Montana head coach Bobby Hauck announced his retirement after a total of 15 seasons with the school. Hauck led the Grizzlies to 8 Big Sky titles in his two stints, four FCS/I-AA title game appearances, and 13 playoff appearances. Hauck went 151-43 overall and 86-23 in the Big Sky at Montana.
Hauck attended Montana as a student, but competed in track & field. He embarked on a coaching career beginning in 1988 at Montana as the defensive backs and defenisve line coach. After two seasons, he became a graduate assistant at UCLA for three years from 1990 through 1992. He was named the outside linebackers coach at Northern Arizona for the 1993 and 1994 seasons. He moved to Colorado in 1995 as the safeties, outside linebackers, and special teams coach for four seasons. In 1999, he was named the defensive back and special teams coach at Washington.
In 2003, Hauck was named the head coach at Montana, replacing Joe Glenn. Hauck inherited a squad that won the 2001 title, went 39-6 overall, and 20-2 in the Big Sky in Glenn’s three seasons. The first season under Hauck saw Montana eliminated in the first round and finish 9-4 overall. In Hauck’s second season, the Griz reached the title game, but lost 31-21 to James Madison.
Montana went 31-7 over the next three seasons, including two first round losses. The 2007 squad went 11-0 in the regular season and was the third seed in the FCS playoffs, but shockingly lost the opening round game at home to Wofford 23-22. Montana returned to the FCS Championship in the next two seasons, but fell to Richmond (24-7) in 2008 and Villanova (23-21) in 2009.
Hauck departed Montana after the 2009 season to take the head coaching job at UNLV. He went 15-49 overall and 11-28 in the Mountain West in five seasons. He posted four years with double digit losses and the lone winning season was in 2013, when the Rebels went 7-6 overall and lost in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Hauck resigned and joined San Diego State for three years as the special teams coordinator.
In 2018, Hauck returned to Missoula as head coach of the Grizzlies. He replaced Bob Stitt, who went 21-14 in three seasons and made only one FCS playoff appearance. The team struggled in his first year, going 6-5 overall and missing the playoffs for the first time as head coach at Montana. The squad returned to form in 2019, going 10-4 overall and making a quarterfinals appearance.
After a shorted spring 2021 campaign, Montana would return to the playoffs the final five years of Hauck’s tenure. In 2023, The Grizzlies reached the FCS title game for the fourth time under Hauck, but lost 23-3 to South Dakota State. In his final season, Montana went 13-2 overall, with both losses to archrival Montana State, including the semifinal. Hauck went 24-16 in the FCS/I-AA playoffs, which included an 0-4 record in the championship game.
Hauck went 166-92 overall and 97-51 in conference games in his 20 seasons. He is the winningest coach in Montana history and the winningest coach in Big Sky history for overall wins and conference wins. Wide receivers coach Bobby Kennedy will succeed Hauck. Kennedy joined Montana before the 2025 season and spent significant time in the FBS at Colorado, Iowa, Rice, Stanford, Texas, and Washington.
Photo credit to the University of Montana Athletics
