Rob Phenice
Tight Ends
2025 marks the fourth season of Phenicie’s second tenure on the Montana coaching staff, and his 11th season overall with the Griz.
From 2003-2009 Phenicie helped UM win seven-straight Big Sky titles as offensive coordinator.
He returned to UM in 2020 to serve as an offensive analyst after five seasons as the head coach at Idaho State.
In 2023 he was promoted to the tackles and tight ends coach, and in 2024 began coaching the tight ends exclusively and serving as Hauck’s assistant head coach.
Phenicie helped lead the Grizzlies to three national championship appearances under Hauck from 2003-2009. In 2023 he helped lead the Griz to his fourth national title appearance.
He returned to Montana after seven seasons at ISU, with five spent as the Bengals’ head coach from 2017-2020.
Prior to his time at Idaho State, Phenicie also coached under Hauck at UNLV from 2010-2014, serving as the Rebels’ offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and tight ends coach over the five-season span, helping lead the team to the 2014 Heart of Dallas Bowl.
At Idaho State, Phenicie’s offenses were consistently some of the most productive in the Big Sky. In his time as head coach, the Bengals produced nine first-team all-conference players, including Mitch Gueller, who would become the program’s all-time leading receiver with 3,249 career yards. ISU quarterback Tyler Vander Waal was also named the league’s newcomer of the year in the spring of 2021 with 1,843 passing yards and 12 touchdowns in six games.
In his first stint at Montana, he coached several All-Americans during Montana’s run to seven-straight FCS playoff appearances as UM’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. During that time, he helped mentor legendary names like Craig Ochs, Marc Mariani, Chase Reynolds, Lex Hilliard, Cole Bergquist, and a host of future professional offensive linemen.
Brent Pease
Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks
Griz legend Brent Pease officially joined head coach Bobby Hauck’s staff in February 2018, as the associate head coach and receivers coach, beginning his second tenure on the Montana coaching staff. He was promoted to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2022.
2025 will be the eighth year of his second stint at UM, and his third calling plays and leading the QB room.
Pease, a prolific Grizzly quarterback and national championship winning assistant coach under Don Read, returned to Missoula after 27 years coaching some of the premier programs in the nation, and six years playing professionally.
In his first year as OC (2023) he directed a high-powered, yet balanced offense that led UM to the FCS championship game in a 13-win season. The Griz tallied 5,619 yards of total offense that season, nearly split down the middle between the run and pass with 2,967 yards passing and 2,652 yards rushing, a combined difference of just 315 yards.
The Griz were third in the nation and first in the Big Sky in first down offense this season, moving the chains 297 times while outscoring opponents 454-258. Running back Eli Gillman won the Jerry Rice Award for the nation’s top freshman.
Before returning to UM he served as a position coach and offensive coordinator for notable programs such as Kentucky, Baylor, Boise State, Florida, Washington, and most recently, Texas El Paso.
As a senior on the 1986 Grizzlies, Pease led all DI-AA football in total offense, averaging over 309 yards per game, and passing for 3,056 total yards and 30 touchdowns, a school record at the time.
After graduating from Montana, Pease was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the eleventh round of the 1987 NFL Draft. He spent his first two seasons in the league with the Houston Oilers before moving to the Miami Dolphins and Chicago Bears for one season each. He finished his playing career in the World League and Arena League, suiting up for Birmingham, New York/New Jersey and Cincinnati.
After playing professionally for six seasons he returned to Montana to begin his coaching career in 1991 as an offensive assistant under Read through the 1995 season, when he was promoted to offensive coordinator.
In his first season as OC, Pease's offense, led by quarterback Brian Ah Yat, set still-standing school records for most passing yards in a game (560) and most passing touchdowns in a season (42) en route to the 1996 national championship game.
After a two-year stint as the OC at Northern Arizona under former Griz coach Jerome Souers, Pease went on to the SEC where he was the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator of the Kentucky Wildcats under head coach Guy Morriss. After two years at Kentucky, Pease followed Morriss to Baylor for three seasons.
Pease then joined head coach Chris Petersen at Boise State in 2006 as a receivers coach, getting promoted to assistant head coach a year later. During his time at Boise State, Pease helped mentor Heisman Trophy finalist and record-breaking quarterback Kellen Moore, who became the first quarterback in FBS history to win 50 games in his career.
In his six seasons in Boise, Pease and the Broncos played in six-straight bowl games and helped lead the team to a No. 4 national ranking.
Pease then took over as the OC for the Florida Gators in 2012 and 2013 before re-joining Petersen at the University of Washington as the receivers coach. After two seasons in Seattle, Pease then took over at the OC at UTEP in 2016 and 2017.
Pease's wife, the former Paula Good, is also a Montana alum and member of the Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame. The former Grizzly Track and Field star was a member of the 1987 team that scored 173 points on the final day of Mountain West Conference Track Championships to win the team title. She won the 100 and 200 meter dashes, and was a member of the winning 400 and 1600 meter relay teams, earning her Mountain West MVP honors that year.
His son Karsten was a distance runner on the Montana track team.
Bobby Kennedy
Wide Receivers
Montana head football coach Bobby Hauck announced that Bobby Kennedy has joined the Grizzly staff as its new wide receiver coach in August of 2025.
Kennedy is in his first year in Missoula, but is a 30-plus year mentor, has coached the position at the game’s highest levels, and was named the Football Scoop Wide Receiver Coach of the Year in 2008. Hauck reunites with Kennedy after the two coached together at Washington in 2002.
He brings a championship pedigree to Montana after helping guide Texas to a national title in 2005 under legendary head coach Mack Brown. He also helped lead the Longhorns back to the BCS championship game in 2009.
Kennedy arrives in Missoula after spending the 2024 season at Rice, and lists stops at Stanford, Iowa, Colorado, Texas, Washington and more on his lengthy resume.
He’s coached in 17 bowl games, two BCS championship games, two Rose Bowls and one Fiesta Bowl. He coached among the nation’s elite for seven seasons in the Big XII, 11 combined seasons in the Pac-12, three seasons in the Big Ten, and six in the ACC at Wake Forest after beginning his career in the Mountain West at Wyoming.
Kennedy has also produced multiple All-Americans and NFL draft picks including Reggie Williams (Washington); Quan Cosby, Jordan Shipley, Limas Sweed and Marquise Goodwin (Texas); Simi Fehoko and Arcega-Whiteside (Stanford); and Ryan Yarborough and Marcus Harris (Wyoming).
In one season at Rice, he helped Matt Sykes became one of the top receivers in the AAC, leading the Owls with 65 receptions and 782 yards.
Prior to his time in Houston Kennedy coached for five seasons at Stanford (2018-22) and guided one of Cardinal’s deepest units in 2020, led by first team All-Pac-12 receiver Simi Fehoko, Junior Michael Wilson also earned honorable mention despite playing in just three-and-a-half games before injury.
Fehoko, who went on to be selected in the fifth round by Dallas Cowboys in the 2021 NFL Draft, finished the year with 37 receptions for 584 yards and three touchdowns. His 584 yards led the Pac-12, as did his 97.3 yards per game. He capped off his Cardinal career with a single game school-record 16 receptions of 230 yards and three touchdowns, helping lead Stanford to a come-from-behind, two-overtime win at UCLA.
Despite a young receiving group in 2019, Kennedy's group shined. Sophomore Michael Wilson led the team with 56 catches for 672 yards and five touchdowns, while sophomore Simi Fehoko finished with 24 catches for 566 yards and six scores. Fehoko's 23.58 yards per reception were the second-most in the country and set a new school record.
Additionally, junior WR Connor Wedington was second on the team with 51 catches for 506 yards and a touchdown, earning All-Pac-12 honorable mention for his prowess in kick returns, where he averaged 28.1 yards per return. Junior WR Osiris St. Brown had 27 catches for 263 yards and sophomore WR Brycen Tremayne, who earned a scholarship prior to the season, caught touchdowns on all three of his receptions.
Wedington was a member of the AFCA Allstate Good Works Team in 2019, given to 11 FBS players who exemplify outstanding community service.
In Kennedy's first season at Stanford, wide out JJ Arcega-Whiteside finished with the fifth-most receiving yards in a season in school history, tied a 14-year-old record with 14 touchdowns and was drafted in the second round of the 2019 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles.
Prior to his time at Stanford, Kennedy coached the wide receivers coach at Iowa (2013-16), and he held the same position at Colorado (2011-12).
The Hawkeyes reached a bowl game in all four years of Kennedy’s tenure, including a perfect 12-0 regular season record in 2015, when Iowa won the West Division of the Big Ten Conference, participated in the 2016 Rose Bowl and ended the season in the top 10 of the national rankings.
In his first season at Colorado, he helped mold senior Toney Clemons into one of the nation’s top receivers. Clemons was selected by Pittsburgh in the 2012 NFL Draft.
Prior to his time at CU he spent seven seasons in Texas as wide receivers coach, the last six as the assistant recruiting coordinator. In his time with the Longhorns, Kennedy coached in two BCS National Championship games, the 2005 Rose Bowl victory over USC when the Longhorns won the national championship, and in 2009 against Alabama.
Kennedy’s first season in Austin came immediately after the Longhorns had lost three wide receivers to the NFL. He proceeded to build a receiving corps that included three Biletnikoff Award candidates, including two semifinalists and one finalist.
Jordan Shipley and Quan Crosby both surpassed 85 receptions and 1,000 yards in 2008, becoming the 11th duo in NCAA history to each surpass 1,000 yards. In 2009, Shipley was a consensus All-American, setting Texas records for catches (116) and receiving yards (1,485), while matching the school record for receiving touchdowns (13).
Kennedy joined the Texas program from Washington, where he tutored wide receiver Reggie Williams to two All-America campaigns before he became the ninth overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. Williams set the Huskies’ single-season marks for receptions (94) and receiving yards (1,454) in 2002. He finished his career as Washington’s all-time leading receiver with 238 receptions and 3,536 yards.
Kennedy coached running backs at Arizona in 2001, and had a six-year tenure at Wake Forest, coaching the Demon Deacon running backs in 1999-2000 after four years (1995-98) as receivers coach.
Kennedy’s first full-time coaching position came at Wyoming, where he coached wide receivers in 1993-94. He tutored two extremely talented receivers in Ryan Yarborough, who was second in the NCAA in receptions in 1993, and Marcus Harris, who led the nation in receiving yards in 1994. Both Harris and Yarborough earned All-America honors.
Kennedy began his coaching career in the Big Ten Conference with two graduate assistant positions, coaching at Illinois (1990-91) and Penn State (1992). At Penn State, he worked with the tight ends and coached two future All-Americans in Troy Drayton and Kyle Brady.
Kennedy earned a political science degree from Northern Colorado in 1989, where he played quarterback for four seasons (1985-88). He began his coaching career at Boulder High School (Colo.), his alma mater, where he lettered in football and track.
Kennedy was born in Denver and grew up in Boulder. He is married to the former LaShonda Lawrence.
Brent Pease
Bobby Kennedy