We’ve been analyzing the hire of Gary Andersen, who has been confirmed to be in Madison already, over the past 24 hours or so from a Badgers perspective, but what do we know that fans and writers of Utah State couldn’t tell us in their own words, right?
So, with that in mind we asked a friend of this site, Matt Sonnenberg, of The Sagebrush Spot to give us his impressions on Gary Andersen and what we should expect and know about him. We covered a number of topics, so let’s get right into it.
Here are the thoughts of Sonnenberg in regards to Coach Anderson:
Gary Andersen is a coach who can inspire excitement like I’ve never seen before. His charisma is off the charts, and he uses it to motivate players and fans to believe in the program and everything they’re capable of.
When it comes to coaching, he’s always said that nobody will outwork them or be better prepared. I’ve always felt he’s delivered on that promise, as evidenced by his teams regularly threatening to knock off powerhouse programs like Oklahoma, Auburn, and Wisconsin over the past few years. And all of that was with talent that is nowhere near the level of recruits that the likes of those schools are able to pull in. He gets the most out of all of his players and is spectacular at spotting talent others might have overlooked, evidenced by the top three tacklers on the 2012 Utah State team all being former walk-ons.
In his time at Utah State, we’ve pretty much learned to just trust him when it comes to recruits. He’s going to find quality players to plug in all over the field who are able to make plays and win football games.
The reaction of the players has been interesting to see over here. Most of them heard the news through the media, which Andersen clearly had hoped would not be the case. There was shock, awe, disappointment, and anger.
But throughout the night on Tuesday, Andersen called each player to talk to them, and their reactions after that throughout Twitter were all loving and supportive. It speaks to just how much his players truly do love the guy and appreciate what he does for them. They’re still obviously saddened by the news, but after the phones calls came, you could tell there was a new sense of optimism among them.
Thanks to Matt for his insight into Andersen as a coach and a person and we wish the Aggies nothing but the best as they move on to a new era as well – kinda hard not to as just two weeks ago we were all blindsided by Bielema leaving for Arkansas ourselves.
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