Since uprooting from Southern California, Michael Pitre has made his home in the Rocky Mountains. For the second time in the 30-year-old Fontana, California native’s young career, he survived a coaching change.
The former UCLA fullback and former Servite (California) High coach began his college coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Colorado Buffaloes on Jon Embree’s staff in 2012. When embree was fired and Mike MacIntyre took over in Boulder, Pitre was retained.
In 2014, Pitre earned his first full-time position, joining Rob Ash’s staff as the Montana State running backs coach. In Bozeman, he helped Shawn Johnson earn second-team All-Big Sky honors while Chad Newell and Gunnar Brekke emerged as future stars during a run to the playoffs for the Bobcats.
On November 23 of 2015, Ash was fired, leaving Pitre in limbo momentarily. Days after Jeff Choate’s hiring the first week of December, Montana State’s new head coach elected to retain Pitre, Kane Ioane and Bo Beck from Ash’s staff.
Pitre enters his third season tutoring a group that has just lost Johnson since Pitre took over. Newell, a captain in 2015, and Brekke will be seniors. Nick LaSane will be a junior, Tavon Dodd and Noah James will be redshirt sophomores and Logan Jones will be a true sophomore.
On Monday, Pitre joined Skyline Sports and a collection of media members from around the Treasure State to talk about what lies ahead in 2016.
Skyline Sports: Mike, can you talk about the last two months or so since Coach Ash was let go, there was the lull and then you were retained. What was that like for you and your family?
Pitre: “It was hectic. It was definitely a hectic time going through the transition. But like everyone says, you know what you signed up for. I understood that happens in this profession and in this business. I am very fortunate and blessed to be able to work with Jeff and this staff and fortunate to still be here in Bozeman.”
John Maletz, Bozeman Daily Chronicle: What were your initial impressions of Jeff?
Pitre: “I liked him. It’s similar to what he was just talking about. (Choate addressed the media before Pitre.) We were staying on the phone, figuring out who all the different candidates were. As soon as I found out it was him, we reached out to some people we mutually knew and I found out a little bit more about him and went from there. Everything I’ve heard has been positive. So I obviously gave the opportunity to meet him myself and it’s been nothing but positive since then when we met a month or so ago. I’m looking forward to getting going.”
Skyline: On a personal level, this was your first full time job. So getting a chance to stay here, does that strengthen your ties to this school and the Bozeman community?
Pitre: “I would say so. I think any time, even to my time as a GA, I went through a transition with Coach Embree being fired and Coach McIntyre coming in. Being able to be retained there, I feel more of a sense of pride in terms of saying I am a Buff, this is where I am, they believe in my ability to help this place.
“I feel the exact same way here. I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity. I didn’t want to uproot the family, especially around the holidays. I’m just looking forward to getting to work.
“That’s been my biggest thing. Like (Choate) was saying, I’ve been up at 2 a.m. I don’t think I’ve slept a whole lot, probably the past six weeks or so. From the indecision of not knowing if I’m staying or am I going, then once I knew I was staying, now I’m just ready to get to work. With his situation with Washington, he had to go take care of that responsibility. Now with him being here, I’m very excited for this Monday to finally get here because I’m ready to get my feet dirty and get to work, man.”
Russ Reed, NBA Montana: Have you all talked offensive scheme yet?
Pitre: “We have not talked about offensive scheme but the thing we have talked about are the core values of the program. It aligns with the way I see college football. I think it’s a recipe to win and to win long term.”
Reed: Do you think all the guys you have coming back at running back embody what you want?
Pitre: “Any time you can get a group of seven coming back who are familiar most importantly with their position coach, they are going to feel some comfort. That’s been the biggest thing. It wasn’t so much worrying about myself. It was worrying about my two seniors I got, Gunnar and Chad. Those were the two guys I was concerned about because we’ve been through a lot in my two years. I didn’t want to have to say bye to those guys. We’ve put in a lot of time together, a lot of sweat equity. I think the ability to still be here and work with those guys is awesome because we do this for our players.
“And I have my five young bucks who need some more time. But specifically those two seniors, I really wanted to finish this thing out the right way with those guys.”
Maletz: How tough is it to be one of the guys who stays while others weren’t retained?
Pitre: “It was tough. It was really tough because you have personal relationships with all these guys. You spend so much time. But like I said when we started his thing, everyone understands the business. It was really hard to look at some of these guys in the eye and see the disappointnment and the insecurities they have not knowing where their families are going to end up. But at the same time, we understand this business. I know they are extremely happy for me to still have the opportunity. I’m excited for those that have landed. For those who haven’t landed, I know they will have really good opportunities show up here shortly.”
Ash remains without a job but is a candidate for the Southern Utah vacancy. Former offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey accepted the same position on Brian Polian’s staff at Nevada. Tight ends coach and special teams coordinator Daniel DaPrato, wide receivers coach Cody Kempt offensive line coach Jason Eck and safeties coach Jamie Marshall remain unemployed. Cornerbacks coach Michael Rider will pursue opportunities outside of coaching.
Greg Rachac, Billings Gazette: Can you say maybe one thing that you like about Jeff and what you like about him in the head coaching role?
Pitre: “Grit. Grit and grind. Grit, grind, toughness, I see all those things. I was fullback when I played football, man. There was nothing pretty about what I did. To hear him talk about how he wants to attack this program and where we want to start this thing is exciting because a lot of that is rooted within myself being a guy who just grinds, blue collar, let’s get after people and see how this thing works itself out.”
Montana State suffered its first losing season (5-6) since 2001. The Bobcats missed the playoffs for the second time in three seasons after a string of three straight Big Sky Conference titles earlier this decade. MSU’s losing season was capped by a 54-35 loss to rival Montana in Bozeman, MSU’s third straight and seventh loss in nine tries under Ash to the Griz.
Skyline: What do you think was missing last year?
Pitre: “That’s a tough question. If I’m going to be frank and honest, it’s simply winning more football games. However that is done, score more points, stop people, do better on special teams, us as coaches do a better job, I think all of those things can play a factor. But I think at the end of the day, we didn’t win enough football games.
“The unfortunate part about college sports is, we all understand that we are here to develop young people but at the end of the day as coaches, we are going to be gaged off wins and losses at the end of the day. I think that’s an unfortunate part about college football but we all understand the business side of college football as well.”
Days after Choate was hired, Montana State quarterback Dakota Prukop elected to enact his power as a graduate transfer, earn his degree from MSU and move on for his final year of eligibility with the Oregon Ducks.
Reed: With Dakota leaving, do you and your group feel extra responsibility to shoulder the load for this offense throughout this season?
Pitre: I think with Dakota’s situation, I think it was a great opportunity for him to play at Oregon, a big time school. But I’ll be honest our mentality, whoever is in that locker room, that’s who we are riding with. Dakota is not in that locker room anymore. I’ll be honest. It’s not a conversation piece that happens. We talk about it when it was a possibility. But since it’s happened, I have not had any conversations. I know the mentality of the guys in my room. We come to work every day. That’s what we do. We are blue collar. There’s nothing pretty about what we do. That’s the culture I want to create within the running back room that we are not the pretty running backs out there that are looking for the home run hits. We are going to be that blue collar group who brings their hard hat and lunch pail every single day and we are going to play hard, play for each other and play the right way.”
Reed: But with a first-year starter going into the season, do you think you’ll be leaned on a little more?
Pitre: “I guess you could say that right now on January 4. We will see come September when we are out there. And if that’s what we need to do as a program to win football games, we will shoulder that. We will take whatever it is. If it’s two carries a game for us to win, we will do it. If we need 60 carries a game, we will gladly do it as well. At the end of the day, these players just want to win football games and us as coaches, that’s our job is to help develop them as young people and win football games.”
Maletz: What’s being asked of you between now and signing day?
Pitre: Recruit. Recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit, recruit. I think like Coach said, the guys who are here and even the guys off site, we’ve tried to do a pretty good job of keeping this class we have so far together. And now our next job is to go out there and keep those guys and find some more guys we can make Bobcats who will represent this university the right way.”
Skyline: Will you still have similar recruiting territories (southern California)?
Pitre: “We haven’t discussed it yet. It’s something right now where I’m still going to be in the same recruiting area. But we have not gotten into the details of possibly moving some guys around.”
Skyline: Same school, new program so will you use the same pitch out on the road when you are selling Montana State?
Pitre: “I’m going to use the stadium, I’m going to use the community. I’m going to use all those things but then take what we are building now with Coach Choate and use those things. I already talked about one: toughness. That’s something he talked about in his initial interview. I know he’s talked about it a few other times. I know we will build those things and today, it’s still a player-run program. That’s one thing we want to continue to do a good job of is making sure the players understand that this isn’t our program, this isn’t Coach Choate’s program. This is your program. We are only going to be as good and successful as you guys work. We will give you the tools. We will give you all the things you need. But at the end of the day, it’s your program. Twenty years from now, they aren’t going to talk about who the running backs coach was. They will talk about J.P. Flynn, Chad Newell, Gunnar Brekke, Mitch Herbert. They aren’t going to talk about me.”
Skyline: Will your coaching style change or will you bring the same approach?
Pitre: “I’m going to bring the same approach. That’s one thing I do appreciate about Coach Choate is he told us when we were in our staff meeting to be ourselves. He wants us to be ourselves and coach and be comfortable. I like my coaching style and I’m always looking to improve. I’m going to push my guys. I’m going to demand a lot of them. I’m going to put my arm around them a lot. That’s just who I am as a person and up to this point, that’s how I’ve gotten the most out of the guys who have played for me.”
Rachac: Is this the first time everybody was together?
Pitre: “Yes this was the first time we’ve gotten together as a full staff. It was very exciting because it was finally like dust your hands off of the past and start fresh, 2016, January 4, this staff got together and we will put our stamp on this thing.”
Maletz: What do you think of the rapport in the room?
Pitre: “I like it. Some guys are familiar with each other. I personally have tried to get to know these guys leading up to the time they got here. I think we’ve done a great job of getting to know each other and being comfortable. Like any time you bring a group of people together, you are going to have your disagreements but I think at the end of the day, as long as our common goal is what we are aligning, then we will be just fine.”
Skyline: Had you crossed paths with any of these guys other than Bo and Kane?
Pitre: “Obviously (former Montana defensive coordinator and new MSU DC) Ty (Gregorak). But other than that, no. I knew Coach Armstrong, through our summer camps and stuff, he would come when he was at Rocky (Mountain College). But all the guys on staff are awesome.”
Maletz: What do you think about Ty switching sides?
Pitre: “I think that was incredibly tough for him and his family. That’s the first that comes to mind. Obviously, me being a Bruin, I think of myself on the flipside (at USC). How would I go from being a Bruin to being a Trojan? That’s how I look at it. I think it was tough for him but I’m glad he’s over here because in my two years against him, I’m 0-2. I’m happy he’s here. Listening to him when we went through and talked about our experience as coaches, he brings a lot of experience as a coach. For me as a young coach who aspires to make it one day in this business, those are the type of people who I want to pick their brain and see what I can learn during my time. There’s nothing that says we are going to work together for five years. It might be one year, five years, 10 years, whatever it may be so I want to take as much knowledge from guys like Ty, (new offensive coordinator) Courtney (Messingham) and other guys who have had a lot of experience in this business so I can continue to hone my own craft.”
Skyline: Last year, the way it ended, will you use that as motivation for the players into the off-season and going into next season?
Pitre: “Yeah, I hate losing, man. I’m a competitor. It doesn’t matter if it’s Madden, NBA 2K, a food eating contest or whatever it may be, I don’t like losing. At the end of the day, we didn’t win enough football games. For me, I don’t need to use it as motivation. We lost one last year, I would use it as motivation. We lost six last year, so I have plenty of motivation and I know I didn’t do a good enough job last year as a coach. That will change.”
