It is so sad and embarrassing to see Bobby interact with the media! All the reporters are so intimidated by him and he is such a classless prick. Comparing him to Vegan is not close. I wanted to share an article from 2009 and you have to ask yourself has Bobby changed?
Opinion: The legacy of Bobby Hauck
Story by Tyson Alger | December 26, 2009
Montana Kaimin
After seven seasons, seven straight Big Sky Conference titles, an 80-17 record, and three championship appearances with no hardware to show for it, Bobby Hauck’s search for greener pastures is finally over.
Hauck’s run as the head coach of the Montana Grizzlies ended Wednesday when he exchanged his maroon and silver for the red-and-gray striped tie he donned as he was introduced as the next head coach for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
It was eerie to see Hauck speak about hard work and dedication toward reshaping the Rebel program only a week removed from phrasing similar quotes about the opportunity to win a national title as a proud Grizzly.
But within hours of Montana’s devastating loss to Villanova — the second year in a row Hauck’s team has fallen in the title game — rumors started to swirl that Hauck would interview for the UNLV job. Five days later, Hauck’s dream of becoming a head coach at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level became a reality, leaving Montana without a coach and a city without a championship.
“I just can’t tell you how excited we are to be here,” Hauck said to the Las Vegas media Wednesday. “I’m appreciative of this opportunity. I’m humbled by the number of people here to hear these remarks, and I’m excited to be the head coach of UNLV. We’re going to make things happen here.”
Hauck’s press conference was short, sweet, and to the point. Similar to a press conference he had almost seven years to the day, when he was first announced as the coach of Montana.
“It’s great to be a Montana Grizzly,” Hauck said Dec. 20, 2002, when the Big Timber native returned to his alma mater to take the reins from Joe Glenn, who — like Hauck — left Missoula after his success at UM for a more luxurious job in the FBS. “I’m hoping this is a long and prosperous run for the University of Montana during my tenure.”
And it was.
Some said all Hauck had to do was keep from crashing the Cadillac he’d just received the keys to. The Joe Glenn era saw Montana go 39-6 in his three seasons, including one national title, another title game appearance, and a quarterfinal appearance. When Hauck took the keys from Glenn, he inherited a program that had history, recent success, and a limitless amount of community support.
During Hauck’s first couple of seasons, he gave a glimpse of what was to come.
His first season, he lead the Griz to an up-and-down 9-4 record, but went 5-2 in conference and secured a playoff appearance — which he would do in every season he was with the Grizzlies.
Then in 2004, Hauck went 12-3 and made his first national title game appearance, a 21-31 loss at the hands of James Madison.
Hauck and the Grizzlies continued to have success over the years, making title game appearances in 2008 and 2009.
Regular season success was never a problem for the Griz during Hauck’s tenure, but a national championship always eluded them. Meanwhile, off-the-field incidents and Hauck’s demeanor with the media started to become as notable as the wins.
The first bout of negative press Hauck received in Missoula came during the 2004 season, when he fired the team chaplain, Father Hogan, after Hogan refused to do team Mass. The Missoulian wrote about the firing and Hauck expressed his distaste for the story.
And that was the start of Hauck’s long and tedious relationship with the media.
Over the years, Hauck would oftentimes be abrasive to reporters who questioned him about players’ injuries or about incidents like those in 2007, when one player was arrested and charged with murder (he was later acquitted) and four players were arrested in connection to a home invasion.
Three of Hauck’s players appeared in the blotter in 2008, when they were charged with beating a student outside a dorm. This year, a story that ran in September about an alleged assault that took place in March resulted in a flap between Hauck and the Kaimin.
That’s not to say that these incidents have anything to do with Hauck, what he believes in, or the players he goes out to recruit. But the way in which he dealt with the media during these moments — generally hiding behind various forms of “No comment” — is part of his legacy.
I got to sit front row to a vast array of snide remarks from Hauck based on questions he didn’t want to answer.
From the start of the season — pre-Hauck-vs.-Kaimin — I had trouble getting a straight answer from the man. I had heard from past Kaimin reporters that dealing with Hauck was a challenge; that he didn’t care much for our student-run paper. But at the time, I, being a bright-eyed, glass-half-full type of fellow, approached my beat as a fresh opportunity and a chance to develop a relationship with the coach.
I met Hauck for the first time walking into the first Tuesday press conference of the season. I introduced myself, he put his hand on my shoulder, said it was nice to meet me.
It was lovely. It was fake. He was grinning.
I made my first mistake a week later when I asked about an injury to Marc Mariani in the game against Western State. Mariani had pulled up lame in the second quarter and didn’t touch the ball the rest of the game.
When I asked during the post-game press conference why Mariani was favoring his right leg and didn’t get any touches in the second half, Hauck tried his best to abuse my question.
“The quarterbacks threw it to other guys. Maybe it was sore,” Hauck responded to the amusement of the other members of the Missoula media, while wearing the same grin — to the tune of saying, “I know something but I’m not telling.”
The next day at practice, Mariani was wearing a red non-contact jersey, the telltale sign that a player is injured.
It went downhill from there, especially after I first asked questions about Trumaine Johnson and Andrew Swink. I approached Hauck three times about the situation — each time with different information for him to comment on — before his eventual outburst directed at me after I told him we knew about the fight and asked him to comment.
The next three months — the boycott, that national media attention, and his eventual return to Kaimin communication — were a blur to me. But two things held steady throughout all of it: the grin and the wins.
And those wins are what earned Hauck his ticket out of Missoula.
Hauck will have his work cut out for him in Vegas. He takes the head position of a program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2000, in a place where oftentimes football is an afterthought amidst the other activities the city has to offer. Hauck won’t have the benefit of coaching for his home state, his alma mater, and a program with expansive history and undying support.
In 2008, the Rebels, who compete in the Mountain West Conference of the FBS, averaged a meager 20,849 fans a game. That year, Montana averaged 23,923 a game in the less-touted Football Championship Subdivision.
Hauck will have to prove that he can take a program that went 16-43 under prior UNLV coach Mike Sanford and shape it into a contender.
Can he do it? That’s to be determined. We’ve never had the opportunity to see what Hauck can do under less-than-pristine circumstances.
But what UNLV gets in Hauck is a coach that has proven that he can win. No matter how you look at it, 80 wins over seven years is nothing short of remarkable. The Rebels will get a coach who works hard, cares about his job, and won’t stop until he finds success.
But for all of those victories, the conference titles, the wins over the Bobcats and the magical runs to three championship games, one number will stand out in the hearts of Griz fans who are still reeling from last week’s loss to Villanova.
Zero.
That’s the number of championships Hauck brought to Montana. And for all of the accolades and praise Hauck receives about his coaching — while deserved — the fact remains that he jumped ship on this program before he ever took it to its highest peak.
And that will be the legacy of Bobby Hauck.
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? As a Griz fan, I certainly wouldn’t even know where to begin looking, let alone give a shite about how to watch a scat press conference. Thanks for keeping us in your hearts and minds.
