MSU-Northern football staff is complete

Since the day he was hired, Montana State University-Northern head football coach Andrew Rolin has been a busy man, recruiting, building a staff and creating a plan for the future.

That plan and the early progress of it will become more apparent in the next few weeks, with spring football practices on the horizon.

But before the Lights hit the field, Rolin has added two more assistants to his already impressive coaching staff.

“I don’t think that we could have found a better staff here at Northern in my opinion,” Rolin said. “I am so excited. I was obviously excited when I hired them, but what they have shown the past few months, what they have done not only on the recruiting trail and with our guys in winter conditioning, I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Back in January, Rolin announced the first members of his staff in Steve Oliver, Jake Chestnut and Jonathan Amosa. Chestnut, a former linebackers coach at Notre Dame College, will be the Lights defensive coordinator, while Oliver is going to coach the offensive line. The former Idaho assistant will also be the running game coordinator and recruiting coordinator. Amosa, who spent time in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks, will coach running backs and tight ends for MSU-N.

Another member of the staff that has been working for Rolin, but was not previously announced is Ray Clark, who came on board in February. Clark was a safety and three-year starter at the University of San Diego. He was a First-Team All-Conference player that last two seasons and won the Dave Adolph "Do You Love Football" Award for Defense. Clark will coach defensive backs.

“He is a guy that got a lot of experience as a player,” Rolin said. “He was a three-year starter and he really was a coach on the field. I am really excited about his growth as a coach and he has already stepped into the role seamlessly.”

The newest additions to what is now an eight-man staff are defensive line coach Brandon George and wide receivers coach John Kocurek.

George, a former defensive lineman and graduate assistant at Grambling State University, spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at McMurry University, a Division III school in Abilene, Texas. He also has previous experience as a defensive coordinator at Huntington High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. That was prior to a stint as a graduate assistant at Grambling State.

Kocurek is another veteran coach, who is originally from Texas. He has coached high school and college football in California in the last decade and was more recently, the wide receivers coach at Black Hills State, a Division II program South Dakota. The other member of the staff is Rick Wells, a long-time assistant at Northern under both Mark Samson and Aaron Christensen. He will serve as a defensive consultant under Rolin.

“I am really excited about this staff,” Rolin said. “I like their interactions with recruits and the interactions with our players. I think their work ethic is unmatched and there is a lot of energy. There is some youth on the staff, there is no doubt about it. But there are definitely a lot of bright, seasoned guys. I am really pleased about what they can all bring to the table and really excited to get spring football going. I am looking forward to getting to the nitty gritty of everything and start playing football.”

Spring practice is scheduled to start Monday at the Northern practice field. Rolin said all practices are open to the public. The first practice will get underway at 4 p.m.