TU hires offensive line coach
Mike Bloesch, Photo: Erik Campos/TU
As the Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team continues preparations for the Camping World Independence Bowl, Head Coach Philip Montgomery announced Saturday that Mike Bloesch has been promoted to offensive line coach.
Montgomery confirmed that co-offensive coordinators Sterlin Gilbert and Matt Mattox have elected to leave the Golden Hurricane coaching staff and accept coaching positions at the University of Texas. Gilbert coached Tulsa quarterbacks and Mattox the offensive line.
Bloesch has served as Tulsa’s offensive quality control/assistant offensive line coach since joining the Golden Hurricane program in January. He came to Tulsa following one season as the offensive football analyst at the University of Houston, and before that was the offensive coordinator at Temple (Texas) High School for three seasons, posting an overall 19-13 record and scoring over 40 points and gaining over 500 yards of offense. Bloesch also served as offensive line coach at Abilene Cooper High School for two seasons, helping that team compile a 20-6 record and set school records for points and total yards.
“Mike is a rising star when it comes to coaching the offensive line. He played for us at the University of Houston, and really understands, as a player and coach, what we need to do from a schematic and offensive line standpoint in this offense,” said Montgomery. “Mike has a really good rapport and relationship with our players and has done an outstanding job in helping us prepare our offensive plans each week. We are fortunate to have someone like Mike on staff to step in and not miss a beat.”
In a familiar role, Montgomery will coach the Tulsa quarterbacks in preparation for the Independence Bowl game. Montgomery expects to wait until after the bowl game to fill the one remaining coaching vacancy.
Before taking over the Tulsa program last December, Montgomery coached quarterbacks for the previous 12 seasons, first at Houston then Baylor, in addition to his multiple seasons as the offensive coordinator.
“Our focus is on preparing for an extremely tough Virginia Tech team in the Camping World Independence Bowl and continuing to recruit and rebuild this program to one that will win American Athletic Conference championships,” said Montgomery. “We expect this to be a seamless transition over the next two weeks in preparing for the Independence Bowl and continuing forward.”