington staff

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The most familiar of Bobcat faces was missing from Montana State’s spring football practice on Monday morning. Kane Ioane is finally moving on.

Ioane, the only four-time All-American player at MSU and a part of the Bobcat football program in some capacity since 2000, confirmed to Skyline Sports that he has taken a quality control position on Chris Petersen’s staff at the University of Washington.

Ioane, who has been Montana State’s full-time linebackers coach since 2008, was not at Monday morning’s spring football practice at MSU. He is currently in Seattle finalizing the agreement that will help him reunite with Pete Kwiatkowski, Washington’s defensive coordinator.

He participated in his first spring practice with the Huskies on Monday morning. Ioane’s position will include helping Kwiatkowski, MSU’s defensive coordinator from 2000 until 2005 and for the duration of Ioane’s Bobcat playing career, with various game planning duties, film break down and on-field tutoring for the defending Pac 12 champions.

Former MSU linebackers coach Kane Ioane

Former MSU linebackers coach Kane Ioane

“I love Montana State, always will,” Ioane said. “I really love what Coach (Jeff) Choate and his staff are doing at MSU. I know they are going to be very successful. That part is very hard to walk away from.

“But for myself personally, it was an opportunity and a chance for me to grow both professionally and personally. It’s the right path for me as far as my career path is concerned. I have some aspirations of doing some big things in this profession. Eventually, I was going to have to leave the nest. This presented that opportunity.”

Montana State second-year head coach Jeff Choate spent two seasons prior to coming MSU on Petersen’s staff at UW. He spent 2006 until 2011 working under Petersen and Kwiatkowski at Boise State.

Ioane said about a week ago, Choate stepped into the office of MSU’s assistant head coach and linebackers’ coach to present him with the opportunity. Choate said he had just gotten off the phone with Kwiatkowski and that UW’s DC talked about an open position. Ioane said he talked to Choate about the move for more than an hour before running the option by his “trust tree” of family and friends. After mulling the decision, he decided to leave Montana State for the first time since the turn of the century.

“Coach Petersen is one of the best coaches in the country,” Ioane said. “They were a top four team in the FBS last year. It’s an all-around great place to spread my wings and expand.”

Former MSU Hall of Fame safety Kane Ioane vs. UM 2002/MSU Athletics

Former MSU Hall of Fame safety Kane Ioane vs. UM 2002/MSU Athletics

Ioane was a four-time All-American safety at Montana State, helping the Bobcats move from an 0-11 mark his true freshman season in 2000 to back-to-back Big Sky Conference championships in 2002 and 2003. As the lynchpin and primary playmaker in Kwiatkowski’s defense — the renown defensive mind was Mike Kramer’s DC at MSU from 2000 until 2005 before joining Petersen’s staff at Boise State in 2006 — Ioane earned Big Sky Defensive MVP honors in 2003.

Ioane was part of a Bobcat team that snapped a 16-game losing streak to hated rival Montana with a 10-7 victory in Missoula in 2002. Ioane’s first game with the Huskies will be against the Griz in Seattle in September.

“When you talk about Kane as a player, the word swagger comes to mind,” former MSU offensive line coach Jason McEndoo, now at Oklahoma State, said in 2014. “My first year (2003), the defense was running the show. He had the long hair and was strutting around. The thing that I appreciated about him then and what I appreciate him now is how much of a competitor he is.”

At Washington, Ioane will work with Kwiatkowski and UW’s defensive staff to help with game planning, film break down and overall defensive execution. Quality control positions usually include a prevalence of film break down of game footage as well as deep statistical analysis.

“I coached Kane and then coached with him at Montana State. He has had a lot of great success with the Bobcats as both a player and as a coach,” Kwiatkowski said via a Washington representative on Monday. “I’ve kept in touch and followed his career over the years and we’re really happy that we were able to have him join our staff here at Washington.”

Ioane was present at Montana State’s first three spring football practices last week. He was not in attendance Monday as he was in Seattle finalizing the deal.

“I was on a plane on Sunday, got here ready to roll and I was at the first practice (Monday) coaching spring ball for the Huskies,” Ioane said. “It’s exciting, man. It’s a whirlwind. That’s how this profession works. You are wearing blue and gold one day and purple and gold next.”

Former MSU linebacker coach Kane Ioane

Former MSU linebacker coach Kane Ioane

The 35-year-old Billings native is among the most recognizable Bobcats of all-time. Sonny Holland, the man many consider to be the most iconic person in MSU football, calls Ioane the greatest player he ever saw play for the ‘Cats. As a player, Ioane earned first-team All-Big Sky honors his last two seasons and started the last 47 games of his decorated career. He finished his career as the all-time leading tackler in the history of the Big Sky Conference.

Ioane spent a brief time as a player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 2004 off-season before returning to join Kramer’s staff as a defensive graduate assistant in 2005.

As a coach, Ioane has been equally as prolific. As a graduate assistant and then assistant linebackers coach, Ioane had a hand in mentoring All-Big Sky players Nick Marudas, Mac Mollahan and Epikopo King. Upon taking over as MSU’s primary linebackers coach in 2008, he helped turn Bobby Daly, Jody Owens and Alex Singleton into All-Americans while helping Clay Bignell and Mac Bignell turn into All-Big Sky talents.

Montana State senior linebacker Mac Bignell and former linebackers coach Kane Ioane/ by Colter Nuanez

Montana State senior linebacker Mac Bignell and former linebackers coach Kane Ioane/ by Colter Nuanez

“He demands you are the best player you can be and the best person you can be,” Mac Bignell, a two-time All-Big Sky selection who enters his senior season in 2017 as a returning Bobcat team captain, said last week. “Bringing everyone along with you. He brings the best out of everybody around him.

“He set the standard when he played. He is a four-time All-American. Being from Montana, I always wanted to be a Bobcat and I’ve watched the Bobcats since I’ve grown up and he set the standard. I’ve always wanted to live up to his standard.”

Montana State’s current linebacker group returns Bignell for his senior year and Kalispell native Josh Hill for his sophomore year as starters. The unit also has senior Lukas McCarthy along with rising redshirt freshmen Jacob Hadley and Balue Chapman. Ioane battled with the thought of leaving his potential-filled group behind.

“It’s a mixed bag of emotions the last week or so,” Ioane said. “I always knew in the back of my mind I was going to take it because of how great this opportunity it. But there’s definitely moments where I was doubting that a little bit and thinking, ‘Maybe I should stay one more year.’ The players are big part of that. I love the players that I have been able to work with over the course of the years and this group of linebackers, that’s what you get in this profession for.”

Kane Ioane coaching technique

Kane Ioane coaching technique

The articulate, disciplined coach has been a part of three coaching staffs at Montana State. Ioane played for Mike Kramer before working for Kramer for three seasons. He was retained when Rob Ash took over after Kramer’s firing in the spring of 2007. Ioane worked under defensive coordinator Jamie Marshall on Ash’s staff for eight seasons before ascending to share coordinator duties with Marshall for the 2015 season.

Ash and most of his staff were fired after 2015’s 5-6 finish, MSU’s first losing campaign since Ioane’s sophomore year in 2001. Choate retained Ioane and gave him the assistant coach tag despite hiring Ty Gregorak as MSU’s defensive coordinator. Ioane has been a candidate for other positions in the past, namely as Idaho State’s defensive coordinator when Kramer took the ISU job before the 2011 season.

Ioane has talked throughout his time at MSU about having head coaching aspirations. He said this was the next step toward chasing those dreams.

“Something that has always been a goal of mine in this profession is to be a head coach,” Ioane said. “Whether that’s at Montana State or any other place that may present that opportunity, I think eventually I had to leave Montana State to better myself and give myself a different perspective of this profession.

“I have seen it from a lot of different head coaches. I’ve been fortunate in that regard. But I had never really seen a different program. The FBS level is something I have not been a part of or seen up close and personal. This provided me that opportunity.

“Eventually that opportunity to be a head coach will present itself. Who knows if that’s in Bozeman or wherever but I’ll tell you that if Montana State comes knocking and says, ‘We’d love for you to come home,’ that would be very appealing to me.”

Former Montana State linebackers coach Kane Ioane/by Brooks Nuanez

Former Montana State linebackers coach Kane Ioane

Ioane is the only man in Big Sky Conference history to earn Big Sky Defensive MVP as well as coach a Big Sky Defensive MVP; Owens earned the award in 2012 for the league champion Bobcats. All told, Ioane has been a part of six Big Sky championship teams, including four as a coach. He has helped MSU reach the FCS playoffs seven times and has been a part of 109 wins for the Bobcats.

“I have some deep roots in Bozeman,” Ioane said. “There are some people in the athletic department that have been there since I came in as a freshman. Some of these people have watched me grow from an 18-year-old kid to a 35-year-old man. That’s special. I’m going to miss all those people.

“Montana State is why I am who I am today. The people in Bozeman and of Montana State, all the coaches I have had the opportunity to work with and play for over the course of my 16-plus, almost 17 years of being in Bozeman, it’s made me who I am. The relationships I’ve formed – I met my fiancé in Bozeman, I have the greatest group of friends anyone could ask for — and that all started in Bozeman. Those are lifetime relationships. My heart will always be in Bozeman.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

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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