New Bengals' defensive line coach/run game coordinator Jerry Montgomery got this job just like he got his first Division I job at Wyoming at the precocious age of 29.

It's not who you know. It's who wants to know you.

And Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden got curious as he watched Montgomery's Packers defensive line play his Lions twice a year. First when he was the tight ends coach in Detroit for two years, then the linebackers coach for two more. The last game was six years ago, an eternity for players but not for coaches with long memory drives.

"The only person I know on the (Bengals staff) is Jordan Kovacs. We coached him at Michigan," says Montgomery, packing up after his one-year stop in New England. "I didn't have any previous contacts. I had a great visit with Al. Everybody I've talked to raves about him. Zac (Taylor) did his homework. I'm excited about the opportunity."

Taylor, the Bengals head coach, plans to introduce Golden as his defensive coordinator Monday and the rest of his staff. Kovacs is staying at safeties, as is Charles Burks at cornerbacks, to go with the addition of former Saints assistant Mike Hodges at linebacker.

Montgomery, 45, fits into the role of developer that the Bengals envision on the other side with new offensive line coach Scott Peters.

He may get some volunteer help for a few days in the person of one of the more popular Bengals of recent vintage in former defensive tackle Mike Daniels. He calls Montgomery "Big Cuz."

"He'll hold a standard in his room that a lot of guys don't," says Daniels, who played for Montgomery during four years in Green Bay. "You see so many guys lose their gaps. So many guys running up field trying to get a sack. Jerry's not having that. What Jerry is going to do is make sure guys are not only playing in the scheme, but they're doing it properly. He's all about the integrity of the game and the most important part of the game is in the middle."

Daniels is coaching high school ball in New Jersey with his brother and has no desire to get back into the NFL just yet. But he says he's available for a quick visit to talk to the guys. "Call me a hired gun," he says.

By the time Montgomery got to Daniels in Green Bay, he had earned big-time college chops on the recruiting trail and in the trenches as he moved from Wyoming to Michigan to Oklahoma, where he ran into current Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr.

"Jerry's brilliant," Brown says.

The Packers were high on Montgomery, too, because when the Sooners made him their defensive co-coordinator, Green Bay came calling with a D-Line job and he was there for nine years before last year's hiatus with the Patriots.

Early on in Green Bay, Montgomery was exposed to the three-man fronts of Dom Capers. That fills out a resume that has expanded into the four-man nickel packages of this era, where he coaches both the interior and the edge.

"We play that about 80-85 percent of the time now because there's so much 11 personnel," Montgomery says. "You have to coordinate four-man rush lanes, five-man rushes. It all has to work together."

At every stop, Montgomery always brings his college pedigree that he proudly calls "The Iowa Tree." That's where he played on head coach Kirk Ferentz's first team and then broke into coaching before he split time playing in the Arena League while coaching at Iowa West City High School.

"I'm a teacher first. That's how I was brought up," Montgomery says. "The most important thing is to get the Jimmys and Joes to do what the coordinator needs them to do. I've been lucky and blessed to do that during my career."

Montgomery took a lesson from how he got that Wyoming job when he was working at Northern Iowa. While preparing for a game, North Dakota State offensive line coach Pat Perles took notice, asked who was coaching that crew, and sent the word out.

"The Iowa Tree," Montgomery says, is built off development. Getting players to work at a high level in the scheme.

Daniels played at Iowa, too, and as an unheralded Jersey prep star, he could be the textbook of how the Hawkeyes don't get the three-star and up recruits but still win while producing NFL players with technique and teaching.

"We didn't have a lot of great talent, so they have to over-compensate with the phenomenal style of coaching," Daniels says. "We would get cursed out with every name you could think of in the world for taking an improper step. But coaches knew we had to be that perfect with our technique or else we wouldn't be able to compete with the supreme talent.

"Jerry comes from that school. He brings that to the NFL because, realistically, that's not as present in the NFL as most people would think. A lot of guys by the time they get to the NFL, they already are who they're going to be. It takes an exceptional coach who can focus on a guy getting developed. So much time is spent on game planning. Everybody is fast, everybody is strong, everybody is big. Jerry is going to take that time to get the guys' fundamentals together."

Daniels, a fourth-rounder out of Iowa in 2012, made his only Pro Bowl when Montgomery was on the Packers' line. They saw UCLA defensive tackle Kenny Clark drafted in the first round and make all three of his Pro Bowls under Montgomery.

Montgomery knows one thing about what he's got developing in Cincinnati.

Reigning NFL sack champion Trey Hendrickson.

"I know they've got a great edge rusher," Montgomery says. "I know they've played good ball in the past. Whoever it is, we have to get them to play at a standard within the scheme."

Enter "Big Cuz."

"He's that older cousin who is going to make sure you're doing what you're supposed to do," Daniels says. "But he's also your cousin you feel comfortable talking to and you want to listen to him."