Menu
Cambridge grad Mollring continues family tradition
Grant Mollring has coaching in his blood.
The University of Nebraska-Kearney assistant has descended from a long line of coaches in the Cambridge family. Grandpa Junior Mollring was a coach at Cambridge for many years. Grant's father, Jeff Mollring, is a veteran coach with stops in Cambridge and McCook (Coach Mo decided to retire as an assistant football coach for the Bison at the conclusion of the 2009 season). His uncle Larry is a former high school coach who now works for the Nebraska Schools Activities Association. Brother Scott is a coach at Southwest High School in Bartley.
Grant's decision to go into coaching was easy.
"It was a piece of cake; it was what I was going to do from the time I was a third grader on," he said. "It was a no-brainer. Same with my brother. Yep. No brainer. Love the lifestyle."
Mollring was on the sideline at Ron and Carol Cope Field in Kearney last Saturday, helping the UNK Lopers win their first-ever NCAA Division II playoff game. The Lopers topped Saginaw Valley State, 35-20.
Grant is in his third season on the UNK staff. The 1998 Cambridge High School graduate spent three years coaching at the high school level at Eustis-Farnam before moving to Kearney as a graduate assistant for the Lopers. He is currently in his second year as a full-time UNK assistant, with his primary duties working with the wide receivers.
Jeff Mollring was an assistant at Cambridge before moving to McCook in 2000. Coach Mo had all three of his sons playing for him at Cambridge through their high school football careers.
Tapping into dad's experience
Grant still uses dad's guidance in his work for the Lopers.
"I rely on dad like no other," he said. "I'm calling him constantly, two, three times a week. In fact, after they got beat by Aurora (in the Class B playoffs Nov. 6), he came up to practice last Tuesday and helped me out a little bit. We sat in the office all day, talked X's an O's. We were thrilled to have him up here."
Mollring has several familiar faces under his tutelage at Kearney. Former McCook standout Brendan Liess is a junior starting wide receiver for the Lopers. McCook redshirt freshmen Matt Berry and Dillon Goltl are members of the UNK squad, with four years of working under Coach Mollring in their futures.
"I've known Brendan's family -- his mother's from Cambridge -- so I've followed Brendan since he was a kid," Grant said. "He has some cousins I knew. Actually when my parents moved to McCook in 2000, they were our next-door neighbors. I've kind of been giving him gruff for a long time, as a freshman playing in the state championship game against Ralston. He's easy to coach. I coached him as a running back and then we moved him to wide receiver, and I was glad to take him back, because he's great kid. He comes from a great family, I love his parents, and he's easy to coach."
Mollring said he thinks the previous relationships he has had with the Bison players is a plus.
"Especially the younger kids coming in," he said. "Like this year, I have Dillon Goltl and Matt Berry that I've coached, too. I know those guys, too, and I've followed them for several years. If anything I'm probably harder on those guys and expect more out of them because I know the type of players they are. It's easy to coach them -- they are obviously three very talented guys, and Brendan's really growing into his role as a receiver. I love coaching them."
Lopers rally for playoff victory
Thanks to several early turnovers, UNK fell behind 20-7 at halftime against Saginaw Saturday. The Lopers rallied with 28 unanswered points to earn the victory, including Liess' 17-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter.
"We thought in the second quarter when we sped the tempo up and then realized that we could kind of wear them out," Mollring said. "They get tired of chasing Rustin (Dring) and Brendan from sideline to sideline. So we kept speeding the game up. We knew that we could move the ball on them, we just had to hold on to it. The turnovers were uncharacteristic of what we've done all year long. But at halftime we just made a few small adjustments and just kept on the guys and said, 'Hey we can do this, let's just go. Let's go.' That's what we did."
The Lopers improved their season record to 11-1, the highest win total in school history. Mollring said great crowd support like UNK enjoyed Saturday has been a key for his team's success.
"No doubt. We've had great support all year long," he said. "We have, I think, about a 12-game winning streak here at home, and the crowd's a big reason for that. We have a good student section, we get a lot of people in the stands. It's just a fun place to play.
"Since we've joined Division II, this is our first playoff win, and 11-1 is the best season in UNK history up to this point. We're not done yet."
Minnesota trip up next
The Lopers advance to the second round of the playoffs to face a tough test next Saturday. UNK visits defending Division II national champs Minnesota-Duluth. UNK knew that if they beat Saginaw, they would face the Minnesota team.
"I spent a little time Friday, just in anticipation as one of the coaches that would work ahead a little bit -- our graduate assistant and I kind of looked at some field and broke them down," Grant said. "They're a lot like Saginaw. They're big, tough and mean. They run the ball probably more than anybody in the country. It will be a great test. But I don't think anybody in a blue uniform cares who we play now. We're just excited to move on."