Thursday, March 28, 2024
39.0°F

THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Lake City ties helped ISU coach land former T-Wolf Hout

| August 12, 2021 1:30 AM

A former Bobcat and a couple former T-Wolves — father and son — helped former Lake City High football star Byron Hout land his most recent coaching gig as defensive line coach at Idaho State.

Roger Cooper, ISU's defensive coordinator, played at Montana State, where Hout was D-line coach for five seasons (2016-20).

"I let the coordinators pick who they want (for assistant coaches) … and he said 'This is the guy we’ve got to have,'" ISU head coach Rob Phenicie said at the recent Big Sky Football Kickoff in Spokane.

PHENICIE, BEGINNING his fifth season as head coach at ISU, mentioned several reasons for hiring Hout — he's coached in the Big Sky Conference, so he's familiar with the league, and he's coached at one of the top teams in the conference, etc.

"Probably the biggest reason he was a great hire, is because he played for Van Troxel at Lake City," Phenicie said. "And Matt Troxel called me and said, 'Hire the guy,' and if I hear that from Matt Troxel, that’s all I need to hear. But the fact he played for Van Troxel, I know he was coached right. I love Van; I love Matt."

Phenicie coached Matt Troxel as an assistant at Montana, and Matt was his offensive coordinator his first year as head coach in Pocatello.

By then, Van Troxel was no longer coaching at Lake City, where he was head coach from 1994-2015, so he had some free time to visit his son at ISU.

"He was in the middle of practice (at ISU)," Phenicie said of Van. "Not just visiting; he was out there on the field, calling stuff. He came down and was coaching."

WHAT DID you think of that?

"Loved it," Phenicie said. "I said, 'You’ve got free rein, you go wherever you want and tell these guys whatever you need to.'"

So what does Hout bring to the Bengals?

"Byron brings a tremendous work ethic," Phenicie said. "His recruiting efforts … he’s a great recruiter, and we’ve already seen the fruits of that. We’ve got some commitments that Byron’s been instrumental in. Very technical as a coach ... I hope we can keep him around for a while. It’ll be tough. But he’s a complete coach for a young guy."

BEAU BALDWIN looked around the room at the other assembled coaches at the Big Sky Football Kickoff.

Baldwin, who coached at Eastern Washington for nine seasons (2008-16), leading the Eagles to a national title in 2010, returned to the Big Sky as head coach at Cal Poly in 2020.

He was asked how many were head coaches in the league in 2016, his last year in the Big Sky before moving on to Cal for three seasons as offensive coordinator.

Jay Hill of Weber State was there in 2016.

Current EWU coach Aaron Best was an assistant under Baldwin in '16.

Bruce Barnum of Portland State was there in '16.

Paul Petrino was at Idaho in 2016, but the Vandals were still in the FBS, in the Sun Belt Conference.

Rob Phenicie was at ISU in '16, but as an assistant.

Bobby Hauck was not at Montana in 2016, but Baldwin coached against him for a couple of years during Hauck's first stint with the Griz (2003-09).

"Less than half," Baldwin concluded.

HOW HAS the Big Sky changed since he left?

"Coaching differences, but the teams are relatively still the same," Baldwin said. "I would say it’s gotten stronger to some levels, top to bottom.

"Style … more than anything," he added. "But you’re seeing that in the NFL, things are more spread out. It doesn’t mean that teams aren’t going to two and three tight ends, but the offensive style is definitely more spread out, which means you have to continue to find faster athletes on defense, and guys that can play in more space.

"It’s not just a phone booth league; it never was, it’s always been high flying, but … Weber State is still pretty traditional … maybe Montana is an example of they were a little more old-school, traditional, I remember way back, that is a little more spread out now.

"You have to think about that when you’re putting together your defense; just like NFL teams are having to do, against Pat Mahomes and other teams that are spread out more than they used to be."

HOW IS Baldwin different as a coach since he left Cheney?

"I think I learned a lot being at Cal," he said. "I can think of a lot of new ideas … we’ve barely cracked the seal at Cal Poly because it was a pandemic year. And we didn’t go through a season.

"There are going to be new things that, coming out of Eastern in 2016, I wouldn’t have known."

Cal Poly played just three of its six scheduled games in spring 2021, finishing 0-3 after a 62-10 loss to Eastern Washington in Baldwin's return to Cheney, before the Mustangs shut their season down early because of COVID-19.

He said he might have learned more about the game off the field than on.

"You might see something I’m doing in practice, something we’re doing with nutrition," he said. "Something that I didn’t know in '16 … something in recruiting. I learned a lot in recruiting at Cal. On the field, you’re always learning."

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

photo

Byron Hout.