Mike Anderson is such a serious All-American candidate that the University of Utah ordered rolls of Lifesavers-like candy with Anderson's picture and stats on them to be sent to the nation's voting media. That means the U. puts him in a class with Andre Miller or Luther Elliss -- players worth promoting to the NCAA world.
Anderson is the first-ever preseason Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year. He's a Ute co-captain. He was first-team All-WAC in 1998. He led WAC rushing (106.6 yards per game) to rank 20th in the NCAA with the third-best average and second-best season yardage (1,173) and touchdown (12) total ever by a Ute.He has only played three years of organized football, but the Utah senior is so accomplished he is the premiere player in this first year of the Mountain West Conference.
That means he's got a big target on his chest. Every opponent will have studied
films of him. They'll all know about his 10 fumbles last year, so they'll be out to crack the No. 1 back extra hard.
"He will face everyone's best hit. He is a marked man,
said Utah running backs coach Sean McNabb." I think he'll rise to the challenge, so whatever he accomplishes will be that much more incredible," McNabb said.
There's good reason to think the incredible will happen.
This ex-Marine has a new weapon: Understanding.
For the first time, he opens a season understanding his position. "Last year, I learned as I went along," Anderson said. He was an unknown then. A beginner. He never played high school ball. He went from the drum and horn sections of his high school band to Marine-base football and then to junior-college ball before hitting Utah, where he started because Omar Bacon was hurt.
He accomplished all of the above on sheer athletic ability with only a rudimentary knowledge of how defenses work and how offenses combat that. "I wasn't too naive about the game," he said. "I just didn't understand how much work went into it and how so many things came into play - all the studying you have to do, all the practicing, the continuous reps just to get the play exactly how the coach wanted. I didn't realize it was so intense like that. Here, it takes 11 guys to perform one play.
"This year, I'm really in tune with it," said Anderson. "I took a big step forward."
Not knowing what defenses were doing was one reason, said McNabb, that Anderson fumbled 10 times, losing five, in 1998. Three fumbles were because he wore gloves in one game. The others were from "shock," McNabb said, the surprise of the defenses. In '99, Anderson has a better concept of what the defense will do to him. He didn't fumble in spring ball, and he hasn't dropped one so far in fall practices, McNabb said. Anderson devoted countless off-season hours to learning, devouring game films of himself and other top runners. I took a real good look at my running style," he said. "I found little things, like when I bounce outside, change gears and go. Sometimes I would get outside, and I wouldn't accelerate, hit the sideline and go. Or when I hit the middle, look for cutbacks."
In junior college, like the Marines, they just gave him the ball and let him go. At 6-foot and 232 pounds with 4.62-second 40-yard speed and 35.8-inch vertical, few juco players could stop him. Few NCAA Division I players could haul him down last year.
Now they'll have to deal with a big, fast, strong guy who can read his blocks and keys and analyze defenses, too.
"The improvement has been remarkable," said McNabb, who coached Ute greats like Jamal Anderson, Carl Monroe, Eddie Johnson, Del Rodgers and Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala. "He's on the verge of arriving," McNabb said, nodding at the pictures on his wall of those Utah standard-bearers and envisioning Anderson's picture there soon.
"I go out with a goal to be better than what I was yesterday or in the practice before," Anderson said.
McNabb said Anderson has a rare ability to be able to do just that. "From Day 1, he's always wanted to work to get ahead" said McNabb. "He's a positive snowball - very open to suggestion." While watching video, "He can analyze and channel what pertains to him and what has no bearing on his success," McNabb said.
Anderson recalls one of the first times he did that. It was after his very first NCAA game at Utah State. He pulled inside and battered his way into the end zone for his first touchdown. Watching the film later, the light bulb went on: It could have been easier. "My key told me I should have gone outside instead of getting gummed up inside. I scored, but I did it the hard way," said Anderson.
Anderson's learned so well he's almost a coach on the field. "He's taken in a ton of information and can now disseminate and teach it," McNabb said. "He's quick to reinforce the kids on the sidelines."
That's another deliberate change.
Anderson is reserved. "He's not a verbal guy," McNabb said.
But it was his No. 1 goal for '99 to become a leader. "During the off-season, I realized I've got to step up and be a vocal leader," Anderson said. Last year, Anderson felt, "We had some leaders who did more talking than playing." Now that he's a leader, "I'm going to back it up, too," he said.
Anderson's own eyes moisten as he talks about some of the other people whose lives he tries to change. Along with teammates Luis Park and Dennis Smith, the sociology major works with children at Valley Mental Health. Their cases are confidential, but Anderson clearly loves the work. "They look up to us," he said. "We let them know that there are adults that care about them, that everybody is not against them," he said.
Anderson grew up the only son of a single mom, Emily Copeland, in South Carolina. He has an older sister and a younger one. He wanted to play high school football, but the coach equated his size with a lineman, and Mike wanted to run the ball. He played in the band instead. He wanted to go to college but knew the funds weren't available, so he enlisted in the Marines to earn money for school.
He played base football at Camp Pendleton and was recruited by nearby Mount San Jacinto Junior College, and that's where the Utes found him.
Because his mother never saw him play prep football, he talked her and a sister into moving to Utah for his senior year so that she can finally see her son run. And, perhaps because of his own high school experience, Anderson hopes to eventually get into coaching at the prep level, where it's unlikely he would overlook a possible future All-American just because of his size.