Montana's defense has been among the nation's best for the last several years.
This past season, the Griz defense ranked third in all of FCS in rush defense and fourth in sacks. Their 44 sacks ranked seventh amongst all of Division I football. They also led all of the D-I ranks with 18 interceptions.
They'll have two sets of significant shoes to fill in order to continue that trend this fall.
Defensive coordinator Kent Baer and defensive line coach Barry Sacks have both decided to step down.
Combined, the two veteran coaches have a total of 92 seasons of coaching experience between them.
Baer just completed season number 50 in the coaching profession and is stepping away citing personal reasons, while Sacks is retiring after 42 seasons to spend more time with his family.
He's held the coordinator role at 11 Division I stops (including Montana) including places like UNLV, Colorado, San Jose State, Washington, Notre Dame, Stanford, Arizona State, Cal, Idaho and Utah State.
Baer has also been nominated for the Broyles Award twice in his five-decade long career.
Sacks (it goes without saying that's an all-time name for a defensive line coach) has coached defensive lines at Boise State, Portland State, Nevada, Cal, New Mexico, and San Jose State, among others. At Nevada from 2004-06 he held the co-defensive coordinator title, and also held the defensive play caller role at San Jose State.
Interestingly enough, Sacks also spent some time on the offensive side of the ball, first as the co-offensive coordinator at Adams State before later coaching the tight ends at Nevada.
The release shares that Montana will name replacements for the two coaches in the "near future."
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.