Red Hot

Two completely different coaches, Sanders and Elliott are walking similar paths as future head coaches
by: Richard Scott
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RANDY SANDERS

Most first-time college football coordinators get their new jobs in the offseason, with plenty of time to prepare for spring practice, more time to teach in the spring and then even more time to work toward the coming season. If they’re really fortunate, they’ll open the season against East Bugtussle State Teachers College so they can work out some of the kinks before it’s time to take on a more formidable opponent.

And then there’s Randy Sanders, who became Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in early December, 1998 when David Cutcliffe left to become the head coach at Ole Miss just weeks before the Vols were scheduled to play Florida State for the national championship in the Fiesta Bowl. In all honesty, Sanders will admit he was too busy working to be overwhelmed or intimidated by his new job or the pressure that accompanied it. To keep things as normal as possible and make the most of his opportunity, he stayed on East Coast time when the team traveled to Arizona, waking up between 3 and 4 a.m. each day to review tape and work on the game plan.

“It was a completely new experience, but your concerns are putting the game together and calling the plays,” Sanders says. “The biggest obligation I had was to that team, to that group of young men who had worked so hard to get into that position. I just wanted to do everything I possibly could to put them in a position to be successful. I felt more pressure from that standpoint than anything else - to live up to my responsibilities to those kids.”

Sanders lived up to those expectations, and it showed on the scoreboard. The Vols beat the Seminoles 23-16 with a collective team effort, and the offense did its part with two TD passes and an effective game plan against a stout FSU defense.

At the time, Sanders was just thankful the Vols won. As time went by, however, he also came to see the way head coach Phillip Fulmer handled the situation as “The greatest compliment I’ve ever been paid in my whole life.”

“Here we are getting ready to play in the national championship game and Coach Fulmer names me the offensive coordinator and then turns the play over to me,” Sanders says. “Not one time did he ever suggest a play or call a play. He wanted to know what was going on of course, but it would have been very easy for him to take over and call that game because of his experience as an offensive coordinator before he became a head coach.

“The fact that he turned the offense over to me, what that meant, didn’t really hit me at the time, but afterwards, going back and looking at it, that was a tremendous vote of confidence and trust that, if anything, made me want to go back and work that much harder for him.”

Sanders has continued to work hard as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator, and that shows in his rising stock as a potential head coaching candidate. In a survey of college coaches, Sanders was frequently mentioned as someone who will be considered for future head coach opportunities.

If Sanders were to become a head coach, he would be the fourth consecutive Tennessee offensive coordinator to become a head coach. University of Pittsburgh head coach Walt Harris ran the Vols’ offense from 1983-88; Fulmer took over and directed the offense from 1989-92 before replacing Johnny Majors as Tennessee’s head coach; and Cutcliffe served as Fulmer’s offensive coordinator from 1993-98.

It’s a tradition that Sanders takes seriously. After all, he played quarterback for Majors at Tennessee from 1985-88, became a graduate assistant coach under Majors in 1989-90, became a full-time coach under Majors in 1991, stayed on with Fulmer and continued to learn from both Fulmer and Cutcliffe.

“I’m really appreciative of Coach Fulmer and what it’s like to work for him,” Sanders says. “He’s really been invaluable to me. Coach Cutcliffe was invaluable to me, too, as a mentor. He trained me to be an offensive coordinator in a lot of ways. He let me know what to expect.

“Everybody thinks this job is just putting a game plan together and calling plays, but it’s as much about managing people and the rest of your staff as it is about calling plays. Without those guys there’s no way I’d be where I’m at.”

Coaching with Fulmer and Cutcliffe not only prepared Sanders to become an offensive coordinator, it also put him on the path toward becoming a head coach. The Vols have gone 29-9 since Sanders took over as offensive coordinator, and he’s had the opportunity coach standouts such as quarterbacks Tee Martin and Casey Clausen, receivers Peerless Price, Donte Stallworth and Kelley Washington and running backs Travis Henry and Travis Stephens.

“Being the offensive coordinator at Tennessee is one of the best jobs in the country for an assistant coach,” Sanders says. “There are some others that are as good, but I don’t think there are any out there that are better. Of course I might be a little partial being a Tennessee graduate, but being the offensive coordinator here is awfully special, especially when you look at the people who had this job before me.”

It also helps to perform on a national stage, coaching a program that makes an annual habit of playing for the Southeastern Conference and national championships. Playing and coaching a high-powered offense in the spotlight helped Cutcliffe, just as it helped several other current head coaches, including Georgia coach Mark Richt, Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez and Kansas coach Mark Mangino.

“Because of our recruiting base being nationwide and because of the success we’ve had on a national scale, that brings a lot of attention to our program, so this is a fairly high-profile job,” Sanders says. “Becoming a head coach, that’s obviously the dream, to hope that something like that happens. At the same time, I’m in a great situation here. I love the job I have and at this point I’m much more concerned about doing the job I have than any job that may be out there in the future.”

If Sanders was looking to get out of Tennessee, he’d have left when he was a little-used quarterback from nearby Morristown, Tenn. Between injuries and the presence of other talented quarterbacks, Sanders never saw the playing time he had hoped for, but he did use that time to learn as much as he could about the game itself and work on academics. After earning SEC Academic All-Star honors four consecutive years and graduating after four years, Sanders decided it was time to move on instead of returning for his senior season. But when injuries and other problems hurt Tennessee’s depth at quarterback, Sanders’ career path took a turn in the right direction.

“I was sitting home laying on the couch at my parent’s house, taking a nap between rounds of golf,” Sanders says, “and the phone rang and it was Coach Majors calling asking me if I would be the backup quarterback until he could get one of the younger guys ready.”

Instead of brooding about the lack of playing time or wasting his senior season, Sanders used it as a chance to jumpstart his coaching career.

“One of the reasons why I came back was to be a coach and get my foot in the door,” Sanders says. “Coach Majors was awfully good to me to give me the opportunity to coach.

“I think it all depends on what you make of it. We’re all a collection of our experiences. My playing days at Tennessee may not have been what I dreamed of, but I think they provided me with a lot of experiences that have helped me as a coach.

“A lot of times not being the star player in college can make you a better coach because you understand what 80 percent of your team is going through. I’ve sat through that meeting when the coaches told me I wasn’t going to be the starter and someone else was. When I sit there with the quarterbacks and we’re going through a race to decide the starting quarterback, I know what all the guys are going through.”

His entire career has offered one valuable experience after another. After coaching the wide receivers for two seasons, Sanders then coached the running backs and coordinated Tennessee’s recruiting efforts from 1994-98. When he became the offensive coordinator, he took on the quarterbacks and gave up the title of recruiting coordinator.

Add it all up, and it’s a well-rounded resume of experience for a 36-year-old assistant coach.

“Coaching the other positions has helped me know what to expect from those positions,” Sanders says. “I know when we start putting in plays or putting together a game plan, I know what our receivers can and can’t do. I understand what’s easy for them to pick up on and what’s tough for them to pick up on. Having worked with the running backs, I was also really involved with what was going on with the offensive line and the blocking schemes, so I think I understand the running backs.

“I feel like all that makes it a little easier to put in a plan that is workable, something the kids understand and we can go out and execute well. It doesn’t matter how many plays you have, if you don’t run them well you’re not going to win.”

The opportunity to coach with one successful program for 12 seasons also carries its share of positives.

“It’s been a blessing in a lot of ways,” Sanders says. “There aren’t many people coaching at a school like Tennessee that have never been anywhere else. Usually you have to go somewhere else and prove yourself and gain experience. I was really fortunate to get the opportunities I’ve had from Coach Majors and Coach Fulmer.

“I’ve been here awhile, so I know how things work here. I know pretty much everyone in the administration, and they know me and I haven’t had to learn who’s who. I know the traditions. I know the following. I know the expectations and everything that comes with coaching here.”

On the negative side, there’s always the concern that someone in the hiring process will wonder if Sanders knows any other way than the Tennessee way. That’s one reason why he’s continued to study other programs and other coaches, keeping his eyes and ears open for new ideas that allow him to think outside the Tennessee box.

“You have to fight the perception a little bit, that ‘all he’s ever known is Tennessee,’ “ Sanders says. “You also have to fight the perception of ‘will he ever leave?’

“I’ve had people in the past say ‘hey, we started to call you about a job we had open but we didn’t think you would leave since you’ve been at Tennessee so long.’

“But as long as I get the opportunity to be at Tennessee, I’ll take those negatives any day. I’m still only 36 years old and I want to be a head coach, that’s my goal, but I’m not in such a big hurry to be a head coach that I’m going to be pick a job where you don’t have a good chance to be successful. That might change in four to five years, but right now I’m sitting back being picky and enjoying what I do here at Tennessee.”

BOB ELLIOT

Bob Elliott has won a few and lost a few. He's coached championship teams, and teams that struggled to win. He’s coached all-Americans, and players who will barely be remember by anyone but their position coach and teammates. He’s lived and worked with outstanding coaches, and with coaches who won’t exactly go down in history.

He’s learned a lot of important lessons along the way, and not just the kind of lessons that apply to the film room or meeting room, on the practice field or on the sidelines on Saturdays. He’s learned from his father, legendary Michigan coach and athletic director Bump Elliott, his former boss, Iowa coach Hayden Fry, as well as current Iowa State coach Dan McCarney and former Iowa State coach Donnie Duncan.

For all the he’s learned, though, some of the most valuable lessons in his life may have emerged from a life-threatening blood disorder called polycythemia vera. The disorder, first diagnosed in 1998, required a bone marrow transplant and forced him to miss the 1999 football season. Then, after McCarney gave him a chance to return to football in 2000, Elliott experienced a relapse of sorts last summer when traces of the cancer returned and forced him to undergo more treatments to wipe out the cancer cells.

But here he is, at age 48, healthy again and ready, willing and able to coach, taking on new challenges and opportunities as the defensive coordinator at Kansas State, and working everyday to apply the lessons he learned from his fight with cancer.

“You spend your whole career as a young coach trying to build a resume and trying to move into positions that will get you ready to assume the leadership or a program, and you dream about those things,” Elliott says, “but sometimes you think so much about the future that you forget about what’s going on around you, right there in the moment, with your family, with the players you coach.

“When you have a crisis in your life, whether it’s with yourself or someone in your family or someone you care about it, it shakes you a little bit and reminds you of the things that are really important. It reminds you of why we’re in coaching – not to try and move up the ladder and get your own program and make a lot of money. If those are the reasons why you’re in it, then you’re in it for the wrong reasons and you won’t last long.

“The fundamentals of coaching are the players and developing those relationships and knowing you helped these kids become men. That’s what really resulted from the illness. All of my former players got back in touch and I’ve had great contact with all those guys since. It was an overwhelming positive experience to realize that I had touched so many lives over the years when sometimes you forget that because you’re so busy just doing your job.”

None of this new perspective should even begin to hint that Elliott has lost his desire, hunger, intensity or ambition. If anything, he’s never been more certain of what he wants and what he hopes to accomplish.

If that means winning so many games at Kansas State and doing an excellent job with the Wildcat defenses that athletic directors notice and come calling when head coaching jobs become available, that’s fine with Elliott. But if they don’t call, Elliott doesn’t plan on wasting his time worrying about something he can’t control.

Still, it’s easy for Elliott to recall a time in his career when becoming a head coach seemed like more of a question of “when” or “where,” rather than “if.” Elliott was a hot assistant coach at Iowa, working for Fry for 12 years, serving as defensive coordinator from 1996-98, assistant head coach in 1998 and waiting for the right job to come along. The best opportunity appeared to be right down the hall, with Fry preparing to retire and Elliott emerging as a popular candidate for the job.

Around that same time his health took a turn for the worse and before he could really make a run at the job it went to current Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz.

“I stayed at Iowa for a long time, and Iowa is my alma mater and my home, and I stayed at Iowa in part because of that (the opportunity to follow Fry),” Elliott says. “I was with Hayden for 11 years and partly because I felt like if I did my job well and we were successful that I might have a chance to compete for that job when it came available. It’s funny how things turn and it got awfully close to that, but it didn’t happen.”

Maybe it was the illness. Maybe it wasn’t. Elliott will never know. What he does know is that the time he spent away from the game, including the year he spent as an assistant to the athletic director, helped him realize how much he wanted to coach again.

Elliott got that choice when his former college teammate, McCarney, hired him at Iowa State as the associate head coach, secondary coach and special teams coordinator before the 2000 season. The move paid off immediately for everyone involved as the Iowa State secondary intercepted 10 passes on a team that won nine games and gave the program its first bowl trip since 1978. Then, just to prove the Cyclones weren’t a one-hit wonder, a younger, less experienced team won seven games and earned another bowl invitation.

Soon after, an old friend came calling with another offer. Elliott wasn’t looking to leave Iowa State or McCarney, but K-State coach Bill Snyder, a former Iowa assistant, wanted Elliott to be his defensive co-coordinator.

As the co-coordinator, a job he will share with former Iowa linebackers coach Bret Bielema, Elliott follows in the accomplished footsteps of some outstanding defensive coaches.

Jim Leavitt left Kansas State to become the first head coach at South Florida, a program on the rise in Division I-A. Bob Stoops left to become the defensive coordinator at Florida, helped the Gators win a national championship, then became the head coach at Oklahoma and led the Sooners to the national championship. Mike Stoops left K-State to become the defensive coordinator for his brother at Oklahoma, and remains a hot candidate for a head coaching opportunity. Veteran coach Bob Cope died on the job, but not before making a profound impact on the program with his coaching and his life. Phil Bennett took over, kept K-State’s outstanding defensive tradition moving in the right direction, and became the head coach at Southern Methodist last December.

Now it’s Elliott’s chance to run the defense, with help with Bielema, and his turn to sustain that tradition and possibly turn it into a head coaching opportunity.

“I don’t even think about it that way,” Elliott says. “I know most of those guys. Bobby Stoops, I coached him at Iowa. Mike Stoops played for us at Iowa and he was a graduate assistant after that. I’ve known Phil Bennett forever.

“Those guys are good guys and they’ve earned everything they’ve ever had, but I never really came into this position feeling like this was a tradition of defensive coordinators I had to follow. Those guys have all been successful and established a high standard of success at Kansas State, but that wasn’t the attraction for me. My concern is just moving forward and building on that and being as good as we can be this year.”

At the same time, Elliott is fully aware that success in his current position could lead to other opportunities down the road.

“I will say one of the reasons I came to Kansas State was to have a chance to lead the defense, and to play on a national stage for high stakes,” Elliott says. “That’s something you’re always looking for. Not that we weren’t playing for higher stakes where I was, but this gave me a chance to play for really big stakes in meaningful games on the national stage.”

Elliott also came to Kansas State because of his health, but not for the same reason sick people change climates. Elliott wasn’t looking for more sunshine, gentler weather, better doctors or a higher level of medical attention in Manhattan, Kan. Instead, he came looking for a stronger test of his mettle and a chance to prove a point.

Snyder’s well-earned reputation as a tireless worker and demanding boss will not only push Elliott, but it will prove to prospective employers that Elliott is healthy enough to handle the work load and the stress that comes with it.

“Another reason I came to Kansas State is to put another nail in that coffin,” Elliott says of speculation regarding his health. “I’ve been working two years at Iowa State, in the daily grind of coaching, but if there’s any place in America where you’re tested physically and mentally, it’s at Kansas State.

“Coach Snyder sets standards of work ethic that are unmatched in college football, and maybe even pro football, so if you can handle the strain at Kansas State as the defensive coordinator I don’t think there’s any question that you can do it in any position with any program at any level.”

There’s no doubt Elliott would like the chance to prove that at some point. When he ponders the coaching market over the past few years, he sees a lot of younger coaches, most of them with offensive backgrounds, getting the calls to be head coaches. He also sees a lot of athletic directors who’ve fallen in love with pop and pizzazz in many of those hires, but he can’t help but be thankful and more hopeful when he sees someone like Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen finally get the chance to be a head coach and then experience immediate success, or when someone solid like Tyrone Willingham or Jim Tressel get a shot to coach at a premier program such as Notre Dame or Ohio State.

In coaches such as Friedgen, Willingham and Tressel, Elliott sees substance over style, solid over sizzle. He sees the window of opportunity open a little wider to showcase his similar traits and experiences. He sees a chance to build on the lessons he learned from his father and Fry. He sees a chance that perhaps didn’t exist three or four years ago, at least not as vividly as it does today.

“I’ve been around the administrative part of this business, through my father and also through some of the jobs I had at the University of Iowa, and I think I see a change in what they’re looking for in a head coach,” Elliott says. “I think they want solid people. I think they want substance. I think the things I’ve been through have given me more substance than a lot of the young guys coming up.

“In my career I’ve seen a lot of coaches ascend and become head coaches, and I feel like I can do the things a lot of those coaches have done. I feel competitive in that respect and I’d like a shot to see if my ideas would work. I believe they would. I believe the ideas I have about coaching football and running a program are sound and solid and based on the people I’ve worked for and with.

“I believe I still have a lot to offer and as long as there’s an opportunity and a chance, I’ll keep working. That’s one of the reasons I came to Kansas State - to keep that dream alive and hope that somehow, someway I’ll get a chance do the things I’ve dreamed about for a long time.”

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