The Fort Lewis football team has added two coaches to its coaching staff with a combined 90 years of experience.
Scott Grinde and Rocky Long were announced on Wednesday as new additions by FLC. Grinde will be an assistant coach and will coach the defensive line. Long will be a defensive analyst.
Long, 74, has a long and impressive coaching career. He was a defensive coach at some top Division I schools in the 1980s and 1990s including Texas Christian University, UCLA, Wyoming and Oregon State.
The New Mexico graduate returned to the Lobos to be the head coach in 1998. He was there until 2008 and became the winningest head coach in Mountain West Conference history and in New Mexico history.
Long then moved on to San Diego State to be the head coach from 2011-2019 and he had four 10-win seasons and San Diego State went to nine straight bowl games. Long then moved on to be the defensive coordinator at New Mexico from 2020-2022 and last season he was at Syracuse University, a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference, as the defensive coordinator.
Skyhawks football head coach Johnny Cox called Long a legendary football coach and remembers game planning as a graduate assistant at the University of Texas against Long’s defense when Long was at UCLA. Cox couldn’t figure out UCLA’s defensive coverages and Texas lost 66-3.
“Over the years, we've had several coaches that have come through Fort Lewis College that have been assistants for Rocky at the University of New Mexico and they had nothing but great things to say about him,” Cox said. “I knew he was a great football mind and I've known through other people that everyone liked to work for him … Boy, what a blessing it is to have Rocky Long come in and say he wants to help out. That's a win-win situation, right there. He's way smarter than me and I just like to listen and our whole staff can take the input he has.”
Long and his wife Debby used to visit Durango for vacations and during holidays. Long said he and his wife bought a condo here about 25 or 30 years ago. His family would come here on Christmas and for a few weeks in the summer.
Throughout his coaching career, Debby had to move 13 times because of his job changes. When Long took the position at Syracuse last year, Debby decided she wanted to move to Durango full-time and buy a house for her and Long to live in when he was done coaching.
After Syracuse head coach Dino Babers lost his job during the 2023 season, Long decided to retire to Durango.
“I basically retired and I found out that I'm not really the retiring kind when I got back here to Durango, getting up and nowhere to go,” Long said. “So I got a hold of Coach Cox and told him that if there was anything I could do for the program, I'd be more than happy to do it. If he needed me around or would like to have me around, I’d sure be happy to do it.”
Cox said Long’s defensive analyst role involves Long advising players and the staff with his knowledge and experience. He’ll be watching a lot of film on FLC’s practices and will do scouting on the Skyhawks’ opponents.
Grinde comes to FLC after a lengthy coaching career. He coached college football at the University of Texas-El Paso, Scottsdale Community College and Coffeyville Community College.
In 2016, Grinde became the head coach at Air Academy High School in Colorado Springs. He held that position until he decided to join Cox’s staff.
“I am so excited to be here,” Grinde said. “I feel absolutely honored and consider it a privilege to be a part of this group. Coach Cox is an outstanding head coach and has got this program where it needs to be right now. We're doing it with young high school kids and I know the portal is a big deal right now, but we're not doing that. We're trying to bring in young talent that can develop and really help us make this a strong program. He's done a great job of that.”
An Aurora, Colorado native, Grinde knows he needs big, strong and fast linemen to compete in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. He wants defensive linemen that have the right attitude and are willing to work because a lot of football is decided on the line of scrimmage. Grinde has been on staff since January and said his focus in spring practice was increasing the players’ effort and improving their fundamentals and technique.
Grinde has known Cox since 2016 when Grinde’s son John became the offensive line coach at FLC. Cox said he’s always admired Grinde’s knowledge of the game and how he’d offer suggestions to Cox on how to help the team. John Grinde would also tell Cox about his father’s approach and the positive effect his father had on him.
Cox thinks Grinde can be a great recruiter for FLC with his high school connections in Colorado Springs.
“Scott Grinde has a lot of energy and he's also demanding,” Cox said. “In spring ball, we were able to see those guys really practiced hard, really run to the ball and played with passion.”
Grinde is excited to work with his son who is the offensive coordinator in addition to working with the offensive line. He’s proud of his son and is excited to be around him more along with his grandkids.
Long and Grinde have a connection because Long was Grinde’s defensive coordinator at Wyoming in the 1980s when Grinde played there. Grinde would watch Long’s dogs when he went on vacation.
“It was just a great day when I saw him walk through the door and Coach Cox told us he's going to come try to help us,” Grinde said about Long. “He’s been fantastic to lend his knowledge to us in many different ways. So I'm excited to have him and have him as a shoulder to lean on when things come up he's experienced a hundredfold.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
