BOZEMAN — On April 7, Montana State football announced that newly hired quarterbacks coach Chuckie Keeton had moved on to another professional opportunity.
It was then announced the following day by the Seattle Seahawks that Keeton accepted a role as an offensive assistant with the NFL team.
For the remainder of the ongoing spring football season, Bobcats head coach Brent Vigen has taken over as coach of the quarterback position group.
"I’ve been the substitute teacher, that’s what I feel like a little bit," Vigen said with a laugh. "You get thrown in the room and just trying to continue to make it work. But, it’s been good to make it work with those quarterbacks this week."
Vigen noted that Keeton had worked with the Seahawks quarterbacks coach in the past and had to make the most of this opportunity. The team is grateful for the time he spent with the program in his two months in Bozeman.
"The timing is the timing," Vigen explained. "The NFL doesn’t quite work in the same cycle as college, and these opportunities don’t always, you know, I don’t think they’re always going to pop up."
A majority of Vigen’s background when he was an assistant coach comes from coaching quarterback. Most notably during his time in Wyoming, he developed one of the NFL's best in Bills quarterback Josh Allen. He also coached former first-round draft pick Carson Wentz at North Dakota State.
Vigen has enjoyed leading the quarterbacks this week, but it does take away time from the other position groups he needs to coordinate with as a head coach.
"There’s plenty of hats I want to wear as the head coach," Vigen said. "There’s meetings that take me out of this building. There’s opportunity to spend time with the defensive staff that I’ve somewhat given up in these couple weeks."
Montana State closes spring drills next Saturday at Bobcat Stadium with the annual Sonny Holland Classic spring game at 1 p.m.
