Different backgrounds, same goals
August 10, 2014 | Football
 | ||
|
Aug. 10, 2014
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com
O
n the surface, they would appear to have little in common.
Keegan Andersen is 23, a three-year letterwinner at Utah State and a newlywed.
Cory Hall is 37, a six-year NFL veteran and married with four kids, ages 15 to 11 months.
So what is their common denominator?
Wisconsin football.
Both are first-year graduate assistants on UW head coach Gary Andersen's staff.
And both are driven by their passion for the sport, even at an entry level position.
But how long are they willing to make the necessary sacrifices to succeed in the profession.
"I'm liking it so far,'' said Andersen.
"I'm in it for the long haul,'' vowed Hall.
Both are following their heart.
• • • •
"G
rowing up with my dad being a coach, it kind of pushed me (in this direction),'' said Keegan Andersen, the oldest of Gary and Stacey Andersen's three sons. "Everybody wants to be like their dad. I want to be able to change kid's lives like he has and coaching is the way to do it.''
After helping lead Juan Diego (Utah) High School to its second consecutive state championship, Keegan Andersen joined his dad at Utah State in 2010. Gary Andersen was entering his second season as the head coach of the program, while Keegan Andersen, a tight end, redshirted as a freshman.
"And it (coaching) was in the back of my head,'' Keegan said. "No one knows when they go to college what they want to do. I went there thinking I was going to do business and then I changed my mind. As I got older, I liked teaching the younger guys more and more.''
That planted the seed that "I should at least try to see if I like coaching'' at some point. And he was smart enough to see that it might be a fit. Andersen was named Academic All-WAC/Mountain West in each of his three season of competition at Utah State (2011, 2012 and 2013).
In 2013, he started nine games for head coach Matt Wells, who took over the program after Gary Andersen left for Wisconsin. Keegan Andersen finished with 14 catches and three touchdowns while functioning primarily as an H-Back in an offense that lost starting quarterback Chuckie Keeton midway through the season when he blew out his ACL and MCL against BYU.
"Our team rallied back to overcome adversity,'' Andersen said.
Indeed. The Aggies, minus Keeton, still ended up with nine wins on the season by winning six of their last eight games, including a 21-14 decision over Northern Illinois in the Poinsettia Bowl. Andersen caught one pass in what would be his final college outing. Even though he had one year of eligibility remaining, he decided that it was time to move on and get into coaching.
"I got my degree and I was happy with where I was at,'' said Keegan Andersen, who graduated from Utah State in the fall of 2013 with a degree in interdisciplinary studies. "My body was also saying `no' (to another year of football) because I had gained so much weight.''
His playing weight was around 235. When he got on campus this summer, he was down to 215. Not only has he changed his eating habits, but there have been some other changes in his life, too. Six weeks ago, Keegan Andersen and Jennifer Turnerdrown got married in Maui. She just got a job in Madison, he said, and is planning on waiting a little bit before going back to school in nursing.
As part of his coaching internship this semester, Keegan Andersen is working towards his masters in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at Wisconsin. "My dad has always pushed me to get my schooling even if I don't progress into coaching,'' he said.
So what was it like playing for his dad at Utah State? "It was awesome,'' Keegan Andersen said. "He treated me just like he would treat anybody else. And he treats everyone like they're one of his own kids. I had no favoritism. I probably got it harder than most players.''
In addition to his head coaching responsibilities this season, Gary Andersen is handling a position group during practice; he's coaching the boundary linebackers and Keegan is his GA.
"It's good to get a different perspective (on the game),'' Keegan Andersen said. "I'm still learning the (linebacker) techniques. But as far as the playbook, it's a lot easier than learning an offense. I know my dad loves it (coaching a position). He told me the other night that he was coaching again because it makes him feel that he's helping kids on the field, he's more involved.''
The influence that his dad has had on young people has been one of the reasons why Keegan Andersen wanted to get into coaching. "Being under him as a player (at Utah State), I've seen him change kid's lives from all over (the country),'' he reiterated.
| "He (Keegan) has always talked about coaching," Chasen said. "I think he'll be a good coach. He knows his stuff, he's smart. " |
Chasen Andersen has seen the same thing as a coach's kid; one of Gary and Stacey's kids; one of the twins: Chasen is a 5-foot-11, 221-pound freshman inside linebacker at Wisconsin, while Hagen is a freshman wide receiver at Weber State.
"I think he (Hagen) wanted to go start his own little legacy there,'' said Chasen Andersen. "He has been my best friend my whole life; my right-hand man. Now I go home and he's not there. It's hard at times, I miss having him around. But I know he's bettering himself and I'm bettering myself here.''
Plus, big brother will now be watching.
"He (Keegan) has always talked about coaching,'' Chasen said. "He has grown up with football and it's the one thing that he really knows. So I knew that he was going to coach to see if he liked it or not. I think he'll be a good coach. He knows his stuff, he's smart.''
Chasen Andersen is finally healthy again after blowing out his knee on the first play of his first game during his senior year of high school football in Logan, Utah. "I felt I came through it pretty clean,'' said Andersen, who was originally headed to BYU before rerouting to the UW, "and I was lucky how I recovered.''
Keegan Andersen, for one, knows what his younger brother can do on the playing field. "He (Chasen) led the state in tackles during his junior year and he was explosive,'' he said. "Once he gets comfortable with the playbook, he'll be fun to watch. He's already gotten a lot better since the spring.''
Any advice he would offer Chasen about playing for Gary Andersen? "He'll get all the players calling him `Little Gary' and `Baby Gary' and all of that stuff, but it's all in fun,'' Keegan Andersen said. "In public, it's different (being the coach's kid) because you have to watch what you say because people know who you are. But being a student-athlete, you have to watch what you say anyway.''
That didn't deter Chasen Andersen from wanting to play for his dad. "I've seen him have so much success in coaching that it makes me want to play for him,'' he said. "It's easy for me to come here (Wisconsin) knowing that I'm going to be good hands and I'm going to get a shot to show my talent.''
So what was the one thing that Keegan Andersen took from his player-coach-dad relationship? He really didn't need to answer. All he had to do was point to his wrist bands; one was from Utah State, the other from Wisconsin. Both had the same Gary Andersen message: "Players win games, Players make plays.''
• • • •
C
ory Hall made a lot of plays as a defensive back at Fresno State - he made enough plays, in fact, to be selected by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 1999 NFL draft. He was the 65th player taken overall and he didn't disappoint. He earned a starting job at safety as a rookie.
In 2002, Hall ended up as the defense's fourth-leading tackler behind Takeo Spikes, Brian Simmons and Artrell Hawkins. But his season was cut short in mid-December when he tore the labrum in his shoulder during a game against Jacksonville. Playing hurt, he still recorded two sacks.
"Cory Hall is to be saluted for the effort he gave in that game,'' Bengals coach Dick LeBeau said afterward. "He refused to come out of the game in several instances. Cory had a pretty tough injury but he just hung in there and played and played pretty well.''
During the off-season, Hall signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Falcons. He played two more seasons in the league before reaching a career crossroads. After being released by the Falcons, he signed a one-year deal with the Washington Redskins. But his heart wasn't into playing anymore.
So he followed his heart into coaching, what else?
"I got a call from Washington State to get into coaching as a student assistant and to finish my undergraduate degree,'' Hall said. "I always wanted to coach, even when I was in college. And I knew the path was to accumulate a wealth of knowledge as far as the game of football and I knew the path led through the NFL (as a player).
"I wouldn't exchange any experience I had because I learned from everything. There was nothing I regretted. I always said that I wanted to do four years (an NFL player), just like a college term, plus two extra years. And that's what I got, six years.
"Once you leave such a platform like the NFL, you think you kind of know everything. But you quickly figure out how much you still have to learn. That's the one thing about becoming a great coach - you never stop learning. And that's what each day has been for me.''
In 2009, Hall became the junior varsity coach at Clovis North High School in Fresno, Calif. Soon thereafter he was tabbed as the varsity head coach and, again, he didn't disappoint. During his three years on the sidelines, he led Clovis North to a 34-6 record.
"I never intended to be a high school coach; it was just something that happened,'' said Hall, a native of Bakersfield, Calif. "When I retired from the NFL, I wanted to coach on the collegiate level. I thought I had an opportunity at Fresno State but as you know the Pat Hill regime came to a screeching halt, so I got with a high school program at Clovis North. My layover flight (as a prep coach) lasted a little longer than expected."
Hall thought so much of his former head coach Hill that along with his business partner Terrance Frazier, they made a major gift of $100,000 to the Bulldog Foundation in support of the operating budget of Fresno State athletics in 2008. The school moved in another direction in 2011 and fired Hill. Hall also moved in another direction, leaving Clovis North, bound and determined to land a college job.
And that led him to Madison through a connection with UW offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig. "I love working with young athletes,'' Hall said, "and giving back to these young talented players before they go on to the NFL. Once I've hit that plateau or maturity level (as a coach) and I'm ready to tackle the NFL, I plan on tackling it and I plan on tackling it in a high capacity."
That's his goal - to return to the NFL as a coach - and being a graduate assistant at a college program like Wisconsin is a stepping stone. "I love Coach Andersen,'' said Hall, who's working with the defensive backs. "He's the ultimate player's coach. I would have loved to have played for a coach like Coach Andersen. I would have given him the shirt off my back."
Hall has done well outside of football. He has a partnership in a construction firm in Fresno. "But I really just want to coach," said Hall, whose wife Sarah and their four kids will continue to live in Los Angeles while he's here toiling as a GA. "They've supported my dream; they've supported what I set out to do. I have a football family and that has inspired me to be great."
Cory Hall and Keegan Andersen really do have much in common.
