The drive to Moscow will look plenty familiar to Jeff Choate.
On Thursday, Montana State’s first-year head coach will make a return to his roots. The Bobcats open the Choate era at the Kibbie Dome against the University of Idaho on Thursday night.
Choate grew up in tiny St. Maries, a town of about 2,500 about 65 miles north of Moscow. As a kid, Choate remembers heading down to the Kibbie Dome whenever he could to watch a game.
MSU head coach Jeff Choate
“I was a fan, especially of certain players. Growing up watching guys like Kenny Hobart and John Friesz and Jeff Robinson, Kasey Dunn,” Choate said during his weekly press conference in Bozeman on Monday afternoon. “There was a lot of really good players who went through there at the time.
“I also knew I wanted to be a coach so I really paid attention. The coaches that went through the University of Idaho at that time, Dennis Erickson, a Montana State alum, John L. Smith, Keith Gilbertson who I got an opportunity to become friends with, he does some radio stuff with the Huskies, all great coaches. A lot of ties and connections.”
Before he delved into the collegiate ranks, Choate spent most of the 1990s as a high school head coach in the Gem State, making stops in Challis, Twin Falls and Post Falls before joining Mick Dennehy’s staff at Utah State in 2001. One of Choate’s brothers has a mechanical engineering degree from UI. Many of his high school and college friends went to school at Idaho. Choate himself still has a home in Couer d’Alene about 85 miles from Moscow.
“Moscow was where we would go buy shoes or 501s (Levi’s) when I was growing up,” Choate said. “We had places where you could buy Romeos or Carharts in St. Maries but not a lot of places to go buy cleats and new blue jeans. They had a movie theatre, which was pretty cool, a Pizza Hut, stuff like that (laughs).”
Choate has coached in the Kibbie Dome on many occasions. While an assistant at Utah State and Boise State, the Vandals were among his respective school’s conference rivals. Choate said he expects there to be plenty of supporters on hand as he coaches his first.
“We will have a lot of supporters there, family and friends. But I have a job to do,” Choate said. “It’s a vacation for them but we have to focus on what we have to get done.”
The ties between the two programs and between the state of Idaho and the state of Montana run deep. Erickson, a Montana State quarterback in the late 1960s, launched his head coaching career with the Vandals before guiding Miami to national championships in 1989 and 1991. UI and MSU are two of the charter members of the Big Sky, with the Vandals posting a 17-14 record against the Bobcats before leaving the league to jump to the FBS ranks in 1996. In 2018, Idaho will make its return to the conference as a football-playing member after rejoining the league in all other sports in 2014 when the Western Athletic Conference disbanded.
UI head coach Paul Petrino/by UI Athletics
Paul Petrino enters his fourth year as Idaho’s head coach. The Butte native grew up in Helena while his father, Bob Petrino Sr., coached Carroll College. His brother is Bobby Petrino, who has a lengthy career filled with success with stops at Louisville, Arkansas, and back to Louisville. Paul Petrino quarterbacked Carroll from 1985-1988 before joining the Carroll coaching staff in 1990, launching career that has included stops at Utah State, Louisville, Southern Miss, Arkansas, Illinois and the Atlanta Falcons before getting his first head coaching gig at Idaho in 2013.
“There’s nothing more than you ever want to do than beat your friends,” Petrino said. “I look at the names on the Montana State roster and I know a lot of their dads. You see a Collins and a Bignell and a Brekke, those are guys I remember either playing against or watching. D’Agostino, I played against his dad a bunch. It makes it a little more special and makes you even more fired up and ready to go.”
Collins is Grant Collins, the sophomore defensive end son of Bozeman native Shane Collins, a draft pick of the Washington Redskins in the early 1990s after a standout career at Arizona State. Bignell is Mac Bignell, the junior outside linebacker son of former Montana State Hall of Fame tight end Joe Bignell. D’Agostino is sophomore wide receiver John D’Agostino, the son of Mark D’Agostino, an All-Big Sky linebacker at MSU in the late 1980s. Brekke is Gunnar Brekke, Montana State’s senior captain running back, the son of Ray Brekke, a Helena native like Petrino.
“Just knowing the Petrino family dating back to their time in Helena, you know Idaho is going to be some tough, hard-nosed guys,” Gunnar Brekke said last week.
The ties between the Vandals and the Bobcats do not end with Petrino’s Treasure State roots. Former Bobcat All-America linebacker Bobby Daly, a Helena native, is Petrino’s director of football operations. Troy Purcell, the former head coach at Bozeman High and Havre High who won four state championships between the two schools, is now Idaho’s inside linebackers coach. Purcell and Petrino played at Helena Capital and Carroll College together.
UI defensive coordinator Mike Breske/by UI Athletics
Idaho’s defensive coordinator is Mike Breske, who coordinated the defense for the Montana Grizzlies on two separate occasions. Breske was the DC on Joe Glenn’s staff during Montana’s 2001 national championship season. He went with Glenn to Wyoming but returned to Montana with Robin Pflugrad in 2010 and 2011. MSU defensive coordinator Ty Gregorak worked under Breske for two seasons in Missoula before taking over as Montana’s defensive coordinator in 2012. Breske left UM for a second time to join Mike Leach’s staff at Washington State, where he spent three seasons. Choate worked under Breske during the 2012 season in Pullman.
“I worked very closely with Mike in 2012,” Choate said. “He’s an aggressive play caller on defense. You are going to see a lot of pressures, especially on third downs. There’s going to be a bunch of movement on defense. It’s multiple front, pressure defense is how I would describe what he does.”
Gregorak worked for Breske for a few years. Gregorak’s aggressive, multi-faceted defenses at Montana resembled those employed by Breske and former UM coordinator Kraig Paulson. Gregorak has ties to the Northern Idaho region as well. He hails from Spokane.
“I’m from that area, Jeff is from that area, we have four former Boise State guys (secondary coach Gerald Alexander, defensive line coach Byron Hout, wide receivers coach Matt Miller, Choate) so a ton of ties,” Gregorak said. “It should be fun. Hopefully, we can play a really sound, fast football game because you know the dome will be rockin’.”
Photos by Brooks Nuanez or noted. All Rights Reserved.
