With the surprising announcement of Bronco Mendenhall’s departure to Virginia, BYU is in need of a new coach. This coaching search is different from most schools due to it being a religious school owned by the LDS church.
These requirements take the potential pool of candidates down drastically. But there are still a few really solid coaching options for BYU athletics director Tom Holmoe to consider. The dream hire for BYU is Kansas City Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid. It would shock the world if he left the NFL and his $7.5 million annual salary to come to Provo, but fans can hope.
Some candidates who could potentially be interested, but not likely to happen, include Navy’s head man Ken Niumatalolo, but would BYU want the triple option he runs? The Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell would be an interesting choice, but Seahawks’ coach Pete Carroll won’t let him interview. Kyle Whittingham’s name has been mentioned, but for him to leave Utah he would really have to dislike working with the Utes athletics director Chris Hill to take the pay cut that would come with switching teams. A dark horse candidate for the job is Boise State head coach Bryan Harsin, who could switch programs if he feels BYU is a better fit.
This leaves Kalani Sitake, the defensive coordinator for Oregon State, or Stanford’s defensive man Lance Anderson. Sitake was the DC for Whittingham and the Running Utes for five seasons before leaving this year to join former Ute assistant coach Gary Anderson in Corvallis. Sitake did an outstanding job for Utah, but in his first year away from Whittingham, his defense wasn’t super impressive, although the Oregon State football program wasn’t in great shape when he arrived. Sitake would be a fine option and wants the position, but the man for the job is Anderson.
Anderson has been at Stanford, an elite Pac-12 school and a program that is one of the tops in the nation, for nine years and has been critical to its success. He’s also been groomed by Jim Harbaugh, one of the top coaches in all of football. Anderson, who is an Idaho State graduate, met and hit it off with Harbaugh when he was on the staff at St. Mary’s and Harbaugh was with the Oakland Raiders. Harbaugh went after Anderson when he took the University of San Diego job, but Anderson was then with Utah State and turned him down. When Utah State made a coaching change and Anderson was let go, he accepted the next offer to join the staff in San Diego.
When Harbaugh left San Diego for Stanford, Anderson followed him there and served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. When Harbaugh left for the NFL, Anderson remained with Stanford and its new head coach David Shaw. Under Shaw he no longer was in charge of recruiting, but continued to work with the admissions office.
When defensive coordinator Derek Mason left Stanford to be the head coach at Vanderbilt two seasons ago, Anderson received a promotion to be Shaw’s right-hand man on the defensive side of the ball. Shaw said, "He always wore 10 different hats, but when you sat down and talked defense with him, you realized he knows the game inside and out."
In his first season in this position, Stanford’s defense shined. Stanford ranked third in the nation in total defense, first in the PAC-12, and led the conference in every defensive category. Anderson said on his twitter account, “Playing in a conference known for offense, Stanford has shown the nation you can still play great defense.” This past season after losing nine of 11 starters, Stanford’s defense has again been good, ranking third in the conference and 50th nationally, helping the Cardinal win the Pac-12 title and a trip to the Rose Bowl.
What Anderson is known for best is being a great recruiter. "He's always been a phenomenal recruiter, and he's always been a great communicator with the players," Shaw said. According to the Stanford Daily, from 2003-2007, before Harbaugh arrived at Stanford, recruiting ranked around eighth best in the conference. Since then, the Cardinal have ranked fourth on average and have ranked as high as second twice in the past three years. This is with the rigorous academic requirements that Stanford has for recruits. Anderson also was named recruiter of the year by scouts.com in 2012. To heap more praise on Anderson, Harbaugh told the Stanford Daily, “The key guy is Lance Anderson in all of this, above everybody in my opinion, he is the one consistent thread for six years.”
The man can recruit and knows how to do it despite the restrictions. BYU's academic standards may not be as high as those at Stanford, but the Y is still challenging. BYU also has the honor code that makes recruiting more difficult for attracting non-LDS athletes.
Mendenhall did a fine job with recruiting, but BYU could use help in that department if it wants to get to the next level. Since 2011, BYU hasn’t had a recruiting class ranked higher than 54th nationally and has an average ranking of 61st. BYU rival Utah ranks 49th and Stanford ranks 23rd.
Lately, BYU has had a tough time recruiting athletes from within Utah. The top six Utah high school football players for 2015 are currently playing outside of the state. In 2014, four of the top five players left Utah and the next three recruits went to the Utes. In 2013, BYU got the number four ranked recruit, but missed out on the rest of the top eight with the Utes getting four of them.
An article in the Stanford Daily headlined “The Gatekeeper: Lance Anderson and the Redefinition of Stanford Football” says Stanford football would not be where it is today without Anderson. Bruce Feldman, who is a college football writer for Fox Sports, tweeted about Anderson, “Jim Harbaugh is pushing to land Stanford DC Lance Anderson at Michigan, per source. Anderson has been invaluable in building that program.” Anderson is wanted by one of the top coaches in football and has a reputation for being invaluable to a program. BYU needs to do everything in its power to land Anderson and should be number one on Holmoe’s short list of coaching candidates.
If Anderson can come in and elevate the level of recruiting for BYU, like he did at Stanford, and continue to coach at the level he is at now, he will be the key to helping BYU join a "Power Five" conference, something BYU wants and needs in the worst way.
Follow Kincade on Twitter @kincade12 or email him at kupstill12@gmail.com