Growing up, Coach Rob Ash really didn’t have a hometown. He moved from town to town in the state of Iowa, the son of a preacher. His mother taught Sunday school and choir at the church. Religion was a big part of Rob’s life growing up in Iowa. His parents pushed academics as well as encouraging Rob and his brother and sisters to participate in extracurricular activities, not just sports but chess club, band, and so on. For his parents it was a “get out there and participate” kind of attitude. Rob came from an athletic family with one brother and two sisters. Of the siblings Rob was the only one interested in football.

Rob’s father was a fan of football and loved going to high school games at home and away. Even if they were the new family in town they would show up at the games and show their support for the local football team. Rob’s dad played a little bit of football himself while attending Simpson College. Having already been assigned a parish while still in college, Rob’s dad only played a little in the 1940s when most of the young man were off fighting in the war. During war time it was difficult to field a football team.

Coach Ash played Little League Baseball as a boy but was terrible at it. He said he gave it up quickly. He played basketball for a brief time in high school as well as football. But tennis was where Rob’s passion lay. , He played high school and college tennis as well as coached tennis. So I guess you can say that’s where coach Ash’s coaching career began–on the tennis court.

Coach Ash attended Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa where he played both tennis and football and was the starting quarterback all four years. After attending graduate school at the University of Michigan to become a professor, coaching was not on Rob’s mind at all. During those two years when he was getting his Master’s degree Rob started to miss football so he called his old coach at Cornell, Jerry Clark, who got him a college graduate assistantship where he was able to study for his master degree, live in the dorms, and study coaching. That’s where Rob’s football coaching career began. As the head coach at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa for the next 18 years he had a record of 125 wins 63 loses and 2 ties.

You would think growing up in the corn state of Iowa it would be a difficult decision for Rob to pack up and move his family to the Rocky Mountain State of Montana to coach the Montana State Bobcats. Rob’s son and daughter were already off to college when he was offered the position at Montana State. It was like setting off in a new direction, a new challenge for Rob and his wife Margaret to move to Montana. And he’s “always loved the mountains.”

Rob’s family are big football fans. His wife has attended over 300 of Rob’s games, son Scott who lives here in Bozeman attends home games and away games, and daughter Kelly who lives in New York City is doing her part to keep the Bobcat nation alive. Kelly became an instant celebrity at a bar in New York where people gather every year for a satellite party to watch the Brawl of the Wild (the annual Bobcat/Grizzly match up) when the patrons of the bar found out that she was the coach’s daughter from Montana State.

The #1 reason for Rob taking the job as head coach at Montana State University was the playoffs. After coaching 27 years at two different schools Rob never had a team in the playoffs, and he knew this would make for an exciting challenge for him at Montana State. Coming into the job at Montana State Rob had evaluated the situation and knew that he had good support from the fans and the community, strong players, and a good budget to run the program. Rob admits from 2007 – 09 he was little concerned with not making the playoffs, and after 3 years he felt like the team was struggling and was worried about the teams direction.

One of the biggest challenges Coach Ash faced when taking the job at MSU was fixing the academic problems of the team. There were a lot of players with low national GPA or APR academic performance ratings. And if you have a low APR rating with the NCAA you are penalized. So it was a challenge to get these players to improve academically, show up for class and graduate. Rob helped   dig the program out of this low APR rating. Some of the challenges/penalties they had to deal with came in the form of scholarship reductions and practice time reductions. Special programs had to be added for study hall and academic support and achievement of the players. So you might say the program was in Academic ruins when Rob took the job. Coach Ash contributes the success of overcoming these obstacles to the support of his assistant coaches who were “giving those players the extra support they need on and off the field academically, in the weight room, at practice, at the games, in class, in the community and during the offseason. They just go that extra mile, they just do that, and it’s a good thing” shared the Coach.

Then came 2010, a huge year for Coach Rob Ash and the Bobcats. The Bobcats won a share of the Big Sky Championship and made it to the post season playoffs for the first time under Head Coach Rob Ash. Although Coach Ash and the Bobcats lost their first playoff game to North Dakota State Rob felt like that season was a turning point or a stepping stone for the Bobcats.

In 2011, the Bobcats took home a share of the Big Sky title and landed in the playoffs for the second year in a row under coach Ash’s leadership. Rob received the Coach of the Year award from the American Football Coaches Association, but still fell short to Sam Houston State University in the second round of the playoffs.

You would think one would be discouraged coming so close to the championship game two years in a row and   falling short. That’s not the attitude Rob and his coaches and players take. “You gotta keep thinking about the next game, the past is the past, we just need to keep thinking one game at a time,” said the coach. And one game at a time it was.

In 2012, MSU won the Big Sky Conference title for the third year in a row propelling the Bobcats to a third straight playoff berth under Coach Ash’s leadership. The Cats ended up falling short again in the quarterfinals to Sam Houston State, this time at home.

This was the most heart-breaking loss for the Bobcats and Coach Ash in the three year playoff run. Rob felt like they had the team they needed to win a National Championship, including the right combination of players. According to Coach Ash: “17 seniors really helps the play of underclassmen, the leadership of the team wanting to go out and do their very best each and every game. [It was] a very disappointing loss, but felt like we had played them better than we did the year before”.

“We made a lot of mistakes, gave up the football a few times that we shouldn’t have. You know just a bad luck day for the Bobcats” is how Coach Ash summed it up. Time to move on, one game at a time.

I asked Coach Ash if it was tough to motivate the players after such a heart-breaking loss. “No,” he said. “Our players and coaches know they came up short on some of their goals and don’t need any motivation to move on to the next challenge. They know they need to just keep moving forward. Get up at 6am to get to the weight room to practice the more they do will make them just that much better than they were the day before.” They continue to get the team back to the position they were in last year and hope to win a National Championship.
The 2013 Bobcat football season brings 20 new recruits to Montana State University including Tanner Roderick a Bozeman Senior High School standout quarterback on transfer from UNLV. Asked if the 2013 season would be a transitional or rebuilding season for the Bobcats Coach Ash was confident in saying that the positions left open by the graduating seniors would be tough to fill, but the players filling those positions have learned from the players leaving “and hopefully they pick up a lot of their styles and how they play the game, we can only wait and see”.

When asked what we can expect from the Bobcat offense for the 2013 season Coach Ash said we’ll see a lot of old number 9 DeNarius McGhee. It will be his senior year and with the loss of two running backs we should see DeNarius throwing the ball a lot more this year.
“We still have Cody Kirk in the backfield; look for Cody to have a 1000 yard rushing season, and Shawn Johnson will be an interesting player. He will be in the backfield with Cody Kirk this season getting the ball a lot more. You should look for John Ellis, Tanner Bleskin, [and] Tanner Roderick to be catching the long balls this season”.

I asked about Bozeman High School standout Tanner Roderick and Coach Ash said “Tanner will be mainly at wide receiver, a position he hasn’t played since he was a sophomore in high school. And he might play some special teams or a slot position. We’ll just have to wait and see.” He’s a very good athlete and will play great at any position coach Ash has him at.

Coach Ash feels the team will be very competitive in the 2013 football season, and very good on offense.

With a little hesitation in his voice he said the defense might not be as good as they were last year but their still going to be good, and feels like they will be a strong force in the Big Sky Conference. He says to win every game but one like they did last year will be a tough scenario to duplicate but he feels confident his players and coaching staff will be really fired up to meet their goals and bring home another Big Sky Conference Championship. And maybe the National Championship, who knows, third time’s a charm.

It was nice to catch up with Coach Ash in the off season without the stress of the daily routine of coaching, which he says is the most challenging part of his job at MSU. “Keeping all the players and coaches all on the same page. Working with the media, special events booster, events, pep rallys, keeping that all in line just all the little bits and pieces that people don’t see on the game day you know.”

I asked Coach Ash if he had a favorite NFL team; he doesn’t.

“I really don’t have time to watch the NFL; we work on Sundays to start getting ready for next week’s game.”

If it’s a nice day out and Coach Ash has the day off you might find him at a local golf course. If it his day off and the weather’s not so nice outside you’ll probably find him in the office catching up on things that need to be done. He’s kind of a workaholic in that way.
Coach Ash’s favorite parts about Bozeman are first the community and the people in the Bozeman area, the small town feel, then the mountains. “I just love the mountains. I enjoy hiking and walking in the mountains, and the best part is you don’t need to be in the mountains to enjoy them. I just love the views I get coming going to and from work.”

Coach Ash was most grateful for the fans and their continuing support “coming out weekend after weekend selling out the stadiums that’s the biggest motivator the players and I as a coach can have”. The fans help create an exciting atmosphere to keep the players motivated during the offseason and Coach Ash wants to thank all those Bobcat fans for their support over the past years.

The opening game of the 2013 football season is August 29th at 7:05pm at Bobcat Stadium vs. Monmouth. Come out this fall and cheer on the Bobcats – let’s continue this magic for another season all the way to a National Championship.

Jack Thorsen is Bozeman Magazine’s 12 year old sports writer and social media poster. He will be a 7th grader at Sacajawea Middle School this fall. Find him at every home Bobcat game, on the field and in the box for Bozeman Magazine.

If you enjoyed reading this article about MSU Bobcat Football coach Rob Ash continue to read Bozeman Magazine for more from Jack Thorsen and the MSU Bobcats.