The Front Row with MARK NELKE Jan. 26, 2012

Jeff Choate said he was very happy as an assistant football coach at Boise State the past six seasons.

And why wouldn't he have been? The Broncos have been one of the top teams in the country over that span, going 73-6.

But after primarily coaching special teams during that time, Choate wants to eventually become a defensive coordinator and, down the line, perhaps a head coach.

So, taking the job as linebackers coach at Washington State recently was a step in that direction, the St. Maries High graduate said.

"I've been doing what I've been doing for a long time," said Choate, who was head football coach at Post Falls from 1997-2001. "I spent 10 years as a special teams guy primarily, and had the opportunity to coach a lot of different positions. I really was looking to take my career in a different direction in terms of getting more involved in the defensive game-planning and getting an opportunity to focus on moving my career toward a defensive coordinator-type of role."

Choate, 41, has coached inside linebackers, outside linebackers and running backs at Boise State. The past two seasons, he coached the nickel backs at Boise, as well as coordinated the special teams.

Recently, he was a finalist for the head coaching position at Eastern Illinois, where he was an assistant in 2005. He said one thing that kept him from getting the job there was that he had not been a coordinator.

"Which, I think, is a little bit backwards," Choate said, "because, as special teams coordinator, you address the entire team every day. So it's probably better training for a head coach in a lot of ways than being an offensive or defensive coordinator. But, the folks that make the decision don't always look at it like that."

And, with former Bronco Pete Kwiatkowski expected to be a fixture as defensive coordinator at Boise State, and Bob Gregory as the No. 2 guy behind him on defense, Choate's chances of becoming a coordinator at Boise appeared slim - unless he wanted to wait for several more years.

"I've been offered a lot of special teams jobs, and I was very happy in Boise, doing what I was doing, for a number of reasons," said Choate, who graduated from Montana-Western in 1993, was defensive coordinator at Twin Falls High in 1994, then head coach at Challis for two seasons before coming to Post Falls. "But I was looking to do something different, and this was an opportunity to do something different.”

AT WSU, Choate will be on the staff with fellow St. Maries High alum Eric Russell, who will coach special teams — and Choate figures to be someone Russell leans on for special teams advice.

Choate graduated from St. Maries in 1988. Russell was two years older, and he played a role in bringing his old Lumberjack teammate (for one season) to Pullman.

“I guess you might say he (Eric) was the primary recruiter,” Choate said last week, in a phone interview from Pullman. “I think he knew my body of work — not only how I did things in the kicking game, but how I went about things as a recruiter and developing talent at the positions I was responsible for.”

After leaving Post Falls, Choate was a graduate assistant at Utah State in 2002, then coached the Aggie special teams the next two seasons.

Though he’s now at a school in a BCS conference, Choate said his recruiting philosophy won’t change from what it was at Boise State.

“I feel like the Pac-12 brand is something that you’re selling in recruiting and there’s a certain level of athlete that’s going to be playing at that level,” Choate said. “I think at Boise State we had changed our recruiting even in the time I was there, from getting these developmental-type of guys that had this edge to them ... well we’re (getting) more four- and five-star athletes now.

“But it doesn’t change the profile of the kid you’re looking for. I think you’ve got to have a kid with a chip on his shoulder, that feels like he was slighted somewhere along the way — whether it was a kid from L.A. who wanted to go to USC and they wouldn’t talk to him, and he was going to make them pay for it for the next four years, or at Boise State, maybe it was a kid from Seattle and U-Dub wouldn’t pay any attention to him, and he was going to go show them.

“I think we did an excellent job (at Boise State) of developing players. It wasn’t always about going and getting that five-star kid and turning them loose, it was bringing that kid in that loved the game, had the tools, and had some room to grow.”

Choate disagreed with the general national take on Boise State — which was that the Broncos brought in decent players and coached them up into a great team.

“One of the things that people don’t understand at Boise State — there’s seven guys on our team that are going to the (NFL) combine this year,” he said. “We’ve had some tremendous players there. And I know that was always one thing that bothered coach (Chris) Petersen was, we had this reputation of being these gurus about how we’d go out and get these guys that weren’t very good. Well, they were doggone good — somebody overlooked them in the recruiting process, and we benefited from it. And a lot of times it boils down to how much homework you do in the recruiting process.”

LAST WEEK, Choate was in the middle of recruiting, something he and the other assistants have pretty much been doing non-stop since the staff was assembled recently.

Under new defensive coordinator Mike Breske, the Cougars are switching from a 4-3 to 3-4 defense. Choate said they plan to sign four linebackers in this class, with National Signing Day coming up on Feb. 1.

At Boise, Choate primarily recruited Houston, Idaho, northern California and Las Vegas. These days, he’s looking all over the country for linebackers — after signing day, the coaches will meet and divvy up recruiting areas for next year’s class.

Choate is excited to be part of a new start at Pullman, under new head coach Mike Leach.

“While the Cougs haven’t been on top of the world the past couple of years, I understand this program — it’s always been a little bit cyclical — and I think with the energy of Mike Leach and (athletic director) Bill Moos and the revenue that’s generated through the Pac-12 media contract, there’s a lot of awesome things here right now,” Choate said.

And for being a little closer to home ...

“It’s a nice little cherry on top,” Choate said.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at CdAPressSports.