For the first time in nearly a decade, Montana will have a full-time special teams coordinator on staff, and first-year head coach Bobby Kennedy landed a veteran with serious experience to fill the role.
Kennedy announced recently that Chris White, who has more than 30 years in the profession including 19 seasons across the Big Ten, ACC and NFL, has joined the Grizzly staff to run special teams. White is already in Missoula and will go to work immediately, with players reporting Friday for the first fall camp of the Kennedy era.
This is a familiar reunion. White and Kennedy worked together at Iowa from 2013 to 2016 under Kirk Ferentz, a stretch that produced four bowl trips and a spot in the 2016 Rose Bowl. That relationship is what pulled White out of what he says was a near-retirement.
"Coach Kennedy has been a longtime friend since we worked together at Iowa. We had a great run there," White shared in the school's release. "Then he called me and asked if I wanted to be part of it. I was really about to retire and I said, 'What the heck?' I had never been to Montana. I have heard great things, and it has been exactly as advertised."
White comes to the FCS ranks from Memphis, where he spent three seasons as special teams coordinator under Ryan Silverfield and helped the Tigers reach three straight bowl games. Memphis went 29-10 in that window, including a 42-37 win over West Virginia in the 2024 Frisco Bowl and a 36-26 win over Iowa State in the 2023 Liberty Bowl. The Tigers also stacked back-to-back 10-win seasons, just the fifth and sixth in program history. His return game featured Sutton Smith, who ranked 18th nationally in kickoff returns at 24.2 yards per return.
The rest of the resume runs through Buffalo, Michigan, UConn, Syracuse, the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, where his teams reached the playoffs three times and won two NFC North titles. White has been part of 13 postseason teams.
He is stepping into a unit with a heavy legacy. White is the first full-time special teams coordinator on the Grizzly staff since 2017, taking over a group that Bobby Hauck ran himself while serving as head coach. Hauck's units were among the best in the FCS for years, returning 21 punts and 11 kickoffs for scores across 14 seasons and developing NCAA record holders like Junior Bergen and Malik Flowers along with two Ray Guy Award winners.
White knows the standard he inherited.
"Obviously, I have big shoes to fill. Special teams was important to Coach Hauck and was his bread and butter," White said. "The punt return and kickoff coverage last year were incredible. It's just ingrained in the team, and I can't wait to get to work with the core guys we have. Hopefully we can keep that standard and elevate it if we can."
Kennedy, for his part, made clear this was a deliberate move to invest one of his 10 assistant spots in the third phase.
"This is the first time in a long time we have hired a special teams coordinator as one of our 10 assistants, and there is nobody I would rather work with than Chris because I think he is really good," Kennedy said.
Montana opens fall camp Friday.
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