MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Bobby Hauck, coach of perennial FCS power Montana and the Big Sky Conference's all-time wins leader, announced his sudden retirement Wednesday, saying he didn't enjoy his job anymore because of the changes in college football in recent years.
Bobby Kennedy, who finished his first season as receivers coach, will succeed Hauck. Kennedy and Hauck had worked together as assistants at Washington in 2002, and Kennedy also has been on staffs at Texas and three other power conference schools.
Hauck, 61, had two stints totaling 14 years with the Grizzlies and led the team to eight Big Sky championships, 13 playoff appearances and four national championship games. The 2025 team was 13-2 and reached the national semifinals.
The Missoula native and Montana graduate was 166-92 in 19 seasons as head coach at Montana and UNLV. He was the winningest active FCS coach with a 151-43 record with the Grizzlies.
“I want to enjoy my career and my job, and a lot of the head coach stuff in current-day Division I college football is not enjoyable,” Hauck said at a news conference. “I just think it's the appropriate time.”
Hauck said he didn't know what he would do next. He said he doesn't want to be a head coach again, though.
Hauck returned to Montana in 2018, and in 2021 new NCAA rules took effect allowing players to transfer without sitting out a season at their new school and to be compensated for their name, image and likeness. Revenue sharing with athletes began last year.
“Dealing with agents and the transient nature of this and the lack of forward thinking by young people, which has never been a strong suit for centuries for young people. ... But now when they've got adults pushing them and pulling them in different directions, I kind of got tired of that.”
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FILE - Montana coach Bobby Hauck talks Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, about the team's NCAA Football Championship Subdivision title game against top-rated South Dakota State in Frisco, Texas. (AP Photo/Stephen Hawkins,File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.
The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.
Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.
“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.
Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.
“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.
In 2023, the state decided gun rights were required to restore the right to vote, and shelved a paperwork process that didn't require going to court. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.
Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.
Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.
“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”
Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”
For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.
Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.
The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.
Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.
Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.
Last year marked the dismissal of a five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.
Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.
Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.
In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.
Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.
Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.
However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.
FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
