Where are they now: Craig Ochs

Former UM quarterback Craig Ochs returns to the sidelines
in Washington-Grizzly Stadium. Only this time he is a coach, not a player.
Tim Kupsick/GameDay Kaimin

By: Bill Oram
GameDay Kaimin

Typically, the idea behind a "where are they now" story is to find someone who has gone off into the world, far from Missoula, and been relegated to Grizzly lore.
Not in the case of Craig Ochs.
Where is he now? You probably already know. But if not, lower your GameDay Kaimin (be sure to put it somewhere close, where you'll remember to pick it up again), peer down the Griz sideline and find the cluster of Griz quarterbacks (Nos. 14, 12, 16 and 7 for reference). See that young guy, probably in the white visor, who looks like he's telling them what to do? That's Ochs.
Fans of University of Montana football don't have a hard time remembering Ochs, a Griz assistant coach, and it may even be easier for supporters of opposing Big Sky Conference teams. He was the vaunted Colorado Buffalo transfer who came to Montana on a white horse, knight-in-shining-armor kind of stuff. High expectations? You bet.
Then he performed.
In 2004, Ochs' senior season, the former Buffs starter guided the Griz to a 12-3 record and a berth in the national championship game. His 3,807 passing yards that season were the second most in Montana history, second only to a tally way back in 1995 by some guy named Dickinson.
After leaving Montana, Ochs bounced around, initially landing with the NFL's San Diego Chargers where he worked closely with Pro Bowl quarterback Drew Brees. He was among the team's final cuts leading into the 2005 season.
From there, he caught on with the Buffalo Bills, who allocated him to the Frankfurt Galaxy of the now-defunct NFL Europe.
In Frankfurt, Ochs had what he calls a "really good season," starting for the Galaxy in the second half of the season. The team, though, went on to win the World Bowl (the league championship) without Ochs, who blew out his shoulder in the final regular season game.
The ensuing NFL season for Ochs was spent on Buffalo's injured reserve, and he was eventually released last spring. A handful of NFL teams showed interest in signing him, the most intense interest coming from the New Orleans Saints. Then Montana coach Bobby Hauck called.
"He actually brought it up with me a couple of years ago during my senior year, if I'd ever be interested in coaching," Ochs said.
At the time he told Hauck he was more interested in pursuing a pro career. However, with a less-than-reliable shoulder, a wife and a newborn daughter, his priorities had changed.
"In all fairness, I think the NFL, just with my injuries at this point, was kind of a long shot," he said.
Steve Axman, the quarterbacks' coach at Montana had accepted an offensive coordinator position with the University of Idaho Vandals, creating a vacancy that was attractive to Ochs.
"I was ready to get a little more stability and start working toward a concrete future," he said.
In April, he found himself coaching players in the very situation he had been just three years earlier. Several players on Montana's roster, including senior running back Lex Hilliard, were freshmen in Ochs' final year.
"He's a smart guy, he's going to gain experience and knowledge," Hauck said. "He has ... a distinct advantage having played in this system over someone else coming in new."
For Ochs, becoming a coach wasn't necessarily where he saw himself at this stage of his life.
"If you would have asked me that (whether he would become a coach) early in my college career I would have said absolutely not," he said. "But the more I played and probably the more obvious it became my professional career was going to be tough ..."
And his highest-profile pupil thinks he made the right decision.
"I couldn't think of a guy that would understand the position that I am in more than Coach Ochs," said junior Cole Bergquist, Montana's starting quarterback. "He understands the pressure that goes along with playing quarterback for the Grizzlies."
Pressure is one thing Ochs encountered regularly during his stints in the pros. In Germany, fans are allowed to use whistles to throw off opposing players. While in NFL camps, being cut was only a bad practice away.
Ochs hopes to be able to relate what he learned after he left Montana to the team's current crop of quarterbacks.
"Watching guys like Drew Brees in practice, they bring every day a competitive fire to practice, to the weight room, whatever it is," he said. "If I can convey that to these guys, maybe it will make them better. Because the great ones at that level, there's not a day off for them, even at practice."
Montana's quarterbacks have plenty of potential, Ochs said, and are soaking up what they learn from him.
"All four guys are very coachable, they want to be real good," he said.
Bergquist said that while he hasn't thought much about coaching someday himself, he admires how seamlessly Ochs made the transition. He thinks working under center is the perfect training ground for coaches-to-be.
"Just spending so many hours in the film room, it just really helps you pick up the whole game of football," he said. "After you've played quarterback it wouldn't be too hard to go into coaching from that. You'd have to get under some other good guys and learn from them, but you already pretty much know the game."
Knowing the game doesn't necessarily guarantee stability. Ochs found in his playing career that there's always uncertainty.
"(Transferring) certainly
wasn't what I envisioned when I went to CU," he said. "But we all have our story where life takes a turn we didn't plan on, but sometimes it's for the best. This one most certainly was."