Montana
Montana State Bobcats hire new cornerbacks coach
BOZEMAN — Montana State is hiring Trenton Greene as its new cornerbacks coach, he announced Tuesday.
Greene posted on social media: “Excited to announce that I’ve accepted the position as Cornerbacks Coach at Montana State University! Fired up to join the Bobcat family and get to work!”
Greene will join the Bobcats after spending the 2024 season as the safeties coach at Missouri Southern, an NCAA Division II program. Greene, a Miami Gardens, Fla., native, previously worked as a defensive analyst for Arizona State in 2023 and Washington State in 2022. He was a defensive quality control coach at Nevada in 2021 and spent 2017-19 on the coaching staff at Syracuse, where he worked with the linebackers.
As a player, Greene was a two-time All-Mid-American Conference linebacker at Bowling Green State, where he recorded 127 tackles in 2015 and 111 in 2016.
Greene joins an MSU staff that has undergone a significant shakeup this offseason. Former defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Bobby Daly departed for UTEP. Former co-DC Shawn Howe was elevated to defensive coordinator, and former safeties coach Jody Owens will now coach the linebackers. Owens was also promoted to assistant head coach.
Bryan Shepherd will move from coaching cornerbacks to safeties while also serving as the pass game coordinator, and Nick Jean-Baptiste was elevated to defensive line coach after primarily working with interior defensive lineman.
Offensively, Pete Sterbick is the Bobcats’ new offensive coordinator and Matt Smith will coach the offensive line. Previous OC Tyler Walker and last year’s offensive line coach Al Johnson both departed for Temple.
Josh Firm is the new running backs coach. Sam Mix, who coached running backs last year, moved to wide receivers after receivers coach and special teams coordinator Justin Udy left for Boise State.
Marcus Monaco is now the special teams coordinator.
Montana State went 15-1 last season, suffering its only loss to North Dakota State in the FCS championship game. The Bobcats begin their 2025 season Aug. 30 at Oregon.
MISSOULA, Mont. — In this week’s Amazing America, NBC Montana is highlighting smokejumpers and their efforts to keep our communities safe during wildfire season.
NBC Montana caught up with a current and a former smokejumper to learn more about the work they do and how the job has changed throughout the years.
Jim Kitchen was a smokejumper for 20 seasons, fought over 100 fires and raised his three daughters on a smokejumper base, where he served as base commander.
Kitchen says he’ll never forget his first jump, when he started training in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1987.
“I went, ‘That was amazing,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah,’ and I go, ‘Have you ever done anything as amazing in your life? I mean, we just made our first jump,” said Kitchen.
Kitchen told NBC Montana when he laughed his crew had to do 50 pushups.
Kitchen saw several changes during his career, including women entering a historically male-dominated field. He told NBC Montana Deanne Shulman, the first woman smokejumper, paved the way for the industry.
He recalled a time when he was on a trip to Washington, D.C. , in the early ’90s to coordinate emergency response, when a U.S. Department of State official asked him a question.
“He goes, ‘I didn’t realize men were smokejumpers.’ And I had to go, ‘Peter, I’ll have you know, there’s quite a few of us, and actually, it’s the women that are rare,’” said Kitchen “The early ladies in smokejumping, they always met and exceeded the bar, and they were instrumental in doing these winter details.”
Another change he oversaw as base commander, was moving from round parachutes used in World War II, to the ones used today.
“Ram-Air parachutes that inflate make the shape of the wing and they actually have about a 20 mph forward speed. And so you can you can fly those in much windier conditions, higher elevations,” said Kitchen.
Kitchen says the job requires you to roll with the punches and make quick decisions on the fly.
He said while training new jumpers, he taught them early to prepare and never hesitate.
“The only thing that we ask of you is that you take all the information that you can and then make a decision,” said Kitchen.
Nick Holloway, a current Missoula smokejumper, who’s been working for 14 seasons, says it’s important to rely on your training, stay positive and persevere.
“Having done this for a few years, it’s just trying to know that essentially every season is a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Just stay healthy, stay focused and keep having a good time,” said Holloway.
NBC Montana asked both men what they were most proud of during their time jumping.
Kitchen recalled fighting a fire near the Grand Canyon, when he and his crew decided to manage a fire instead of suppressing it when they ponderosa pine trees.
The crew let the fire burn to a plateau, “The Ponderosa pine has about a 20 to 30-year fire return interval in that area,” said Kitchen. “That’s one of the high points as far as land stewardship of my career is seeing fire on a landscape escape and not necessarily suppressing it but allowing it to burn, because then you’re saying it’s good for decades after that.”
Holloway told NBC Montana, while he has “too many to count,” he’s most proud that recently he jumped a 3- to 5-acre fire at Yellowstone National Park.
The fire grew to 8 acres, “So seven days later we got around everything, put it all out and essentially with a good product upon departure. So it’s just a classic example of a smokejumper fire.”
Holloway says staying fit for annual trainings, regardless of experience, is critical to staying fire-ready.
“Pushups, pullups, sit-ups, a certain amount and then a mile and a half in a certain time as well,” said Holloway.
Kitchen told NBC Montana he still does his pullups, pushups and sit-ups.
“Many of my colleagues are still in really fit shape even in their 60s, 70s and 80s,” he said.
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