BOZEMAN — This offseason, Montana State football coach Brent Vigen shifted his staff around, moving Sam Mix from running backs coach to wide receivers coach and bringing in Josh Firm to lead the running backs room.
There's a lot of returning talent when it comes to the personnel within the room, as the group looks to keep its standard high of its illustrious run game.
"When I texted those guys when I was coming, Adam (Jones) said, 'Welcome to the Juice Squad,' you know, and I didn’t really know what that meant," Firm said. "So when I got here, that was one of the first things I said like, 'What is that?' And we had a pretty open and candid conversation about what does that mean."
The position group uses the Juice Squad nickname because they say they "bring the juice", or energy, to the field.
The room returns Julius Davis, Adam Jones, Colson Coon, Jared White and Unterrio Latin-Henley.
Jones is battling a minor injury this spring, according to Vigen, and Davis is able to support him in his recovery because he went through an injury during last year's spring session.
"I call him my evil twin because he’s (number) 23, and I’m 32," Davis said with a smile about how close the duo is and continued to explain what they hope to accomplish this season as a room. "I’m excited. It’s awesome seeing him grind, I went through that same process a little bit. Just being there for him, supporting and helping build up the other guys in the room to make an impact, as well."
Firm was most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Robert Morris. He has a plethora of experience working with QBs, as a former one himself, which has been something the room has leaned on in spring ball.
"He has a different knowledge of the game being a quarterback. Just imagine Tommy Mellott, if he could give me the knowledge he knew, how he read defenses, how he was able to react off these situations," Davis explained. "So, he just has a different perspective."
"Being able to add that perspective of the big picture, and I have to do more as a coach to figure out how can I take their game to the next level," Firm said. "I can’t tell them, ‘Hey, when I was playing, this is what I did.’ But what I can bring to the table is the experiences and what I’ve seen with even lesser athletes and what they were able to do."
MSU has relied on the threat that Mellott presented at quarterback the past few years, so with his departure, the team’s offense will lean into a bit of a new look this upcoming fall.
"What’s been really cool is I followed (new offensive coordinator Pete) Sterbick’s career a little bit, and being able to see his evolution of the (run-pass option) game and what’s he’s done with that, I knew when coach Vigen made that hire, that was going to be a really good addition to what the offense was here," Firm said.
