MISSOULA – There are a few new faces at the University of Montana as Robin Pflugrad named his staff at a press conference Friday afternoon where he was officially introduced as the school’s head football coach.
Pflugrad, who became the 34th head coach in the 112-year history of the school a week ago, succeeds Bobby Hauck who took the reins at UNLV.
In his remarks before a crowd at the Canyon Club on the east side of Washington-Grizzly Stadium, Pflugrad emphasized the importance of his team and coaches functioning like a family unit.
The majority of the staff Pflugrad assembled already recognizes the importance of the Griz family since several of them have either previously coached here or played in the program.
Mike Breske, who was the defensive coordinator with Joe Glenn from 2000-2003, returns to the same position on Pflugrad’s staff, while Jonathan Smith, a former player at Oregon and in the Canadian Football League and a current coach at Idaho, will lead the offense.
Former All-American Grizzly players Bob Beers, also a former assistant coach, and Scott Gragg will handle the offensive line and former UM receiver Shalon Baker will coach receivers, while Mike Hudson and Mick Delaney are holdover coaches from the Hauck regime.
University of Oregon assistant coach Mike Gray will coach the defensive line, while a special teams coach with Pac-10 credentials is close to being signed. He is still under contract with another team.
Pflugrad also said he had not yet talked to Tom Hauck, but would like to have him remain with the program.
At the press conference, he gave credit to several coaches who helped him along the way in a 29-year coaching career that began after he graduated at Portland State University. He continued in Missoula under Don Read from 1986-1994, then worked at Washington State, Arizona State and Oregon.
“He took a chance on me, he really did,” said Pflugrad about Read bringing him to coach in Missoula.
“He laid the foundation,” Pflugrad said about the football coach who won more games (85) than any other Grizzly coach.
“The coaches he hired, the players he recruited really built this program,” he added.
An academic All-American at PSU in 1979, Pflugrad stressed that his players would not just represent the school on the football field but also in the classroom, adding that his staff would do more than coach.
“This staff is all about academics,” he said. “The campus community is critical. We have to be the best teachers on this campus and that’s a major challenge.”
“It’s all about the development of the student-athlete,” said Pflugrad.
While he could not talk specifically about a recruiting process that needs to replace six of the top 11 tacklers and 65 percent of the passing offense that graduated, he said he was encouraged about a couple of things that occurred in the last 48 hours.
In Portland earlier in the week, and on several recruiting Web sites, it was reported that Jordan Johnson, a highly heralded quarterback from Sheldon High School in Eugene, was passing on recruiting trips to Army and Air Force and had verbally committed to Montana.
Johnson was the Oregon 6-A player of the year who passed for 94 touchdowns and ran for 45 more and amassed more than 10,000 yards in a three-year career.
Collegiate football signing day is the first week of February and schools are not allowed to comment on specific athletes until they have signed a letter of Intent.