THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: After meeting a wise old coach and taking a chance on a new league, Matt Troxel's coaching journey leads him back home

One July day in 2018, Matt Troxel was in the office working at his new job as an offensive quality control analyst for the Oregon State football team.

The only other person in the office was Mike Riley, a former Beavers head coach, also working at OSU as an analyst for the football team before he would take over as a head coach in the new Alliance of American Football, a professional league.

"It was the end of July," Troxel recalled, and he said, 'I want to see all of your RPO stuff that you did at Idaho State. Let’s watch it together.'

"So I went through my system and what I’d done, and he asked a ton of questions, and he really wanted to learn and grow, and even him, in his mid- to late 60s, he was always trying to learn more and grow.

"Little did I know that ended up being my interview. I got on the phone with my wife (Katie) after and said, ‘I think I just interviewed with coach Riley for his new league.’"

Apparently the 'interview' went well, as Troxel was hired to join Riley's staff as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach with the San Antonio Commanders of the AAF, which lasted a portion of one season in 2019 before folding due to money issues.

That led to some unplanned time away from football, a job in another field working with an old high school pal, a brief time helping out his alma mater at Lake City High, and now to his current gig as offensive coordinator at NCAA Division III Whitworth University in Spokane.

"It's been kind of a crazy last couple of years, like for a lot of people," said Troxel, now 35.

TROXEL, WHO graduated from Lake City in 2004 and helped the Timberwolves win their first state title in 2002, went on to play at Montana before starting his coaching career at Idaho in 2009, where he was a grad assistant for two seasons.

The next six years were spent mostly at Idaho State — except for a brief few months on the staff at Montana.

Oregon State, in 2018 under new coach Jonathan Smith, offered the chance for Troxel to coach at a Power Five school.

And, as it turned out, a chance to hit it off with the Wallace-born Riley, who between OSU stints was a head coach in the NFL for three seasons with the San Diego Chargers.

"I sat next to him on every plane ride, every road trip, and we would talk football on every road trip," Troxel said. "He’s so easy going and open, and always wanting to learn and grow. He loves football, and he always likes to talk about it, and know what people are doing, and different ways of how to run certain routes, or certain plays, and that’s what I like to do too, so we were kinda two peas in a pod, really."

By that time, everyone had known Riley was going to be one of the coaches in the AAF the following season. Riley and Troxel talked about a job during the fall, and it came to fruition in late October.

"We finished playing Oregon the day after Thanksgiving, and then I left two days later for San Antonio," Troxel said.

AT OSU, Troxel said he enjoyed his role as analyst, being another set of eyes for Beavers offensive coordinator Brian Lindgren, the former Idaho quarterback. During games, Troxel would be in the press box, charting things and offering ideas. And while he could "encourage" during practice, he couldn't do any coaching on the field.

This got Troxel back on the field. And in a pro league — even though it was an upstart league.

"I knew it was a risk," Troxel said. "Coach Riley, when I took the job, said 'They tell me they have money for three years. I think we’ll get two. But you don’t know how these things are going to go, but we’re going to have a lot of fun, and it’s a chance for you to work, being an offensive coordinator in a new league and a chance to get to know more people, and work with me.'

"So for me it was a no-brainer — Mike Riley’s offering me a chance to go run an offense with him. It just made too much sense.

"And I liked working behind the scenes with Brian Lindgren and the quarterbacks, but I wasn’t able to coach on the field at Oregon State, and I really missed that. I’d gone from being offensive coordinator at Idaho State and planning practice and coaching quarterbacks on a daily basis and calling plays on game day … I didn’t get to do that anymore. I missed that. I wanted to get back into do that, and this was a good opportunity to do that.

"It just ended too quick."

Still, he's glad he made the move.

"I left Idaho State to go to OSU to grow off the field and meet other coaches and get new ideas and thoughts, and I accomplished that by going there," Troxel said. "I felt ready after that first year to go with coach Riley and see what happens."

TROXEL DESCRIBED his four months in the AAF as "the most fun I’ve ever had coaching. The players we had were so hungry to get another chance to get back into the NFL … we had 17 guys off our roster, I believe, that got back into NFL training camps when it ended."

One of the quarterbacks Troxel coached, Logan Woodside, is the backup for the Tennessee Titans. One of the San Antonio receivers, Greg Ward, has been with the Philadelphia Eagles for two seasons.

"So we had some very talented players. And it was just football; you weren’t worried about recruiting or any of the administrative stuff that goes with coaching college football. It was just football all the time, which was awesome.

"And to be there with Mike Riley, and our defensive coordinator, Jim Grobe, was the longtime head coach at Wake Forest ... just to be around guys like that, that have done this for a long time … and learn and grow, was pretty awesome."

Troxel said he got paid on time in the new league, and he was concentrating on coaching, so all seemed well for a while, considering.

"The first thing I really noticed was, on our last road trip, instead of eating at the hotel and having catered meals, they just gave you a per diem," he said, figuring it must be cheaper for the team to just give the players cash than to pay for a meal.

On April 2, 2019, the eight-team league suspended operations, eight games into a 10-game regular season. San Antonio was 5-3, tied with the Arizona Hotshots for first place in the Western Conference.

"It was really sudden," Troxel said of the ending. "It was a Tuesday, and we had a game on Saturday, and we were in the middle of practice, and our GM, (former Dallas Cowboy Daryl) 'Moose' Johnston, came out, brought everybody up and said, 'They’re shutting down the league. It’s done.'

"I came in and cleaned out my locker. Grabbed all my stuff out of the office," Troxel said. "Literally practice got over and I went in and grabbed a garbage bag and threw all my stuff in the bag, and called my wife and she said 'Yep, I saw the news; I’ll come get you.'

"I got an email that night that said your last paycheck is coming tomorrow, and you have insurance until the end of the month, and we’re done."

Another reason Troxel liked taking the gig was, after spending four months living in San Antonio during the season, he and his family could live wherever they wanted the rest of the year.

They'd already planned to live in Spokane, as Matt's parents, Van and Karen, live on the South Hill, near his younger sister, Ashley, and her family. Matt's older brother, Chad, is now back in Coeur d'Alene.

Matt's wife, the former Katie Kolva, attended Gonzaga Prep, then swam at the University of Idaho, which is where they met, when Matt was a grad assistant in Moscow. Katie's family lives in Newman Lake.

They've lived in Spokane Valley since April 2019.

"The hardest part about it was, when the league went down, it was mid-April, which is a terrible time to be an unemployed football coach," Troxel said.

SO HE didn't coach during the 2019 fall season. There were a couple of opportunities in the spring of 2020, but they didn't work out.

Plus, COVID-19 hit.

Troxel spent the past year working with high school buddy Paul Landers with Vertical Raise, helping area youth sports teams fundraise.

"I realized I have some more skills than just explaining how to run inside zone," Troxel said with a laugh.

But, in the end, coaches coach.

He had spoken some last year with Lake City football coach Brian Fulp, came to some workouts last summer, but ultimately chose not to coach because of the pandemic.

Earlier this year, he planned to help out with the Timberwolves as a volunteer coach, and was sharing offensive ideas he'd learned at his many stops along the coaching trail.

Then Whitworth called. Or, more specifically, Adam Shamion, the former Post Falls High standout and assistant, now entering his fourth season as defensive coordinator at Whitworth.

Shamion, who had played against Troxel in high school, said Ian Kolste, the interim OC at Whitworth, was leaving for a job at Southern Utah.

After a couple conversations with Pirate head coach Rod Sandberg, followed by an interview, Troxel was offered the job.

But it didn't come without some mixed emotions.

"I felt awful," Troxel said about not being able to help out at Lake City. "I grew up on those fields, that’s my school right there. I was really looking forward to giving back and helping the T-Wolves be a little better, hopefully.

"I felt awful, because I’m a Timberwolf, and my intention was not to say I could help and not back out right away. But, also, being at Whitworth allows me to be full-time and just coach college football and not have to do anything else. Where before, I’d be volunteering at Lake City and then working for Vertical Raise (fundraising) as my full-time job. Ultimately I like coaching football full-time."

SO THERE was Troxel earlier this past week, working on the install of his first offense at Whitworth.

Van Troxel, of course, started the Lake City High program in 1994, and coached the T-Wolves for 22 seasons and two state titles — the first one with his youngest son as the team's star receiver and kick returner.

"He’s my No. 1 influence of why I got into coaching," Matt says of dad. "The biggest thing I’ve gotten from my dad is just how genuine he was about helping kids, whether they were a football player or not, he never cared. He just wanted to make sure everybody at Lake City High School was a better athlete. He just genuinely cared about all the kids in that school, whether they played football or not.

"How he interacted with kids and how much he cared about them is why I like to coach," Matt continued. "You get kids as an 18-year-old freshman and they’re figuring out who they want to be in life, and you get to help them on that journey through the next 4-5 years of college.

"The biggest difference between me and him is I’ve wanted to coach at the college level and my dad, I think he liked coaching track as much as anything," Matt said. "Loved being in the weight room and seeing kids develop.

"For me, I’m more into the scheme and how we’re going to beat certain coverages, and putting the offense together — probably more into the pure X and O part than my dad was."

WHO KNOWS what's next for Matt Troxel. At this point, he's enjoying the present — family nearby, with wife Katie, daughter Emmy, 7, and son Grady, 4, a big part of his journey.

Matt noted that his son has already lived in five states. Though his pro coaching career only lasted a few months, he doesn't regret the decision to leave OSU, saying he's a better coach now, because of the experience.

"Heading to practice on a Tuesday and thinking you have a game, and coming in from practice and you don’t have a job anymore changes your perspective in a hurry," Troxel said. "You realize you better enjoy the little moments; you can’t worry about the future all the time."

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 @CdAPressSports.