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Stitt Takes Over as Griz Football Coach

Bob Stitt agrees to three-year contract to helm University of Montana football program

By Beacon Staff

Bob Stitt was formally introduced as the new football coach at the University of Montana on Dec. 19.

The university held a press conference Friday, announcing that Stitt has signed a three-year contract to helm the Grizzlies’ football program. The contract, which will take him through the 2017 season, is pending approval by Montana’s Board of Regents.

Stitt comes to Montana after a 15-season stint as the head football coach at the Division II Colorado School of Mines, where he had an overall record of 108-62 and a 83-44 mark in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Stitt makes the jump to the Division I FCS and replaces Mick Delaney, who retired after three seasons last month with a career record of 24-14. Montana was 9-5 overall in 2014, received an at-large berth into the NCAA FCS playoffs and advanced to the second round.

Stitt’s teams have had 13 winning seasons in his 15-year tenure, and registered eight winning seasons in a row. His teams won conference titles in 2004, 2010 and 2014. He is widely known in national coaching circles as a having a very creative offensive mind and is the innovator of the fly-sweep play, according to the university.

His 2014 Orediggers were 10-2 overall and 8-1 in the RMAC, and advanced to the Division II national playoffs. In 2013, the Orediggers posted an 8-3 record.

He was named the league’s coach of the year in 2004 and 2010. Stitt was selected the Division II Football.com Southwest Region Coach of the Year in 2004, and was also tabbed the AFCA Region 5 Coach of the Year following that season.

During his tenure at Mines, Stitt has coached a grand total of 129 All-RMAC performers, 31 All-Region selections and 16 All-Americans. His .635 winning percentage during 15 seasons at the helm of the Oredigger football program is the highest in school history for a coach with at least 20 games under his belt.

A 1987 graduate of Doane College in Nebraska, Stitt received various accolades as a running back and a return specialist, including All-State College Offensive Player of the Year in 1985.

Stitt returned to coach at his alma mater after receiving his master’s degree in Physical Education from the University of Northern Colorado in 1989.

He served as the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach for four years at Doane from 1990-93, and he produced three NAIA Division II All-Americans and 19 All-NIAC offensive players during his tenure there.

Stitt went on to coach at Austin College in Texas from 1994 to 1999, serving as the assistant head coach and the coordinator of offense and special teams, before he moved on to Harvard.

He is a native of Tecumseh, Nebraska.

Bob and his wife, the former Joan Scherrer, have two sons, Joe and Sam.

Here is a transcript of Stitt’s comments from Friday’s press conference, courtesy the University of Montana:

“I want to start out with a few thank yous. President (Royce) Engstrom thank you for giving me this opportunity. Kent (Haslam, UM’s director of athletics), thank you for thinking outside the box. This is a tough process, especially at a place like this to hire a football a coach, especially one outside the family, and I appreciate that you reached out to me and that I am standing here today.

I need to thank my parents. Back in the day when I was making no money and I wanted to be a coach, and they supported me all the way, through all of those small college jobs and gave me a chance to get here where I am at. My wife Joan – she hung with me. When I was making $12,500 as an offensive coordinator, and head baseball coach, and running a dorm. It was tough. But there’s always something positive in everything, and when you’re making $12,500 and running a dorm, you know she really loves you.

My boys, Joe and Sam. It’s one of the proudest things that I’ve done is never move them. In 15 years (at College of the Mines ), it was going to take a great job for me to do that to my kids. They’re excited, and we’re excited to have them in this city, this culture, and this environment. I want to raise my boys here.

I also want to thank the Colorado School of Mines. That’s another situation where they hired me with no head coaching experience 15 years ago and gave me an opportunity, and it was awesome. And I wasn’t leaving for just any job. I planned on being there the rest of my life, and Kent’s call got my wheels spinning. I never even thought about Montana before he had called me, because I didn’t think it would be realistic – it’s (UM) such a great program in my mind.

It was something that since Joe Glenn started talking about Montana when I joined his staff (at Northern Colorado), that I never fathomed that the chance of standing here and talking about being the head coach at Montana. You’ve got to pinch me right now.

The Colorado School of Mines was awesome – treated me great. We are leaving that program in great shape, and I look forward to every Sunday opening up the newspaper and see them winning football games. Former players – there why I am here, and that’s what it’s all about. (At this point Coach Stitt got somewhat emotional and paused talking).

But anyway, 29 years of preparing for this day. Only a great job is going to get me out of the School of Mines. FCS was not something that I wanted to do. It was either going FBS or I am staying, because all of the jobs I had looked at and that I wanted, I couldn’t get. And all of the ones that they were offering me I didn’t want.

Last year there were some pretty good FCS schools open, my agent calls, and I am not interested – I don’t think those are better (than COM).  When this job opened – it’s better. It’s the best job in America. I think it’s better than 50 percent of the FBS schools.  It’s better – it’s the big time. That’s what I wanted. I wanted to go some place where it really, and that’s why I am standing here today.  You can do it (win games) on a yearly basis here. I know there’s pressure (to win). I grew up in Nebraska. I thought every place was like Nebraska, where every day of the year all that you thought about was the Huskers. And then you move around, and it’s not the case. And you always dream about being at that situation again, where everybody lives and breaths THAT football team. That’s what this is –  and that’s why I am so excited.

My responsibility as a head football coach is teach and preparing, and motivating these guys. The biggest things is these kids. You can win games in programs, but when it’s all said and done, maybe it wasn’t that much fun. You win football games, but it really wasn’t the experience that you really wanted. I do not want our players to ever leave feeling like they didn’t get everything out of it that they dreamed about. That’s what we’ve got to get done. We’ve got to wins games, but we’ve got to have fun doing it.

I’ve got to be able to put a great staff together to be able to create that environment, where every day our players love to come to work; our coaches love to come to work; and that locker-room experience after a win is nothing like any other. There’s a lot of people out there that make a lot of money. There are a lot of my friends who are making a lot of money. My wife asked me ‘how come some of your friends are making so much money and you don’t.’ I get paid on Saturday in the locker-room after a win. And those guys that are closing billion-dollar deals will never have the feeling that I had with those guys (the players and coaches). So that’s what it’s all about.

So that’s why I talked to Legi (Suiaunoa, UM’s current associate head coach & defensive line coach), Ty (Gregorak, Griz defensive coordinator & linebackers coach), and Justin (Green, Montana’s running backs coach & recruiting coordinator). We’re going to keep those guys around here, and we’re going to make this transition very smooth. Those guys are quality people and quality coaches.

I want to say that when I talked about this program moving on, we’re building from what Mick (Delaney) did.  We’re not trying to change anything. We may polish something here or there, and do something a little bit different, but this thing is not broken. Coach Delaney and his staff did an unbelievable job. We’re just trying to move forward from where they’re at, and those three guys are really going to help me. I am going to lean on those guys to keep the Montana-way going.

Coach Delaney’s been one of my favorite guys for a long time. He was on Sonny’s (Lubick) staff at CSU (Colorado State), and I’ve X’d and O’d with those guys a few times, and spent some time with coach (Delaney). When I meet people from Montana, I like them all, and I have a blast with them. That’s why when I had the opportunity to come here, I was like, ‘that’s where I want my boys. I want them around those type of people.’ Pryor Orser (the head men’s basketball coach at the Colorado School of Mines) is a Montana guy and he’s two doors down from me for the past 13, 14 years. That’s what I want my boys around, a Pryor Orser kind of person.

It’s very exciting to have those three guys, and also Chad Germer. You may know Chad Germer. He’s going to come back and coach our offensive line, and we’re going to have the toughest offensive line in the country. You have to have that. Everyone thinks that we’re just going to spread everything out (the offense) and it’s all finesse and we never run the ball, and no, that’s not our football team. We’re going to be tough; we’re going have a 1,000-yard rusher; and we take what the defense gives us. If they’re going to give us that box we’re going to run at it. We’ve got to have a tough offensive line. I have known Chad for a long time. He was on Joe’s (Glenn) staff (at Wyoming, and I know he played here and was a great player. He was one of the first calls I made when I thought I was going to get this job, and I met with him on Sunday, and he’s all in.” (Germer was an All-American center from Three Forks for the Griz in 1991, and has been an assistant coach at Montana, Wyoming, and most recently at UNLV).

We’re going to continue to complete the staff. I am going to bring four guys with me off of my staff at Mines that are unbelievable coaches, teachers, and people. I can stand up here and talk about them – you just need to meet them. They are awesome. Words just don’t to them justice. You’re going to really, really enjoy being around the guys that I am bringing. This staff is going to be fantastic. It’s a tough transition for players when they lose their coaches, and these guys are going to make it as easy as possible for them.

What do I want to do as a head football coach? We want to produce exciting football – very exciting football –  and you’ve got to win. Statistics don’t mean anything if you don’t get it done in the end. Ty and I have talked about their defense, and it’s a very good defense – we’ve got to score some points though. We want to do it in an up-tempo fashion, and we’re going to wear people down, and we will win in the fourth quarter.

This offense is very efficient, but we’re going to run a lot of plays. We’re (COM) the fastest football team in America (in running plays) the last two years. Last time I checked Baylor was second. We were number one last year. We were running right at 90 plays a game, and an average for an offensive team is around 63, 65. So you’re making that defense defend a third more plays, and it wears on them, and wears on them.

Are you killing your defense with an up-temp spread offense? Some teams do. We do not. We were 11th in the country in time of possession – also the fastest team, we’re keeping the ball and keeping our defense off the field. We led the nation this year in first downs – 29 a game. We were second last year at 29 a game. That’s how you do it. It is very efficient.

We’ve got to school-up our quarterbacks to be able to attack the defense where it’s weak. We’re going to keep it simple. What we run in the spring is what we’re going to run all season long. What changes is how we attack the defense and what they are trying to do. When you look at our scoring, it’s okay in the first quarter, and then in the second and third quarters we’re getting after them. By then we know exactly what they are doing, and we’re going to attack that.

This is a style of football that will attract great recruits. Kids want to play in this. Receivers want to catch 80, 90, 100 balls. Quarterbacks want to throw for 4,000 yards. Running backs want the ball in their hands. Our running back caught over 50 balls, while rushing for 1,000 yards. Kids want to play in that system.

Defensive players want to play in a system where the offense can score. It’s demoralizing for a team that is very good on defense and can’t score. And when they do get scored on everyone says it’s over. It’s never over with us.

That’s what it’s all about. Kids want to play in this style of offense, but you’ve got to win. It’s not about throwing for 500 yards and losing. In the end you have to win the football game. That’s why we do it. I tell people all the time, the guys that says ‘it’s not whether you win or lose’ – I want to play that guy, you know?

Anyway, I am so excited and I am so proud to be the head football coach at Montana. This is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I am going to work my tail off. The schedule is interesting to start the season next year. I was trying to find out who scheduled that. But what a great way to start off this new era of football than to play against the team that everyone has on their radar – North Dakota State (the Griz host NDSU on an ESPN game Aug. 29 to open the 2015 season). They are on their way to maybe winning their fourth straight (FCS championship) and it will be a great challenge. Can you imagine the environment? It’s the first football game of the season. Nobody else will have played on ESPN. It’s going to be awesome. I cannot wait to run down that tunnel here next fall.”

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