Byron Hout is probably best known for the sucker punch he took to the chin way back in 2009. But he’s accomplished a lot more worth noting than just taking a right hook from LeGarrette Blount following his Boise State Broncos’ 19-8 win over Oregon last decade.
Hout’s most recent accomplishment, earning his first full time college football coaching position at Montana State at age 26, might be his greatest. That’s saying something for a man who was a two-time All-Mountain West linebacker and helped Boise State to a 50-3 record during his career in Idaho’s capital city.
After BSU’s season-opening win over Oregon back in 2009, the Broncos became the first non-BCS team to earn a bid to a BCS bowl game. Boise State rolled to a 14-0 record, capped by a 17-10 win over TCU in the Fiesta Bowl. It was the peak of Chris Peterson’s seven seasons at BSU. All told, Hout played on two WAC and two Mountain West title teams as Boise State finished the season in the national’s top nine each of his final three seasons.
Hout first met new Montana State head coach Jeff Choate during their time in Boise. Choate coahed running backs and special teams from 2006 until 2008, then coached Hout and the BSU linebackers and special teams from 2009 until 2011. Choate coached linebackers at Washington State in 2012, Hout’s first year after college and his first defensive graduate assistant job. In 2013, Hout returned to Boise State as a graduate assistant. He spent the next three seasons at his alma mater, culminating in a 55-7 win over Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl, the first bowl game Hout ever played in back in 2008.
“He’s really worked himself into where he’s at, he’s very smart, detailed, all the qualities that you want,” Boise State head coach Brian Harsin said told Dave Southorn of the Idaho Statesman. “To me, that’s a great hire for Coach Choate, I think it’s a great fit for Byron.”
Choate retained Bo Beck but switched him to tight ends. Beck coached defensive line for nine seasons on Rob Ash’s staff. Beck helped Dane Fletcher earn 2009 Big Sky Conference Defensive MVP honors and helped coach Caleb Schreibeis and Brad Daly to back-to-back Buck Buchanan Awards in 2012 and 2013.
Hout inherits a group from Beck that returns seniors Shiloh LaBoy, Jessie Clark, Zach Hutchins and Robert Wilcox, juniors Tyrone Fa’anono, Devin Jeffries and Matt Brownlow, sophomores Tucker Yates and Zach Wright and redshirt freshmen Keegan Bray, Chris Robinson, Riley Griffiths and Marcus Ferriter.
During the first week of January, Montana State has hosted press conferences with each of Choate’s nine new assistant coaches. On Tuesday, Hout and former Boise State star wide receiver Matt Miller sat down with Skyline Sports and media from around Montana.
Ted Dawson, KBZK: What do you hope to do with the defensive line here?
Hout: “I think any great football team without history has had a great, dominant quarterback and a great defensive line. If you have those two things on a football team, you are going to be pretty successful. That’s where I hope to take them.”
Dawson: What have you seen with the guys who are here?
Hout: “I haven’t gotten a chance to meet everyone yet. I haven’t had a chance to watch all the film yet so I can’t tell you.”
Dawson: Any idea about what you’ve seen about these guys or what you know about these guys?
Hout: “From what I know, they are a good group of guys. We have good people in the room. We have to get them to work hard and produce on the field. They can do that and my job is to get them to do that.”
Since 1970 beginning with Gary Gustafson, Montana State has produced a lineage of All-America defensive linemen that includes first-round NFL Draft pick Bill Kollar (1973), and first-team All-America selections Les Leininger (1976) Mark Fellows (1984), Neal Smith (1997), Dane Fletcher (2009), Zach Minter (2011), Caleb Schreibeis (2012) and Brad Daly (2013). Brad Daws (1975), Phil Bruneau (1982), Lonnie Burt 1984) Corey Widmer (1990, 1991), Jason Hicks (1993), Ty O’Connor (1998), Jon Montoya (2000), Nick Morasko (2001, 2002), Adam Cordeiro (2001) and Dan Ogden (2010) give MSU 18 All-America defensive linemen over the last 46 years.
Skyline Sports: Great defensive line here at Montana State going all the way back to Gary Gustafson and Bill Kollar in the 1960s and the 1970s. Is that something you are aware of and you hope to cultivate to your advantage?
Hout: “Yes. I mean, a lot of pressure, right? You walk out the door and there’s a picture of two Buchanan Award winners right there. I wasn’t aware of the tradition but I’ve been hearing about it since I’ve been up here and trying to get to know that. The great thing about it is I’ve had a great opportunity to learn under some of the greats. Peter Kwiatkowski, Steve Caldwell, Andy Avolos and even Jeff Choate being a former defensive line guy at Washington is going to help me out a bunch. I’m so thankful that Bo Beck is here to lean on as well. I think I’m going to have a lot of help going forward.”
Kwiatkowski is currently the defensive coordinator at Washington. He was the DC at Montana State from 2000 until 2005 and the DC at Boise State from 2010 to 2013. Caldwell coached defensive ends at Tennessee from 1995 until 2008 and has been Boise State’s defensive line coach and Hout’s primary mentor the last two seasons. Avalos coached Boise State’s defensive line in 2012 and 2013 and has spent the last two seasons coaching linebackers.
Greg Rachac, Billings Gazette: Can you talk about your relationship with Jeff Choate, getting together with him and joining the staff?
Hout: “Well, our relationship began when I came to Boise State and was a freshman and was kind of a tweener between redshirting and not redshirting. So I ended up playing a lot for him on special teams, burned my red shirt and gravitated towards him because he’s such a high-energy guy. You just want to play your heart out for him. I had the opportunity to be in the room with him as a linebacker for a semester and then he switched positions again. I always loved that opportunity to play for him on special teams and gravitated towards that with him.
“When he left Boise, it was about the same time I was getting done, took me up to Washington State with him where I spent a fall as a graduate assistant learning under him. That’s really where I got my feet wet in this profession. He taught me a lot about what it’s going to take, the work ethic and how this profession is run.”
Skyline: Did you expect to get a full-time position this quickly at such a young age?
Hout: “You hear stories about how hard it is to get into this profession and the stories of the guys bouncing around from college to college and really putting in a lot of hard work and not getting any gratification from it as far as getting a full-time position. It was such a great opportunity to get that phone call and come up here.”
Skyline: You mentioned Pete Kwiatkowski. Have you spoken with him at all about what this place is like since he spent a lot of time here?
Hout: “No, no I haven’t yet. But I’m looking forward to that conversation.”
Skyline: And Coach Beck, having a guy who has worked with those guys on that side of the ball, what will that dynamic be like with you taking over his group with him still on staff?
Hout: “Couldn’t tell you about a greater guy. You guys know in the room. Bo Beck is an amazing coach and he brings a lot to the table with his energy and his personality. We are going to feed off each other and be a great duo working together.”
Dawson: What is your philosophy of defensive line play?
Hout: “It’s kind of a blend of what I’ve come to learn through Pete Kwiatkowski and Steve Caldwell, guys I’ve worked under and with Choate going forward. I just want to be a tough, physical defensive line. I want guys to play fast and play hard for me.”
Rob Jesselson, ABC/Fox: Can you talk about what the mood has been like in the room, what the mood has been like the last few days just getting to know everybody and building chemistry?
Hout: “The chemistry has been great so far moving forward. A lot of good chemistry, a lot of good banter back and forth. It’s a great group of guys.”
Hout is on a defensive staff that also includes former defensive coordinator Kane Ioane, the linebackers coach as well as new defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak. MSU is still looking to hire someone to coach the secondary.
Jesselson: What do you know about Coach Gregorak and what have your interactions with him been like?
Hout: “I met Gregorak one time at a border camp in Spokane. I instantly knew this guy reminded me a lot of Choate in a way. Always liked him and didn’t know where he came from, his story and all that. But excited to work with him.”
Skyline: Recruiting wise, have they told you what your territories will be?
Hout: “No.”
Skyline: Have you gotten a chance to watch film on your guys or anyone on the team in general?
Hout: “Not as much as I wanted to. There’s a lot of HR stuff, paper work, going back and forth meetings. We just got done with the campus tour. That will come.”
Skyline: The Boise State connection on the staff, you guys spent some time there. What did you learn at Boise to use as a blue print to try to rebuild MSU?
Hout: “I could sit up here and talk all day about it because…I want to take everything that was successful there and try to bring it here. We have so much experience in that room with guys being from different places and a lot of experience coaching, especially that are on staff here, Kane, Bo and Michael (Pitre), getting their perspective. I think that’s great when you can get guys from other places and everyone starts to put in their two cents on, ‘Hey, this is how we were successful here’ and then you start gravitating toward ideas and that’s when the magic happens.”
Skyline: General thoughts on Bozeman so far?
Hout: “I love it. I absolutely love it. I was driving through West Yellowstone to get here, blown away. It’s great.”
Skyline: You have some infamy from the LeGarrette Blount incident years ago. What’s it like to be known for something like that despite your outstanding career at Boise State?
Hout: “Well, I hope that’s not what I’m known for. But the whole situation and what it is is really a teaching moment for guys out there to play with sportsmanship and do things the right way on the field. That’s what I’ve used it for.”
Skyline: You talked about the grind of being a GA and what it took to get to this spot. What did it mean to you when you got the call to get your first full-time job?
Hout: “It meant a lot to me. As a graduate assistant, you are doing a lot of work and to finally have the opportunity to be in a room and have a voice in that room and control your guys is something that I have always looked forward to and waited for. I’m just happy to be here.”
Rachac: Following up on the Blount incident, is that something you’ve had trouble distancing yourself from? Has it followed you?
Hout: “Just when you guys bring it up (laughs). No, the thing is, in Boise, I get recognized around and always get asked about it. But again, when it comes up, I try to use it as a teaching moment about sportsmanship and doing the right thing.”
Skyline: When you first get your guys here, what will be the first things you talk about?
Hout: “We are going to first meet with the team, Choate is going to meet with the team. We will have the message to deliver after that reiterating what the team message is to the guys.”
