Photo Courtesy of Idaho State Athletics
Trevor Delaney
Sports Editor
The Bengals can now rest easy knowing they will remain in good hands once again, thanks to a contract extension signed by Rob Phenicie to remain as head coach of the Idaho State University football team. With the opening of the 2021 Big Sky Conference season less than a month away for Idaho State University, this contract made it to the end zone just before overtime. Phenicie’s previous three-year contract as the head football coach at ISU was set to expire on Jan. 31, 2021. Neither Coach Phenicie nor Pauline Thiros, Idaho State University Director of Athletics, could afford to run the time on this vitally important play for ISU.
A native of Huntington Beach California, Phenicie started his college football career as a Husker, playing for the University of Nebraska as a tight end during the 1984-1985 football season. A young Phenicie moved onto Orange Coast University, playing for the Pirates through the ’86 season. Our modest coach ended his college playing years with the University of Memphis Tigers in 1987, foreshadowing his later role coaching for the Bengals.
Beyond his experience as a veteran on the field himself, Phenicie’s coaching experience goes back over thirty years. At the beginning of his grad school years, Phenicie stayed on at Memphis, coaching offense as a graduate assistant for the Tigers during their 1989 to 1991 seasons.
He took this offensive coaching experience to UCLA in 1991, coaching there as a graduate assistant until 1992. Phenicie started coaching for the Los Angeles Valley College Monarchs in 1992, specifically being in charge of coaching the quarterbacks and wide receivers until ‘97. For the next two years, Coach Phenicie was picked up by the Cal State Northridge Matadors football team, utilizing his well-honed expertise in coaching quarterbacks and wide receivers as the offensive coordinator for the team.
His offense experience played an instrumental role in his becoming an assistant coach at the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus in the 1999 season. Phenicie again started coaching in his element of offense at the University of Wyoming in 2002, also coaching wide receivers and recruiting for the Cowboys. The University of Montana Grizzlies managed to nab the much sought-after coach as their offensive coordinator starting in the 2002 season for his wide-ranging skill sets in coaching quarterbacks and wide receivers and impressive offense background. Before coming to find his most recent coaching home at Idaho State, Phenicie was hailed back to the UNLV Rebels in 2010 to coach as various roles coaching offense, quarterbacks, and tight ends for the next five years.
Coach Phenicie started his coaching time with the Bengals in 2015 as the assistant coach for wide receivers under Head Coach Mike Kramer. Following Kramer’s retirement in March of 2017, Phenicie has been serving as the head coach for Idaho State University’s football team. Just days before agreeing to fill the position, Idaho State nearly lost Phenicie’s accumulated coaching abilities and know-how to the University of Northern Iowa Panthers where he had been offered a lucrative job as an offensive assistant for their football program. The Bengals were lucky to beat the Panthers in this toss-up, with Phenicie ultimately siding with ISU’s head coaching position as his choice. The Bengals have seen some admirable victories on the field since Phenicie took over, and are hoping to expand their winning percentage this coming season in the Big Sky Conference play.
In his new contract, Phenicie has a set yearly salary of a competitive $168,875. This new contract raises Phenicie’s salary $3,875, up from his previous contract salary of $165,000 per year. In addition to the fixed salary amount for the new contract, Coach Phenicie has the option of earning up to $80,500 in potential bonuses. This new contract will need to be approved by the Idaho State Board of Education under state rules which require contracts that have a cumulative potential value of greater than $200,000 to be approved through the state.
