Reports: EWU d-coordinator coming to Griz

MISSOULA — New Montana Grizzlies coach Bobby Kennedy is acting fast to fill his first football staff, bringing Eric Sanders over from Eastern Washington to be defensive coordinator according to media reports.

Skylinesportsmt.com was among the first to break the news that both Sanders, who was Eastern’s defensive coordinator the last three seasons, and assistant Jaylen Johnson are leaving the Eagles for the Griz. Johnson had been EWU’s defensive line coach the past two seasons. 

Sanders takes over for Roger Cooper, who followed Bobby Hauck to Illinois along with fellow Grizzlies assistant Mike Linehan. Hauck, who stepped down as the Grizzlies’ head coach on Feb. 4, was named Illinois’ defensive coordinator on Monday.  

Cooper and Tim Hauck had been co-defensive coordinators; Linehan was UM’s D-line coach the last three seasons.  

Skyline Sports also reported on Wednesday that Tim Hauck was stepping away from football. The University of Illinois announced Friday that Cooper will coach its inside linebackers. 

Sanders has a lengthy resume that starts with being a graduate assistant at Utah State in 2007 and includes stops with the NFL’s Oakland Raiders (2010-14), Cleveland Browns (2016-18) and New York Jets (2019) before a second tenure at Stanford from 2020-22.  

He overlapped with Kennedy at Stanford, where Kennedy was receivers coach and Sanders guided the Cardinal's inside linebackers. 

Johnson played at the University of Washington from 2014-18 and signed a free agent deal with the Denver Broncos in 2019. He began coaching at the high school level in 2019 and returned to UW from 2021-23 as a defensive line graduate assistant. He received a Masters in English from the school in 2023 and moved to Eastern in 2024. 

The Grizzlies begin spring drills on March 2 and play their annual spring game on April 10 inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium.