MISSOULA — In the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of college football, continuity is not a luxury often afforded powerhouse programs in the Football Championship Subdivision.
Coaches are either doing their jobs well enough to climb the career ladder to bigger programs in the next phases of their careers, or they’re performing at a level that leads to fans placing “for sale” signs in their yards.
Justin Green, who is heading into his 14th season on the Montana Grizzlies’ coaching staff, is the exception.
“The people (in Missoula) are unbelievable,” Green told MTN Sports. “When you go on a recruiting trip and you come back, your lawn’s mowed or the snow’s removed because they know you’re not home and your kids and wife need to leave the house and go to school and do what my wife needs to do.
“When we leave — we have a guinea pig, and we had five people feed him.”
Those neighbors are part of the reason Green and his family are still in Missoula. Sure, he has career aspirations “to be the best running backs coach in the country,” but he’s built a home in the Garden City.
Originally from San Diego, Green has spent the bulk of his adult life in Missoula, save for a four-year career in the NFL and a couple seasons as a high school football coach in California. He had a stellar two-year career playing for the Grizzlies during Bobby Hauck’s first stint as head coach, racking up 1,784 career rushing yards in the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
He returned to his alma mater in 2011 as a student assistant, became UM’s running backs coach in 2012 and has been on the Griz staff ever since. Four different head coaches — Robin Pflugrad, who hired Green, Mick Delaney, Bob Stitt and now Hauck — have kept Green on staff.
"I’m happy where my feet are, so my goal is to be great where I’m at,” Green said. “As far as having the opportunity in Missoula, Montana, I mean, is there a better place? A better place for my family? A better place for the young men I get to coach? A better place for them to have an opportunity to come play?
“For me, I’m ultra-biased, being a player here and playing under coach Hauck, I’m a better man for being in this program and better man for being around the people of Montana and being around the coaches that I’ve been able to learn from.”
Green has taken lessons from all the mentors he’s coached under, but he’s also been able to give an education. During his tenure, he’s coached some prolific players, including Eli Gillman, who won the Jerry Rice Award in 2023 as the top freshman in the FCS.
Now a junior, Gillman is in his fourth year playing under Green with the Griz. He came to Montana from Minnesota, where he grew up one of five children.
"He’s always just showing love to everybody,” Gillman said of Green, “and that’s kind of how I’ve always wanted to be. It’s how I was raised, so it’s nice for me, personally, moving away from home to have a mentor in my life that is still like my parents were to me.”
Off the field, Gillman has received the same advice from Green he likely received from his parents before heading to school: “Just go be a college kid, but don’t be dumb,” according to Gillman.
On the field, Gillman is already one of the most productive backs in Griz history. He enters his junior season ranked fifth in Montana history with 28 career rushing touchdowns and seventh with 2,137 career rushing yards.
And he appears primed for his best season yet this fall. After sharing the backfield with Nick Ostmo — another all-time great Griz running back — last season, Gillman figures to carry a heavier load in 2025.
“Take advantage of your opportunity, and all my guys know that,” Green said. “No matter what position they’re going to be put in, they get one play, and that play better be the best play they can potentially do.”
“He knows we're all unique in different ways,” Gillman said. “Like, not all of us are going to run through someone's face, but after that, he kind of lets us do our own thing. He likes to say, ‘Be who we recruited you to be.’”
And that’s something Green applies to himself, as well.
He’s a run-through-a-wall motivator without being overly demonstrative. He’ll of course raise his voice when he needs, but Gillman said he’s respectful. When Green yells, the players know they deserve it.
It’s all true to who Green is and the unmistakable trait that has helped him carve out a career at Montana and life in Missoula.
“Be yourself. If there's anything I learned from Mick Delaney, who at his tenure was an older coach, be yourself, be who you are,” Green said. “Your guys love your authenticity, and just be that. You don't have to be young or be hip. You need to be you, and they'll love you.”
