Lauren McGadney
Jason Eck, here with player Jamal Wilson at Hampton University, plans to coach until he retires.
Jason Eck’s mother would have preferred her oldest son not become a football coach. Brutal stress levels, long hours and a simmering, ever-present uncertainty about the future can wreak havoc on a man’s personal life.
But, like his dad, Jay — an Edgewood High School graduate and journeyman basketball coach who led the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to back-to-back Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships in the ’80s — the former backup center for the Wisconsin Badgers eventually became a coach.
“Growing up in a coaching family predestined me to be a coach,” he says, adding that the Badgers’ 38-31 victory over UCLA in the 1999 Rose Bowl solidified his career choice. “If, my senior year, we had been 0-11 instead of 10-1, things might have been different. I realized my career was over, and I don’t think there’s any way to perfectly simulate the unique team camaraderie that goes on in a locker room. But the camaraderie of a coaching staff comes close.”
Eck has enjoyed plenty of camaraderie during his dozen seasons as a full-time college football coach, most recently as the offensive line coach at Montana State University. On Dec. 4, the Bobcats introduced new head coach Jeff Choate, who promptly announced he would be bringing in his own staff of assistants and not retaining Eck.
And so the 38-year-old La Crosse native and father of four kids under the age of 13 is, as of this writing, seeking his 10th coaching job. Eck spent a total of nine months at Montana State, where he helped the Bobcats average a Big Sky Conference-leading 519.8 yards and 41.9 points per game in 2015.
During his 12 seasons, always as an assistant, Eck experienced the departure of a head coach six times. “That created four of the moves I’ve made,” Eck says, explaining how new head coaches, like Choate, often dismiss other coaches on staff. “The first time you go through something like that, it’s the unknown that gets you. My first time was at the University of Idaho, and I wondered, ‘What happens if I can’t get another job and we’re stuck out in Idaho?’ It’s like walking through a haunted house, and you don’t know where anything is.”
That sound you hear is the loud shattering of the myth that coaching college football is a glory job. “It’s definitely not glamorous,” Eck says.
He began his coaching career at Wisconsin, where he served three seasons as a graduate assistant helping coach the Badgers’ offensive line. That stint included a Big 10 championship and Rose Bowl win in 1999, plus a 2000 Sun Bowl victory.
From there, Eck spent two years at the University of Colorado, three years at Idaho, two seasons each at Winona State and Ball State universities, and one year each at Western Illinois and Hampton universities. Before joining Montana State’s staff for the 2015 season, Eck was both offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Minnesota State University-Mankato.
While at Minnesota State-Mankato, Eck’s offense posted the two highest single-season scoring marks in university history, including 526 points in 2013 and 600 points in 2014. The Mavericks racked up more than 10,000 yards in that span and averaged 41.7 points per game. The team finished 14-1 in 2014 and advanced to the NCAA Division II Championship game for the first time ever.
“Leaving Minnesota State probably wasn’t a good idea,” Eck says on the day Choate named Eck’s replacement at Montana State. But a coaching friend encouraged him to make the jump back to Division 1, and Eck was impressed by the passionate fan base in Bozeman, which he likened to Madison.
Although Eck does not know where his next coaching job will take him — he hasn’t ruled out head coaching if the right opportunity presents itself — he still has fond memories of Madison. In fact, Eck was offered scholarships to play at Division 2 colleges but opted to walk on at Wisconsin to be surrounded by quality coaches like Barry Alvarez and his staff.
He also likes to quote the late actor and comedian Chris Farley, a Madison native who appeared in a classic 1990 Saturday Night Live sketch in which a flabby Farley competed with a buff Patrick Swayze for a job as a Chippendales dancer.
“When you’re an offensive lineman, you don’t want to get into a dancing contest with the skinny guy,” Eck tells his players. “You’re better off going at the defense full speed and trying to get those guys on the ground. Sometimes I even pull up the clip and show them that no matter how great Farley’s effort was, he still lost that battle with the skinny guy.”
Eck, who holds a psychology degree and MBA from Wisconsin, admits he might end up in a different profession one day. But for now, he’s hoping to remain on the sidelines for as long as possible. “I do enjoy coaching,” he says. “And I see myself doing it until I retire.”
