MISSOULA — As the Montana Grizzlies got back into spring ball this week, the program began to settle into the new norm of the coaching changes that occurred in early February.
Bobby Kennedy has fully settled into taking the reins as the team's new head man, and from instructing winter conditioning to orchestrating spring ball to roster management with transfers and high school recruiting, the operation is in full swing.
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But that also includes finalizing his coaching staff, with faces both familiar and new.
"I've enjoyed the tempo. I've enjoyed the energy that they brought. But also I just think they're really good teachers," Kennedy said. "And anytime you're transitioning to a new scheme, you're taking baby steps.
"But I see things working together and pieces starting to fit. So really encouraged by the guys that are here and really happy to have them."
The offense saw the least amount of change, with Brent Pease still leading the charge as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, while Rob Phenicie remains as the tight ends instructor.
Kennedy is also working with wide receivers as he did a year ago, until Eric Price returns to assume that role, with former Griz quarterback Dalton Sneed also added on staff as an offensive assistant.
The main new additions on that side of the ball have been new offensive line coach Brent Myers, who joins the Griz from Weber State, as well as a familiar face in Dominic Daste, who returns after a previous stint at UM from 2003-2009.
"When I first took this job, I think I was 22 years old," Daste recalled. "I was coaching tackles and tight ends. Our right tackle was Cory Procter, who was 23, who was a year older than me. So obviously you mature and you kind of fall into who you are a little bit more and your coaching style, I should say. And so that has been probably a big part of just maturing and obviously learning football."
Daste will lead UM's running backs, a room loaded and headlined by returning All-American Eli Gillman.
"I think you've got to coach the person first," Daste said. "As great of facilities as we have here, the people are what make the place. And so when you get to build relationships and build time with each other and all those kinds of things, that obviously helps. But coaching a person first, the X's and O's, and all those things will come along. But when you can understand who a person is and who they are and how you coach them helps dramatically.
"The first thing that kind of jumped out to me, the first morning I got here, we went to work out. And the first thing I noticed about our kids is they love each other and they love playing. They love the process in terms of whether it be lifting, practice, whatever it may be, mat drills. They don't shy away from the process. They don't shy away from the work. And so that was really exciting to see."
Defensively, Eric Sanders takes over the coordinator job after previously being at Eastern Washington.
He brought along with him from Cheney, Wash., two coaches in Jaylen Johnson to lead UM's defensive line, and Wes Nurse, who is coaching the safeties.
In the whirlwind move and job change, having those two to lean on has been big early as Sanders implements his style.
"And so I thought these two guys would do a great job of not just knowing the defense, but being able to coach the positions we needed to coach, being great recruiters. And they're going to love our guys and work hard," Sanders said. "Like everything, boxes were checked. And yeah, lucky to have them. Super thankful that they came."
Kim McCloud remained on staff and will still coach corners, as does a lot of the rest of the support staff to round out the group. Most notably, Jimmy Morimoto stayed on staff and has been named the team's general manager, while Keaton Johnson has continued as the director of recruiting and Dan Ryan also stayed with the team as the program's strength and conditioning coach.
Others currently noted on staff are Will McFarland, the team's director of player personnel, NFL liaison and video coordinator, offensive assistant Tanner Sneed and special teams assistant Brayton Boyer.
Kennedy mentioned the team still has yet to hire a special teams coordinator.
It's a coaching staff change the Griz football program hadn't seen in quite some time, but guys are settling into roles as spring ball rolls on.
"There are a lot of principles that really matter and you learn them across defenses. So we put in one defense of this type of coverage and one defense of this type of run fit and so on and so forth," Kennedy said. "What we have to do is continue to add scheme because we're going to need more than four defenses for the season. And our kids have to be able to learn that and not get flooded out.
"A lot of what I believe about coaching football, I learned from martial arts. When the kid does it wrong, I don't think it's because the kid can't learn or didn't learn or doesn't want to do it. It's because he hasn't been trained yet. That's no different than a guy getting punched in the face. Don't tell me about the 15 techniques you have. Block the punch or your nose is going to be bloody. And so that's what we're doing right now, is training these kids in an entire new language, entire new defense. And so they're doing it right a lot.
"They're doing it wrong a lot too, because we haven't trained them yet. And that's on us to be patient and continue to just preach the same coaching points. There's a lot of great defenses we can put in. We have to contain the ball, keep it inside and in front. We have to run like hell and attack it when we get there. The defenses are optional. We have to do the fundamentals first."
