Lucas Gebhart
Sports Editor
Idaho State head football coach Mike Kramer promoted Rob Phenicie to offensive coordinator in the wake of Matt Troxel’s departure to Montana, where he accepted an offensive assistant position.
Phenicie was an offensive assistant head coach as well as receivers coach last season for an offense that statistically ranked towards the bottom of the conference in most major categories.
Phenicie came to Pocatello after spending five seasons with UNLV, where he was the offensive coordinator for the Rebels for two seasons and was in charge of the Montana offense from 2003-09.
This makes four consecutive seasons where ISU will have a new offensive coordinator after the previous one’s departure.
Sheldon Cross, the offensive coordinator prior to Troxel, left the program to coach high school football in Washington at the end of the 2015 season.
Both times, the Bengals have filled the vacancy through in-house promotions.
David Fiefia will also be promoted to assistant head coach for offense after serving as a running backs and tight ends coach last season.
Fiefia was hired in March of 2015 after serving as a graduate assistant at Utah State for three season under Aggie offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven, working with running backs.
The two promotions leave one coaching vacancy under Kramer’s staff which will be filled at a later date.
The Bengals have gone 2-9 the last two seasons as Kramer enters his sixth season at the helm.
