There is no place in the world like BYU. It is unique and different than any other school. I can sell what it offers. – Justin Anderson
He’s back.
His office is clean. Just how it should be when on the new job a few days. There are no stacks of paper, cases of athlete highlight DVDs laying around or photographs plastered on walls. He confesses he’s still filling out his calendar and examining BYU’s football recruiting spreadsheets after arriving from Cajun country in Louisiana.
Justin Anderson is the man hired to direct BYU football recruiting and is the team’s director of personnel. He is no stranger to how the game is played in Provo.
But he will need a few more days to get to top-end efficiency.
Part of the reason is the dang media. Within days of arriving on campus, Anderson had interviews with me and ESPN960 radio Thursday, KSL Sports Saturday and he'll be on BYU-TV SportsNation Monday. Everyone wants a piece of him.
I joked with Anderson that this is more interviews in one week than he had as a receiver during his BYU career. “I think you’re right,” he laughed.
And he confirmed why the attention now. “Recruiting is the most important aspect of any football program. It’s what makes everything work and it’s why you succeed,” he said.
Anderson comes to BYU from Nicholls State in Thibodaux, Louisiana, where, since 2010, he was assistant head coach, pass game coordinator and coach of receivers and tight ends for Charlie Stubbs. Anderson gained extensive exposure to football in the South. He saw firsthand how recruiters in the SEC plied their craft, how life and death serious it was.
He welcomes the BYU challenge.
“There is no place in the world like BYU. It is unique and different than any other school,” he said. “I can sell what it offers.”
Anderson called it “shocking” how much turnover BYU has on its roster every year due to LDS mission transitions, regular graduation attrition and how an athletic scholarship could be tied up for seven years.
But Anderson is eager to jump on the hamster wheel and run. He recognizes his role is critical and that he must have more hits than misses.
Anderson is well acquainted with challenges the Cougars face in making their pitch to prospects. Having grown up in Utah County and starring at Orem High, he then played for the Cougars during the transition of LaVell Edwards to Gary Crowton and later coached as a graduate assistant for Bronco Mendenhall.
With the Anderson hire, it appears Mendenhall wanted an experienced football coach to take over a job vacated by Geoff Martzen, who left for Colorado State after February's signing day.
Director of football operations Zach Nyborg ended a one-year stay at BYU to go to Oregon State Dec. 22, 2014, and was replaced by Patrick Hickman.
A 2002 BYU graduate, Anderson was the offensive coordinator for his brother Tyler at Harmony High in St. Cloud, Florida. As a graduate assistant coach at BYU from 2008 to 2010, Anderson coached the defensive and offensive lines and operated camps before going to Louisiana as a full-time college coach.
He comes to BYU as an NCAA certified recruiter at a program that just recently took that responsibility away from a full-time assistant coach and tossed it to administrators.
That Anderson has sweated it out through 12- or 15-hour days looking at film and developing game plans is something Mendenhall respects. It helps that Anderson has family in town and wants his parents to know their grandchildren.
His wife is from Louisiana and remains in Thibodaux where she will deliver their sixth child. When I heard that, I asked if he was in a posterity race with former teammate Reno Mahe whose wife is expecting No. 8.
“No, there’s no competition going on,” he said.
“Jason is the perfect hire,” Mahe said. “He brings experience that is unique for the job. He has been all over the country and has great communication skills. He can speak the language that is crucial for recruiting all different types of kids.”
Anderson says his experience, knowledge of BYU and familiarity and contacts from Florida, Alabama and Louisiana to Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and Georgia, as well as his home state of Utah, gives him value for Mendenhall’s plans. He understands Mormons and he relates to those who are not of the faith. He believes his experience as an LDS bishop and a lifetime of working with youth in and out of sports are positives he plans to use with the new job.
“As they say at LSU, you have to win your state,” he said when asked about recruiting locally. “We need to sign the best players locally that want to be part of BYU and what it offers.”
Anderson said he is the “first line of defense” in recruiting. He will filter through highlight videos, coordinate recruiting visits on campus and fix schedules for Mendenhall’s staff to get out to assigned regions for evaluations and home visits. Right now, he is directing unofficial campus visits.
Anderson’s wife, Anne, children Dakota, Kenedi, Rubee, Peyton, Jayce and the new baby will migrate to Utah County when his kids finish their school year. In the meantime, he’s living in a Provo hotel room.
In coming days, his office will collect “stuff” and the walls will begin to be covered.
He might even know exactly how many scholarships BYU can give in 2015 and how many asterisks will go alongside the names of prospects who enter a time warp of church service before, during or after donning pads.
“I love it. I’m grateful and anxious to work with Bronco and a great group of coaches,” said Anderson.
Now, if only the media menace subsides, he can break down some video.
Even Obama didn’t have this many interviews in Utah.
Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com.