Following the departure of veteran coaches Kent Baer and Barry Sacks, Montana head football coach Bobby Hauck has announced changes to the Grizzlies' defensive staff.
Ronnie Bradford, UM's cornerbacks coach for the past two seasons and long-time NFL and FBS mentor, has been promoted to defensive coordinator and safeties coach. Former All-America linebacker Roger Cooper will now lead Montana's corps of linebackers, and defensive analyst Kim McCloud will now coach the Grizzly cornerbacks.
Bradford, who came to Montana in the spring of 2021 after three seasons as the safeties coach at USC, will now take the lead on a Grizzly defense that has been one of the best in FCS football in recent years. "Coach Bradford will be our defensive coordinator, and he'll call it on Saturdays. He's coached a lot of football, has great experience, and really understands the game," said Hauck.
"Roger will move from the safeties to linebackers. It's a position he's completely comfortable with and that he has coached a lot. He has a great understanding of linebacker play, and I think he feels like he's getting back home to his natural position," said Hauck.
McCloud served as a defensive analyst for the Grizzlies in 2022 after joining the program out of Hawaii in August. He now takes the field to coach Montana's cornerbacks, the same position he coached for the Rainbow Warriors in 2021. His resume lists nearly three decades of experience with ten different programs, including serving as the assistant head coach at Syracuse from 2016-18, with previous stops at Idaho, Nevada, and Baylor, among others. Prior to his time at Hawaii, he was the receivers coach and cornerbacks coach at Syracuse from 2016-19. He also served as the defensive coordinator, receivers coach, and assistant head coach at Bowling Green at different times in 2014 and 2015. He was the defensive coordinator at Eastern Illinois from 2012-13 and was the secondary coach at Baylor and Akron between 2008 and 2011.
"Kim is a guy that we've known for numerous years, and we're glad that he was able to spend this past fall with us in our defensive analyst role. And now he's going to take over coaching our corners," said Hauck.
Montana will look to add a line coach and analyst to the defensive coaching staff in the near future.