Big Sky cellar coaching shuffle

[jimdahl]

University of Northern Colorado coach Scott Downing will not return

Downing finished his career at UNC with a 5-35 record in Big Sky Conference play and 9-47 overall record.

Downing is the only coach that UNC has known since joining the Big Sky in 2006.

Downing is the second Big Sky coach to be released in the past week. Downing's termination comes on the heels of the firing of Idaho State football coach John Zamberlin, who was only 6-38 in his four years as the Bengals coach.

Three of Downing's five conference victories came against Zamberlin's Bengals.

It would be nice to see UNC return to a little of their former glory, as that has the potential to be a bit of a rivalry matchup for UND given its history. for

[bincitysioux]

Idaho St. also announced that they will dismiss their head coach John Zamberlin, formerly of ex-NCC foe Central Washington, after their season finale this weekend.

Rumor is that he will be replaced by Mike Kramer, who made a name for himself with successful runs at Eastern Washington and Montana St. Dale Lennon was in the running to replace Kramer at Montana St. a few years ago.

[star2city]

Idaho St. also announced that they will dismiss their head coach John Zamberlin, formerly of ex-NCC foe Central Washington, after their season finale this weekend.

Rumor is that he will be replaced by Mike Kramer, who made a name for himself with successful runs at Eastern Washington and Montana St. Dale Lennon was in the running to replace Kramer at Montana St. a few years ago.

Kramer ran the EWU and Montana State programs into the ground with major APR and athlete behavior issues (multiple felonies at Montana State that they are only now recovering from). Kramer also sued Montana State and won a $240,000 settlement.

Mike Kramer settles lawsuit with Montana State

"We have this whole suite of criminal activities, but there are academic issues and compliance issues. They all are in the realm of leadership issues," (Montana State President) Gamble said.

[bincitysioux]

Kramer ran the EWU and Montana State programs into the ground with major APR and athlete behavior issues (multiple felonies at Montana State that they are only now recovering from). Kramer also sued Montana State and won a $240,000 settlement.

Mike Kramer settles lawsuit with Montana State

Ironically, those are the same type of issues that are plaguing Zamberlin right now, as ISU was recently cited for APR infractions resulting in the loss of 6 scholarships and reducing practice time to 4 days per week.

However, for some reason if you visit the Bengals or Bobcats boards, the overwhelming consenus is that Kramer would be a great fit to turn around the dismal Idaho State program.

It would be a great thing for the Big Sky conference to have ISU become relevant again. They do have a fairly proud history as a "large-ish" state named school that won a BSC title in the early 2000's, has a I-AA national title to their credit from the 80's, and had great success on the basketball court in the 70's.

[The Sicatoka]

Isn't Downing the guy who made a comment like 'they didn't ask me' when the additions of SUU and UND were added to the BSC?

Maybe now we know why they didn't ask him.

[UND92,96]

I know Downing was let go based upon the body of his work, and not just this season, but it kind of underscores how disappointing this season has been for UND when you consider UNC is ranked ahead of UND in the GPI, Sagarin and Massey rankings.

[bincitysioux]

Kramer Returns to Big Sky

Idaho State Director of Athletics Jeff Tingey announced today that Mike Kramer has been named the 25th head football coach at Idaho State University. Kramer is no stranger to the Big Sky Conference as he has previously been the head coach at Eastern Washington and Montana State. He is one of only five coaches in Big Sky history to be named Big Sky Coach of the Year three times, twice while at Montana State and once at Eastern Washington.

This is a good hire by ISU in my opinion. Hopefully the Bengals can right the ship.

[jodcon]

Kramer Returns to Big Sky

This is a good hire by ISU in my opinion. Hopefully the Bengals can right the ship.

There's no doubt Kramer can get his guys to play for him, the problem he ran into at Montana State was his players having off-field problems...some big ones too. The feeling around here was that he overlooked character a little too much and recruited just on talent alone, and it bit him in the end.

Good to see him back though, he was here for a recruitment get-together while at Montana State and was really a personable, high energy guy, should help them get back on track.