Jerome Souers is entering his fourth year as head football coach at Montana State University-Northern. Souers was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Jerome started his coaching career as a high school football coach in Eugene, Oregon, where he was there for eight years. His first college football coaching job began at Western Washington University in 1984. The next year he coached at Portland State University and then joined Don Read at the University of Montana from 1986-97. While he was there, they posted 12 straight winning seasons (went 12-0 vs the Cats) taking the Big Sky Title three times. The peak years during Souers’ stay at Montana came from 1993 to 1996. During that period, the Grizzlies made four straight playoff appearances, played in three semifinals and two national title games. The 1995 squad won the national title and the 1996 team was the NCAA runner-up. The four-year record for Montana during that time was 48-8.
• In 1996, when head coach Mick Dennehy was sidelined after undergoing major surgery, Souers stepped in as head coach and led the Grizzlies to victories over Cal State Northridge and Portland State.
• During Souers’ nine years as defensive coordinator at Montana, the Grizzlies twice ranked among the nation’s top-10 in rushing defense, finishing third in the country in that category in 1992. His last unit in Missoula led the Big Sky Conference in scoring defense.
• During the national title run, Souers’ defense became the first in NCAA history to post consecutive playoff shutouts (Eastern Kentucky and Georgia Southern).
• He coached six All-America defensive backs at Montana, including future NFL stars Tim Hauck of the Seattle Seahawks and Blaine McElmurry of the Green Bay Packers.
• In 1989, Souers added defensive coordinator to his duties and the Grizzlies posted an 11-2 record with an appearance in the national semifinals. Montana also tied a national interception record in one game with 10 picks vs. Boise State. A year later, the Grizzlies opened the 1990 campaign with a 22-15 road win at Oregon State.
• A hint of things to come came in 1988 when the Grizzlies went 8-4 and led the Big Sky Conference in all defensive categories.
Jerome Souers left Montana to become the Head Football Coach of Northern Arizona University of the Big Sky Conference serving for 21 years. While he was at Northern Arizona University, he was named Big Sky Conference Coach of the year in 1999. In 2003, Jerome was an Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Finalist. While Souers was at NAU, he has coached 177 student-athletes to all-conference honors a combined 282 times with 58 first-team selections and 84 All-American accolades. In the classroom, the football program has produced the Golden Eagle Scholar Athlete-of-the-Year nine times.
In 2020 Coach Souers took on the defensive coordinator position at Southern Oregon University for two years. Coming back to Montana in 2022, Jerome Souers was named Head Football Coach at Montana State University – Northern.
Since 2015, Souers had been the winningest coach in Big Sky Conference History; a title recently taken by Bobby Hauck from the University of Montana. Jerome was the longest tenured Head Coach in Big Sky Conference history. As an assistant and Head Coach Souers was part of 11 NCAA FCA Playoff runs, as well as winning the National Championship game in 1995, National Championship Runner-Up in 1996.
Jerome is an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, as he is one of the few college coaches of Native American decent. Souers earned his degree in Human Performance in 1983. He has two daughters Anna Patel and Alaina Souers.
