Mick Dennehy
College: University of Montana (B.A. in education, 1973)
Favorite Food: Cakes, pies, ice cream ("I'm a dessert guy")
Favorite Book: "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry
Last book read: "Death Rattle" by Terry Johnson
Favorite TV Show: SportsCenter, ESPN
Favorite Movie: The Quiet Man (John Wayne, 1952)
Hero: Grandfather
Hobbies: Golf, Fly fishing
Mick Dennehy spent nearly his entire life in Montana before taking the job as Utah State football coach last December.
Dennehy grew up in Montana, played football for the University of Montana, worked in Montana as a high school coach, small college head coach and assistant coach before finally becoming the head coach at the University of Montana from 1996-99.
His teams at Montana were successful (39-12) and were always among the top offensive passing teams in Division I-AA football. His sterling record and exciting brand of football made him an easy choice for Utah State officials.
The 50-year-old Dennehy might have made a few folks in Logan uneasy during his initial press conference when he said all he needed to keep him happy was a "couple of bucks in my pocket for a beer" and told the local press he can be a "pain in the rear" to work with.
That was just the unpretentious Dennehy being his straightforward self, and since then both the fans and media have been impressed with his honest, low-key, no-nonsense style.
He recently sat down with Deseret News sports writer Mike Sorensen to discuss his job and the future of football at Utah State.
Deseret News:How have you enjoyed your job and living in Logan so far?
Mick Dennehy: I've enjoyed it a lot. I think Logan is really a wonderful place to live. I enjoy the people at Utah State and the kids in the program. It's been an easy place to settle into.
Deseret News:How do you respond to the idea that this was more or less a lateral move for you coming from Montana, a top Division I-AA school, to Utah State, one of the lower Division I-A schools?
Dennehy: I was at Montana for a long time, and it was a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
We enjoyed a lot of success and accomplished a lot. It just felt like at that point there was some uncertainty as to what direction the program was going to go: Was it going to be a Division I program, and if so, would it be able to fund itself? It just felt like it was time to move on. And I believe there are some big differences between Utah State and Montana. There is an obvious difference budget-wise, there is an obvious difference in all of our coaches' salaries and in the recruiting budget particularly. Even though we don't know where we're going to be, conference-wise, in the next several years, we're still a Division I school with an opportunity to be fully funded to go out and compete against the best people in the country.
Deseret News:Will the fact that you won't be in a conference next year be a hindrance to bringing new recruits into the program?
Dennehy: I guess we'll have to change our recruiting pitch a great deal. We have to go out and tell them we need guys who are not afraid to play against the best teams in the country. We're going to play an independent schedule and hope there are guys out there who like Utah State University and the opportunity to compete against the kind of schedule we're going to be competing with. There's guys out there who want to play against the best who may not have the opportunity. I don't particularly like that approach, but we'll find a positive way to slant it.
Deseret News:You'll have a tougher schedule for the next year or two at least with the likes of LSU, Oregon, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas State, in addition to BYU and Utah.
Dennehy: The schedule's going to be a nightmare for a while in terms of the independent status thing. We're going to have trouble getting the kind of teams that people want to see come in and play. Everybody wants to play us on the road. It's not going to be a problem scheduling games, it's going to be a problem surviving the games that are scheduled. I think it's important at this stage of the development of our program that we play some home games. We've got to get the community fired up here and the alums in the surrounding areas fired up, and we've got to get attendance up. We've got a great little stadium, and we've sold more season tickets than have ever been sold, so that's a starting point. It's our job to keep them here, but once we get them here, we owe it to them to play here as well. That's the biggest problem to playing an independent schedule. You get toward the end of October and into November, and teams are not going to want to come here and play.
Deseret News:Obviously you'd prefer to be playing in a conference as soon as possible.
Dennehy: I would. I think it's easier to motivate the kids when they've got something they can see to shoot for, a conference championship, a championship ring, a bowl game that's affiliated with the conference championship. I just worry about us having to be forced to go on the road from the middle of October until the last game of the season because you're not going to be able to get teams here that we'd like to be playing. I know (athletic director) Rance Pugmire is working hard at coming up with a solution for a (conference) for us to play, and hopefully that will be resolved real shortly.
Deseret News:How would you describe your coaching style?
Dennehy: As the head coach in a university, I really don't coach much besides the other coaches. I try to be as fair and honest and helpful to them in aiding them to make their jobs as easy as possible. I try to shield and put a protective barrier around them so they don't have to deal with a lot of distraction. We try to be very fair and very honest. I don't care if I'm liked as long as the kids know they're going to be treated fairly. I can live with that.
We try to recruit kids that are self-motivated rather than guys that are great athletes. We look at some things that we think are more important than athletic ability. I don't think I, or any of our (assistants), are big-ego guys. I think we understand the job we do is based on how we prepare the kids, but more importantly how the kids take that preparation and perform.
Way more credit should go to them. I do the motivational stuff. I just don't have the everyday one-on-one contact like I used to, and I really miss that part of coaching. If I deal with a kid one on one, more than likely it's because he's in trouble — I'm kind of like the vice principal at the high school in charge of discipline.
Deseret News:You said you weren't looking for a job before you came here, but there is a fear among some Utah State fans, who have seen several coaches come and go in recent years, that as soon as you find success you'll be out of here. What is your response to that?
Dennehy: Give me a 10-year contract [laughs]. People are going to think how they choose to think. All I can do is to tell them how I feel and they can choose to believe me or not. There are opportunities out there that in all honesty would be awfully difficult to turn down.
Part of the equation is making sure you can support your family in the best way you can. This is a very precarious profession. Our jobs have become so bottom-line that there's no guarantee that if you have a four-year contract that you're going to have four years before it's all said and done. The point is, I wasn't looking for a job when I got this one, and I'm not looking for a job right now. The thing I'm most interested in is doing as good a job for Utah State University as I possibly can. I'm a pretty honest guy, and if I wasn't happy here, you would know about it.
Deseret News:What are your long-term goals for Utah State football?
Dennehy: It would be important we know where we're going to be as far as conference or no conference — that's an issue we need to get taken care of. There are some facility things I'd like to see addressed, but I'm not so nave to think those things happen overnight. Part of our facilities are excellent and part of them are outdated. We need to look at the locker room down the road, and we need to look at the weight room and the training room and tie in offices and meeting rooms that will bring us into the 21st century. We're a little bit fragmented in some of the facilities right now. They're not bad, they're functional. But if we're going to take it to the next level, we're going to have to think about those things. Facilities are important to kids and in recruiting. We need to get some stability and continuity, and we've got to get people in the stands.
And we're going to have to win some games, obviously.
E-mail: sor@desnews.com