For a family arrived not knowing much about winter, Dave Rice's sure has found a home in a place where it exists.

Getting a more buff title (and with it usually a pay raise) is nothing new in college sports, or BYU. When Bronco Mendenhall became the head coach, longtime assistant Lance Reynolds became an AHC.

Rose himself was once given that title, as well. He joined Steve Cleveland as a top assistant in 1997 and spent eight years in that role, the last five of which he was the associate head coach.

Rice was appreciative of the acknowledgment and said it was his longtime friend who insisted it should happen.

"Dave has been a big part of the success of our program over the past three years," Rose said in a media release. "He is an outstanding teacher of the game and has always been part of successful programs both as a player and a coach. Dave possesses a complete knowledge of the game and has done a terrific job coordinating our game plans and recruiting efforts."

Rice arrived in spring of 2005, shortly after Rose took over the program. The two know each other from the days when Rice was a longtime assistant coach at UNLV while Rose was involved at Dixie State.

The tandem could always relate, both being role players on national title-caliber teams; Rose with Houston in the early 1980s and Rice at UNLV about a decade later.

Rice and his wife, Mindy, knew warm weather -- either the Los Angeles area or Las Vegas -- until he lost his job at UNLV when Lon Kruger took over the program and brought in his own staff. Rice, who survived several coaching changes as a Rebel assistant, latched onto Utah State for a season before the lure to join forces with Rose was too much to resist.

USU coach Stew Morrill admitted at the time being slightly irked, because he hoped to have an assistant stay for two seasons. But he gave his blessing when Rose asked if it would be OK to see if Rice would be interested in making the short drive south. Snow would still be an issue, of course, and the winter in Logan was an eye-opening winter wonderland.

The Rices have two sons, ages 10 and five. Rice joked that the promotion still means he has to do the shoveling at home. But he says the family has good neighbors who help out when he's away from home.

Provo has been a good fit. Rice, who oversees recruiting and offense, has helped BYU's talent level rise the past few years while the Cougars have also been a more prolific scoring bunch.

BYU has generated the Mountain West Conference's top attack two years and ranked second once. On the national level, the Cougars ranked 21st in assists per game (16.8) and 22nd in scoring margin (+10.5) this past year while also setting a school record for assist-to-field goal ratio at 64.8 percent.

It's translated to three consecutive 20-win seasons and a 72-26 overall record while recording back-to-back outright MWC championships.

"We have a great group of coaches and players here at BYU, and we're excited about building on the success we have all worked together to achieve these past three years," Rice said.