Jeff Choate walked into the Bill Ogle Hall of Fame Room at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse with a freshly printed and folded piece of paper in his hand. After exchanging pleasantries with the seven media members in attendance in Bozeman on Monday, Choate reeled off a few statistics from his newly assembled coaching staff.
Montana State’s new head football coach had just finished his first meeting with his full staff since taking the MSU job on December 4. Before heading to his first meeting with the media of 2016, Choate compiled a list of his new staff’s accolades. Chaote couldn’t help but smile as the numbers rolled off his lips.
Between Choate and his 9 new assistants, the Bobcat coaching staff has 143 year of combined coaching experience, 43 conference championships, 42 playoff appearances, 36 bowl games, nine national championships appearances and two Coach of the Year awards.
Choate just completed a whirlwind month that included becoming MSU’s 32nd head coach, filling out his coaching staff, returning to the University of Washington to help the Huskies prepare for the Heart of Dallas Bowl the day after Christmas and coaching the Huskies defensive line in 44-31 win over Southern Miss. He spent a few days with his family in Seattle before arriving in Bozeman on New Year’s Day.
Choate’s staff includes Courtney Messingham as the offensive coordinator, Ty Gregrorak as the defensive coordinator and former defensive coordinator Kane Ioane as the linebackers coach and assistant head coach. Bo Beck was retained from Rob Ash’s staff as the recruiting coordinator and will switch from coaching defensive line to tight ends. Michael Pitre is also a hold over from Ash’s staff and will coach running backs for a third season. Former Boise State standouts Matt Miller (wide receivers) and Byron Hout (defensive line) are joined by offensive line coach Brian Armstrong and B.J. Robertson will serve as the director of high school relations while also helping out Choate with special teams and with the secondary.
On Monday, Choate and Pitre met with the local media. Throughout the week, Skyline Sports will have the transcripts from each press conference appearance from members of the MSU coaching staff. On Tuesday, Hout and Miller will make their first appearances. Wednesday will feature Ioane and Robertson. Thursday will be the introduction of the coordinators.
Skyline Sports: Was that hard, balancing two different things at once, Washington and Montana State?
Choate: “I really enjoyed being around those guys one last time. It was pretty easy. I didn’t have to do a lot of the administrative things. I wasn’t worried about, when they went and did their recruiting meetings, I could go make calls and make sure the guys on staff were taken care of and communicate with the administration here in Bozeman and work on doing some recruiting for the Bobcats.
“I was fortunate enough to coach a group of guys who really got it, loved each other and played hard for each other. It was fun to have one more experience with them.”
Skyline: You were announced in Bozeman and you go back, you are in between, but what was their reaction at U-Dub to you coming to Montana State?
Choate: “I think they were really happy for me. I think they know this is something I want to do. I think at first they kind of got over the initial shock, knew there was going to be change there and that’s always difficult. But we had some really good conversations and enjoyed each other’s company and I think they were happy for me to get an opportunity to lead my own program. It was an exciting time from that perspective.”
Rob Jesselson, ABC/Fox Montana: What’s it been like these last few days having the whole staff together?
Choate: “Really exciting. The energy is finally right. I would wake up at 2:30 in the morning and stare at the ceiling and wonder what I was supposed to be doing. I have 1,000 things here I need to get done. You really can’t start to go until everyone gets in one spot. We’ve had some really good dialogues over the last 48 hours. We have a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time but I think I have the right guys here to do it.
MSU head coach Jeff Choate
“Just a couple of quick comments about this group, I went around the room and I said, ‘Ok, I want you guys to tell me some stuff.’ In that room, we have 143 years of combined coaching experience, 43 conference championships, 42 playoff appearances, 36 bowl games, nine national championships appearances and two coaches of the year. I think that speaks to the level of coaching that we were able to attract here to Montana State. The experience, the guys who have been doing this for 20-plus years like myself and Courtney all the way down to guys like Matt Miller who really is just kind of cutting his teeth in this profession but is arguably one of the best receivers in Boise State history and played at an extremely high level throughout his career, knows what it takes to be a winner and a champion.
“I feel like we have a group of guys who will teach really well, connect to our players, develop those lifelong relationships which is really what college football is about. I’m excited. It’s a good group. You can just tell. There’s good humor, good banter. I think we are going to have really good chemistry within this group and I’m excited about that. I think that’s an underrated aspect of a coaching staff because I really feel that filters into the locker room when the players feel like these guys care about each other, like each other and respect each other, that filters into our locker room and we can start to develop the type of unity we need there to be a championship program.”
On December 14, Gregorak aided in one of the bombshells of the year as the longtime Montana Grizzlies coach flipped his allegiance and joined Choate’s staff at Montana State. In 12 seasons at Montana, Gregorak Gregorak helped players like Brock Coyle, Jordan Tripp, John Kanongata and Caleb McSurdy develop into professional football linebackers. Coyle currently plays for the Seattle Seahawks. Tripp made his first career start for the Jacksonville Jaguars on December 15.
Gregorak, a Spokane native who played his college ball at Colorado, spent 12 of the last 13 seasons coaching linebackers at Montana. He’s served the last four as Montana’s defensive coordinator. Gregorak has coached 30 All-Big Sky Conference linebackers, helped the Griz claim share of eight Big Sky titles and has been to the FCS playoffs 11 times.
Greg Rachac, Billings Gazette: Can you talk about Coach Gregorak specifically and how it call came together getting him here and what that means getting him from the other guys?
Choate: “We were actually talking yesterday about, I remember the first time I spent any significant time with him, my son and I went over during spring break from Coeur d’Alene to Missoula to watch a Griz spring practice when Robin Pflugrad was the coach there because of my relationship with (former UM running backs coach and head coach) Mick Delaney.
“We went over and hung out and watched practice. I was coaching linebackers at the time (at Boise State) so I was watching how (Gregorak) was doing his linebacker drills and how he interacted with his players. I made a mental note that this guy has got ‘it’. He interacted in a real positive way with his players. You watch how they play on defense. Not every play is going to be perfect but those guys play the right way and I know because I’ve done this long enough, they are playing for him. That’s what I want. I want guys who are going to play for their coaches who are going to buy into what they are asking them to do, who are going to understand the personal connection, that it’s more than about football.
“Every person I talk to about Ty, they say that. It wasn’t just about the relationship he developed between the white lines. It was truly a relationship that was going to stay there. It was not about the University of Montana at all. It’s about doing what is best for Montana State. If I can get a really good coach here, that’s what my job is to do is to put the very best coaches I can here.
“When Ty and I had an initial conversation, I knew it was going to be a tough thing for him because of the time he spent there and the relationships he’s developed there, not just with the current players and former players but also with the current administrators and the community of Missoula. I think in his mind, he really understood it was time to move on and take his career in a different direction. This is an opportunity we will benefit from and I think he will benefit from as well.”
Skyline: What was your main selling point to Ty?
Choate: “It wasn’t really a sales job. I think we are very similar guys. It was a conversation between two ball coaches and I said, ‘We have a chance to put two sticks of dynamite in a hole that only really needs one so let’s do it.’ We are similar guys. We think about the game in the same way. I think we have the same values. I think this needs to be a player-centered deal. What’s best for the players, their experience, their time in college is short and we have an opportunity to have a tremendous influence on these young men. I want guys that understand what the expectations are and it’s easy if you have the same mindset. I think it was really just two guys who think about football the same way. He’s kind of looking at me saying that’s exactly how I think about it and I’m listening to him and thinking that’s exactly how I think about it. So it wasn’t much selling going on.”
Ryan Green, KBZK Bozeman: You said you have 1,000 things to do. What’s on top of the list?
Choate: “Our players. Recruit our guys who are here. We will have a team meeting on the 12th, the evening of the 12th the night before they start class on the 13th. I really want to let them know who is going to be working with them, introduce them to the coaching staff that we’ve assembled and put together a very clear and concise set of expectations, lay out the off-season play. There’s a lot of those things but it really starts with those guys. They need to know that we are about them and what we can do to help their experience here, make them feel comfortable, get acclimated to the new expectations, the new staff.”
Skyline: Once school starts, what are the rules for how much you can be in contact with the team?
Choate: “We have the 20-hour rule during the season but it’s not going to be one of those things where we will be around that much right away because a lot of us will be on the road recruiting through the last weekend in January. We have a plan in place where we will keep some coaches in house so there is somebody here the players can connect with on a daily basis. I think it’s going to work really well. I think they are going to get the message that we aren’t just vacating the premises and you guys figure it out and we will see you when we get back and start doing morning work outs. We are going to let them know they are important to us. We want to indoctrinate them into their culture.”
Days after Choate’s hiring, MSU quarterback Dakota Prukop announced his intention to explore his options as a graduate transfer. The following week, he was an Oregon Duck.
Prukop earned All-Big Sky honors each of the last two seasons and was an Associated Press first-team All-America after piling up more than 3,500 yards of total offense and accounting for 39 touchdowns.
Jon Maletz, Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Can you talk about Dakota, his transfer, the priorities and how that changes things in the coming weeks?
Choate: “I think it was a great opportunity for Dakota. You can see why the University of Oregon was interested in him if you watched the second half of that football game (Oregon’s 47-41 triple overtime loss to TCU in the Alamo Bowl after leading 31-0). Good for him, man. I’m happy for it. It’s a great opportunity for him. I think not just his play but also the leadership he brought in the locker room and how well he was respected by his teammates was a critical piece for us.
“As we look toward filling that void, whether it’s a young man we have in the program that steps up or whether it’s a young man who is out there that can help fill that void in the short term.
“Quarterback is a priority. It’s a priority in every recruiting class. It has to be. That changes our recruiting in some respects because of instead of taking one, we are going to take two. Because we have to replace Dakota’s spot and we have to take a high school freshman, incoming freshman rather. That’s a huge priority for us. We’ve identified a number of student-athletes and we will work through the recruiting process with them over the next several weeks.”
Montana State graduated Jake Bleskin in addition to Prukop’s transfer. Redshirt freshmen Jordan Hoy, Brady McChesney and Ben Folsom all remain on the roster.
The Bobcats have confirmed scholarship offers to Scottsdale Community College transfer Tyler Bruggman, a former Arkansas and Washington State player. He has been on an official visit to Bozeman. MSU also has a confirmed offers to Skyline (Sammamish, Washington) High senior Blake Gregory and Richardson, Texas’s Hank Hughes.
Skyline: Does it give you more flexibility in what you want to do offensively not having an incumbent starter coming back?
Choate: “I was going to do what I wanted to do anyway. That’s a short answer I guess but I don’t think it really matters. I think Dakota would’ve been exceptional in our system we put in here. He’s a good football player so he can adjust and do other things.”
Rachac: Can you talk about just that transfer rule that Dakota used and other players have used and what it means at this level of college football?
MSU head coach Jeff Choate
Choate: “I think it’s an interesting deal. I think Dakota’s situation was different. I think if a young man earns his degree at mid-year and is ready to go explore things and he has the skill and ability to do that, I think it’s really hard to tell him he can’t. I think there are other situations where people are fishing and maybe looking for a transfer that is not ready to transfer. That’s where things have got to be examined. If they have their degree and they are ready to go and that’s something they are capable of doing, I think you have gotta present that opportunity to that young man and let him take advantage of it. To me, the hole is when university X, Y or Z starts going, ‘Well, this guy is a really good player, he’ll be done in May, let’s put the feelers out there and see if he’s interested in this.’ I think that’s where it creates some problems. I think there will be some conversations, I assume at the coaches meetings, probably at the AFCA convention next. I don’t know if there will be any closure on it but I do know that’s something that needs to be talked about.”
Skyline: As far as the off-season goes, (strength and conditioning coach Alex) Wilcox is still on staff?
Choate: “Yes.”
Skyline: What do you think of his rapport with the players and how important will that be in this transition?
Choate: “I think it will be really important. It’s one of the reasons why he was retained. I had an opportunity to sit down with not every kid on the roster but a significant portion of them and that’s one of the things I asked was what are the things you like about Montana State? And one of the things most of the players mentioned was the job that Coach Wilcox and his staff does, how they take care of them.
“I did my homework on him. I know some people who have worked with him in the past. I had a chance to sit down and have some conversations with him and let him know what my expectations were. I felt like he was a good fit. I think he can continue to grow as a coach with a new staff. I think he’s excited about that. We are going to spend all morning tomorrow talking about the off-season program.”
Skyline: Do you have any ideas of what you want to implement for off-season training?
Choate: “I always try to look at it like this: what did I not like as a player and what did I not like as an assistant coach? Because those are two completely different things usually. The things you didn’t like as a player was getting up early in the morning. Well, that’s toughness training so that’s important.
“The thing that I’ve really asked Alex to do is to really think about thinking outside the box, implement a lot of competition, not making it just the mat drills and the circuit training but how can we implement actual football things within the rules that will still provide conditioning and we can evaluate their change of direction and their functional mobility as a staff. I’m really interested to have this conversation with him tomorrow because I kind of gave him this loose parameter to work with and I’m interested to see what he’s come up with. Then we will sit down as a staff together and decide what the things are that we want to move forward with.”
Maletz: You talked about quarterback. What are the other positions of need?
Choate: “Offensive line. We graduated four really good players (John Weidenaar, Joel Horn, Kyle Godecke, Alex Eekhoff) so we’ve gotta fill some holes on the offensive line. I think that’s a priority in recruiting. I think speed at receiver, the secondary and speed rushers on the defensive line and I’m not telling you anything any other college football coach in the country wouldn’t tell you. It starts up front. We have to do a nice job of developing the players that are here on the offensive and defensive lines, cultivate some good talent there, play really good in the secondary and have an ability to expose a secondary that is not playing well.”
Skyline: Some new territories for recruiting. Does the Montana State brand still seem to be out there, places like the Northwest, places that the last staff didn’t recruit as hard?
Choate: “There is a tradition at Montana State from the past of recruiting the I-5 corridor. Maybe the players aren’t as familiar but certainly the coaches are and that was well received with the week I spent down there. ROOT Sports being based there in the Seattle area and the brand that they put out there, I mean, if I had a bye week, I watched. I had a vested interest because I love Big Sky football and I have a lot of colleagues who coached at this level and played at this level so I found myself watching those games. The kids see that stuff and that brand is out there consistently on the I-5 corridor. So I think that’s an area we need to pay attention to.
“But certainly, the guys who are here have done an awesome job of maintaining the commitments that we’ve had. We are going to work really hard to get those guys to the finish line on signing day.”
Skyline: When you were first introduced, you said you hadn’t had a chance to evaluate much personnel. Have you at this point?
Choate: “I’ve watched a couple of games. I wanted to see scheme wise what the thoughts were. I know the position coaches have been grinding out the tape and evaluating the specific position groups. Our evaluation, I mean this in all seriousness, I want all these guys to have a clean slate, whether it’s the guy who’s incoming senior who’s been an all conference player, well I want him to be pushed and stretched and grow as a player. And maybe it’s a young man who’s a walk on who hasn’t seen the field and felt like he was disenfranchised and buried on the depth chart, well now he’s got a new life. We have to let these guys go out there and evaluate them through winter conditioning and the opportunities we have and certainly spring ball.
Skyline: You mentioned your staff. The guys you retained from the previous staff, how much has that helped in this process?
Choate: “A ton. I knew Bo and Kane. So I had a connection, a rapport with those guys. Their knowledge of this place has really been helpful. Bo being involved with the administrative part of the recruiting process and Kane, his history here at the university, those guys have been really good.
“I think Michael Pitre has just done a tremendous job of identifying some guys for us in the short term. He’s been really, really good. He’s a good evaluator of talent. I think he’s sharp. I think he connects to players. Those guys have been really valuable.”
Skyline: The three Boise State guys you added, what do you hope to bring from the time you had at Boise?
Choate: “I think there’s just a lot of familiarity there, guys I coached with now with the exception of Matt. They know how to win. And they are familiar with what we are going to do. Certainly the frame work that I’m going to rely on are the things we did during our time at Boise and Washington. What Chris (Peterson) and our staffs put together, I’m going to lean on that a lot. But I also have a lot of ideas from guys like Bob Spoo at Eastern Illinois or from Will Muschamp who I worked with at Florida or Sean Kugler who I was with for a short time, but I got to watch him go through the first 90 days of building a program.
“There’s some familiarity with those guys being here but I mean this sincerely: this isn’t going to be Jeff Choate’s program. We are going to put this thing together as a group. As I mentioned, I have 143 years of experience to rely on in there. And a lot of winning. So I want to take advantage of what we’ve brought here and utilize that talent.”
Rachac: Have you been able to evaluate any film since you got here?
Choate: “I’ve watched some games. I’ll be honest with you: I’m kind of looking at the opponent more than us, sizing up the opponent a little bit, who I feel like was really well coached, who executed at a really high level, maybe a couple of players who jump out who could be problems for us down the road. We will put our spin on things. I have a lot of other things I have to worry about before I start to worry about the Xs and Os. I have to take care of these guys here, make sure our staff is in a good spot, get out and do the recruiting, build some toughness through our winter program. We will get to that point.”
Skyline: B.J and Brian, two guys coming from head coaching jobs. Why did you go that route, what do you hope they bring to the staff?
Choate: “It probably wasn’t even necessarily being head coaches as it was if B.J. had been an assistant at Rocky (Mountain College), I probably would’ve still wanted him on my staff. But I really did respect the job he did at Western. I thought he did an excellent job. He’s a really creative guy. He thinks outside the box, which I really like. He was able to do a lot with a little at a place like Western. I think he understands the state. He does a really good job of taking care of the coaches. And he was a guy who’s name kept coming up, kept coming up. I was like, ‘This guy can really help us get some traction.’
“Brian is a guy that, I got to know him better when we worked together at Utah State when he was a graduate assistant and I was an assistant coach there even more than our relationship when he was an undergrad at Western. I kind of connected that this guy was a pretty sharp guy and then he went down to Florida and had a lot of success at Lake Gibson and Kathleen High School, two very competitive, good programs from Central Florida. We recruited a number of players from him. I thought this guy was a guy when he came back to Montana, it was kind of an easy deal for me because I had known him for so long. We have spent a lot of time taking football. He would bring me back for a clinic in Billings about every other year. We would spend a lot of time talking about football, talking about philosophy, talking about program organization. I do think Brian is like B.J., somebody who knows how to do a lot with a little and can maximize the talent and the production.”
Rachac: B.J. has an interesting title. Can you expand on what that will mean precisely? (Director of High School Relations)
Choate: “He is going to be my boots on the ground so to speak in Montana. The way we are going to move forward with the recruiting part of it is Bo is going to handle a lot of the responsibilities that he has handled in the past but I’m going to have B.J. focus on the in-state recruiting and that means developing those relationships with the high school coaches. He will have a significant role in camps, clinics, things of that nature that we conduct either here in Bozeman or around the state. That’s going to be a big part of his responsibility is to continue to connect to the high school coaches but also to the alumni base around the state too.”
Skyline: Courtney, did you have any connection to him before?
Choate: “I didn’t know Courtney personally. I started calling guys who I thought might have interest in the job. And as luck would have it, all of them had better jobs, which was awesome for them. They were either in position to take FBS coordinator jobs or position coach jobs but it was ironic because one night I called three guys and all three of them unprompted mentioned his name. So I figured someone was trying to tell me something. So I had some other conversations with some other people so I circled back, started doing my homework, calling people who I knew had relationships with him in the past. And then I called him and had a long conversation with him and then I called some other people who knew him. I felt there was a lot of reasons why he would be a really good fit. He’s a very smart coach. He’s operated in a number of very different systems. I think he was in line with me philosophically. I think he’s an older and more mature coach who is going to help navigate some of the learning curve that some of our younger guys have and be a steadying hand on that side of the ball. I think he’s in a place in his career where he is excited about coming to Montana State.”
Skyline: What has the reception been like this last month around the state since you were hired?
Choate: “Boy, it’s kind of been interesting because I got to Billings, Huntley Project, Great Falls, Helena, Bozeman certainly and saw a bunch of old friends. I don’t know if that’s good or bad (laughs.) It was like going to a class reunion. You go in, and it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, remember this?’ No, we aren’t talking about that (laughs.) But it was good. I saw a lot of really good old friends, guys I went to school with at Western and played with. It was a lot of fun, a good reception. I’m excited to get back out and get to more places. But I thought it was good.
“But we left and went back to Washington so I’ve been gone for a month basically since I’ve been hired. It’s been interesting there has been this void a little bit but we stayed relevant in terms of how we went about hiring a staff and still have some good traction and we are excited to get back out on the road.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
A video of this interview can be found here, on the afternoon of Jan. 5, 2016.
