Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
ISU head football coach Mike Kramer has promoted Matt Troxel to offensive coordinator. Troxel replaces Sheldon Cross who left the program to coach high school football in Washington.
A Washington native, Cross will take over at Kennedy Catholic High School located in St. Burien, just south of Seattle.
Cross replaces Bob Bourgette, who stepped down following the 2015 season. Bourgette won 10 games in 2015 and fell in the first round of the state playoffs.
Cross jumped at the job opening, calling it a no-brainer.
Cross came to Idaho State from Illinois State where he coached both tight ends and running backs.
Although he was coaching receivers at the time, Cross was a big reason why the Bengal offense put up video game type numbers during the 2014 season.
Led by record breaking quarterback Justin Arias, the 2014 offense scored a school-record 64 touchdowns and helped star receiver Madison Mangum catch 83 passes for over 1,000 yards (1,234) and 10 touchdowns. Good enough to earn Mangum a spot in the ISU record books, he was third in passing yards and fourth in touchdowns in a single season.
In 2015, Cross concluded his first and only season as the Bengal’s offensive coordinator.
With Sanders now at Henderson State, Troxel takes over the Bengal offense with a new face under center.
In addition to offensive coordinator, Cross was also the quarterback’s coach.
Tanner Gueller, who will be a redshirt sophomore come next fall, is expected to be the starter in Sander’s absence.
Gueller appeared in 10 games for the Bengals in 2015 completing 92 of 172 passing attempts for 855 yards and 5 touchdowns. Gueller adds another type of versatility to the Bengal offense due to his ability to move in the pocket and scramble when needed.
Troxel has been in Pocatello since the dawn of the Kramer era in 2010.
Coaching the offensive line since 2013, Troxel built up one of the biggest and meanest offensive lines in the Big Sky, as they kept Arias upright for the majority of the 2014 season only allowing 15 sacks.
In 2015, that number remained low at 19, despite the Bengals’ struggles on offense.
In addition to Cross, Kramer has also promoted Rob Phenicie to assistant head coach for the offense.
With 2015 not going the way Kramer and company expected, Troxel and Phenicie will be in charge of retooling the Bengal offense back into what it was during the Arias era.
Phenicie coached the receivers in 2015 and came from UNLV where he was the offensive coordinator for the Rebels for two seasons and quarterback coach for three.
Phenicie also coached at Montana from 2003-09.
At this time, it is unclear who will be calling the plays in 2016.
