PULLMAN — First-year Oregon State coach Gary Andersen may be new to the Pac-12, but he’s no stranger to the Washington State football staff, or the Cougars quarterback.
Andersen, who played center on the offensive line in college, developed his chops as a defensive coach at Utah, working his way up to defensive coordinator before leaving to take the head coaching position at Utah State in 2009, a little more than a year before the Utes joined the Pac-12.
At USU, Andersen’s teams twice played Nevada squads that had current WSU assistants Ken Wilson and Jim Mastro on the coaching staff. Mastro remembers those games, both Nevada wins, as hard-fought affairs against a coach who by then had established an entirely defensive mentality.
“His defenses always played hard, always had a good plan for us,” Mastro said. “His kids play hard, he’s a good coach and you can see them getting better.”
Andersen once played in Martin Stadium when he was playing for the Utes, although he says he barely remembers it.
But he sure remembers WSU quarterback Luke Falk, who played on the Logan High football team with Andersen’s twin sons, Chase and Hagen, winning a state championship together in 2011.
The Andersens and Falks frequented each other’s houses in those days, and the OSU coach has had a unique perspective from which to watch Falk’s journey from unheralded recruit in Utah to Pac-12 starting quarterback.
“He’s a great kid. I love him,” Andersen told the Oregonian’s Gina Mizell. “He’s fought to get where he is. He’s a great story…nobody gave him a chance and he’s a self-made guy. Coach (Mike) Leach gave him an opportunity and, boy, has he made the best of that opportunity.
“It’s one of the best stories in college football, I would say, out there right now.”
Tough, aggressive defenses were touchstones of Andersen’s teams at USU and Wisconsin, where he coached until last season. The Beavers are loaded with defensive coaching knowledge after poaching defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake, one of the conference’s most respected defensive minds, away from Utah in the offseason.
And while WSU’s offensive coaches are familiar with Andersen and Sitake, OSU’s 2015 schedule hasn’t helped much in terms of scouting.
“It’s hard to tell right now because they haven’t really faced a team like us,” said offensive line coach Clay McGuire. “They’ve played a lot of big-set, run (oriented) teams. Downhill, smash-mouth football teams, so we’re curious what we’re going to get.”
The style of their opponents is likely a reason the Beavers rank last in the conference with just six sacks despite the fact that Leach said earlier this week the Beavers bring more heat than any defense WSU has faced this year.
Falk has been sacked seven times in consecutive weeks and if the Beavers bring heat and the WSU offense doesn’t do a better job of preventing the defense from getting to Falk, OSU could double its season sack total on Wednesday.
Where Andersen’s influence has shown up in the OSU defense is on third downs, where the Beavers are the best in the conference, allowing a conversion on just 34.3 percent of their opponents’ third-down attempts. The Beavers are tied with WSU for second in the Pac-12 on fourth-down conversions, giving up a first down 33 percent of the time.
“They’re very aggressive, a very aggressive defense,” Leach said. “They run to the ball. Everybody runs to the ball.”
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