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Now you see me. Now you don’t. Jerry Montgomery performed a bit of a circus act this morning as the Green Bay Packers announced that Montgomery would be returning for his fourth season as the Packer’s defensive front assistant.
What Happened?
Two weeks ago, Montgomery moved from Green Bay to the Texas A&M Aggies where he was hired as Aggie’s associate head coach and defensive line coach. Annnd poof. Now he’s gone and headed back up to his old post in Green Bay. It’s unclear what caused the move. Payment details between the Aggies and Montgomery have not been released because a contract had not been finalized between the two sides.
Not long after the Packer’s announcement this morning, the Aggies removed Montgomery from their team’s website.
The Aggies newly acquired head coach, Jimbo Fisher, let one slip through his fingers. This could prove to be problematic for Fisher with national signing day on February 7th right around the corner. In his short two-week tenure, Montgomery was already helping with top recruitments. Now, the Aggies need to fill in a key coaching position in order to keep their home stretch recruiting momentum going.
Who is Jerry Montgomery?
Jerry Montgomery, 38, played college ball for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1998-2002. After graduation, he went to training camp with the New Orleans Saints but was released before the season. He later played in the Arena Football League with the Chicago Rush, Colorado Crush, and Las Vegas Gladiators from 2003-2005.
His coaching career started while he was playing in the Arena League. He started as an assistant at Iowa City West High School and Northern Iowa Area Community College. He later served as a graduate assistant at Northern Iowa in 2006, before being promoted to full-time defensive line coach for the 2007 and 2008 seasons. After Northern Iowa, Montgomery bounced around a lot. From 2009-2014, he coached as both a defensive line and defensive tackles coach for Wyoming, Indiana, Michigan, and Oklahoma. For the 2013 and 2014 seasons, Montgomery was the defensive line coach for Oklahoma and earned $325,000 and $380,000 respectively. Not too shabby for a guy who was coaching at a high school only a few years before.
In 2015, he was promoted to Oklahoma’s co-defensive coordinator, where he was expected to lead the defense alongside Mike Stoops. His tenure as co-defensive coordinator with the Sooners was brief. Less than a month in, the Green Bay Packers confirmed that they hired Montgomery, giving him the title of defensive front assistant. Sound familiar? Now in 2018, the Packers are giving the Aggies a similar treatment to what happened in Oklahoma.
Jerry Montgomery has been all over and for now, he heads back to his base in Green Bay to return as their defensive front assistant.