Montana alum and 27-year coaching veteran Brent Pease has been promoted to offensive coordinator, head coach Bobby Hauck announced Thursday. Pease’s promotion is one of several shifting responsibilities among the Grizzly offensive staff.
Pease, who helped lead Montana to the national championship game and two Big Sky titles as UM’s offensive coordinator from 1996 to 1998, now reassumes control of the Grizzly offense and also returns to coaching the quarterbacks.
Bryce Erickson, UM’s tight ends coach since 2019, will move over to coach wide receivers, Pease’s position group since returning to Montana in 2018.
Rob Phenicie, the Grizzlies’ offensive analyst in 2022 and long-time offensive coordinator (2003-2009), returns to the UM coaching staff in 2023 and will coach the tight ends and tackles, in addition to serving as Hauck’s assistant head coach.
Former Grizzly All-American center Chad Germer will now concentrate on coaching the interior offensive line – the centers and guards. Timm Rosenbach will now serve as the Grizzlies’ senior offensive analyst and will assist in recruiting as the director of high school relations.
“We are shuffling some positions on our offensive staff and changing our approach to it. Coach Pease will call it on Saturdays, and there will be some wholesale changes to how we’re doing things. I think it’s good to freshen up our approach and go in a little bit different direction,” said Hauck.
“Coach Pease will do a great job with that. He’s got great experience. He’s done this a lot of different times in a lot of different places. I think it will be productive to have him in that role.”
As a player, Pease was a record-setting quarterback for the Grizzlies under Don Read and a four-year NFL veteran. During his first tenure coaching at Montana he helped mentor Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame quarterbacks Dave Dickenson and Brian Ah Yat.
Since then, he has served as the offensive coordinator for some of the nation’s most high-profile programs, including stints at Kentucky, Baylor, Boise State, and Florida, with stops at Northern Arizona, Washington, and UTEP along the way.
During his time at Boise State, Pease coached Heisman Trophy finalist Kellen Moore, who became the first quarterback in FBS history to win 50 games in his career. In his six seasons in Boise, he also helped lead the Broncos to six-straight bowl games and a No. 4 national ranking.
Phenicie returns to Montana this season after originally accepting a position at Bucknell in December. He helped guide the Grizzlies to three national championship appearances and seven-straight Big Sky titles under Hauck between 2003 and 2009. Before returning to UM to serve as the offensive analyst in 2022, he spent seven seasons at Idaho State, with five spent as the Bengals’ head coach (2017-2021).
Prior to his time at ISU, he also coached under Hauck at UNLV from 2010-2014, serving as the Rebels’ offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and tight ends coach, helping lead them to the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl.
Erickson is set to enter his fourth full season at UM after joining the staff in the spring of 2019 as the tight ends coach. He now leads a group that has produced some of the most prolific receivers in program history in recent years in players like Samuel Akem, Samori Toure, Jerry Louie-McGee, Malik Flowers, and Mitch Roberts
Germer, a native of Three Forks and an All-America center for the Griz in 1991, enters his fifteenth season coaching at Montana in 2023. He helped lead his alma mater to the 2001 national championship and spent six years coaching at Wyoming under former Grizzly mentor Joe Glenn. Germer also coached at UNLV under Hauck from 2010 to 2014 before returning to Montana in 2015.
Rosenbach has coached at Montana in two different terms, serving as the Grizzlies’ offensive coordinator in 2012 and again from 2018 to 2022. He also coached under Hauck at UNLV in 2013 and 2014 before spending three seasons as the head coach at Adams State. He will now assist in game planning as UM’s senior offensive analyst and recruiting as the director of high school relations.
“As part of this process, we’ve hired Rob Phenicie to coach our tackles and our tight ends, and Chad Germer will then slide inside and take the centers and guards. Bryce Erickson will move from tight ends to wide receivers, and Timm Rosenbach will provide direction from an analysis standpoint,” added Hauck.
“I’m excited about breaking up the offensive line piece and getting a more detailed look at those positions. All of these guys will do a great job.”
Montana is set to begin spring ball on March 1, with the annual spring game set for April 7 in Washington-Grizzly Stadium at 6 p.m.
The Grizzlies open the 2023 season at home with a first-time matchup against the Butler Bulldogs out of Indianapolis, Indiana.
