Any old timers remember Dick Anderson

[beaced]

and the coach of Florida was.......?
Galen Hall was Dick Andersons teammate (might have been his roomate) in the early 60's at Penn State.
That game nearly cost him his job.

Hall pulled Kerwin Bell,QB, after he had a nice lead. RU came back and should have won the game.

 

[beaced]

Anderson got fired for one reason: 2-7-2 in Year 6.

His teams did very well in the first half of the season. Those .500 years you see matched up with my years there. He would start 4-2, 5-2-1 and wind up 5-6, 6-5, 5-5-1. Depth, obviously. But he did have WTF games early, too. Beating Michigan State (without Tony Mandarich, but still ...) and Penn State (their worst team in forever, but still ...) was sandwiched around losing to Vandy at Giants Stadium.

Anderson was a pretty solid guy, but two things about him pissed me off. First, trailing Army 24-0, first play of the second half is a run up the middle. You could hear Giants Stadium sigh. I could hear Anderson saying, "We like to have a good mix."

Second thing was bigger -- after that drunk-driving crash that killed Bob Lowther and injured Bob Speidel and Paul Garea (sp?), he was asked about Speidel's status on NJN. He could have given coach-speak. He could have lied. He could have told the truth, that it was a university matter. But no, he just walked off the camera. At a university that had a fraternity pledge die in February, you won't answer a question about a player who was driving drunk and killed a teammate? As if there wouldn't be some kind of punishment after more than a dozen frat brothers got hit hard?

His "he's a solid guy" image disappeared to me that day. The 2-7-2 made it easy. But he was competent, which we don't have now.

He also squibbed kicked to Army,at the Point,in '85,next game after the Florida tie. Gave them the ball at around midfield. They were a ground eating option team even then and took advantage of the gift field position all day.Even with that we still could have beaten them expect for a dropped TD pass,right in front of me in the end zone.Not the best seat in the house.

 

[megadrone]

It should be on the field as he coached and played on it.

"Frank Burns Field" IMO is a no brainer.
We really do.

Don't be a stranger. ;)

Burns would probably never have wanted it though. From what I know he was generally a humble guy.

 

[PSUPride1]

do you live in Ohio?

No. Go back and forth between PA and NYC. Vacation at the Jersey Shore. Love it.

 

[RUaMoose]

Watching this game from '87 that team was mediocre but light years better than the garbage Ash is putting out there. We had a competent QB (Erney) and a hard hitting swarming D. Not a great team but certainly worth watching.

 

[Source]

Scott Erney wasn't a great deep thrower, but I think he was the most accurate and dangerous passer anywhere within 25 yards of the line of scrimmage that I've seen at Rutgers. Very underrated RU passing QB.

 

[e5fdny]

Scott Erney wasn't a great deep thrower, but I think he was the most accurate and dangerous passer anywhere within 25 yards of the line of scrimmage that I've seen at Rutgers. Very underrated RU passing QB.

He was a gamer.

Would have been interesting to see how things would have turned out if he was under center during the Schiano/Flood years.

 

[mikeinsec127]

From what I remember, Anderson's downfall was his lack of recruiting. I do remember a story of how he pissed off one of South Jersey's major coaches. Coach's son wanted to go to RU, Anderson told him he wasn't interested, kid ended up going to I believe Tennessee. From then on Anderson pretty much got no one from S Jersey.

Dick Anderson came here to keep NJ prime PSU territory. He did't even bother contacting the top recruits out of North Jersey. When asked why he didn't consider RU for college, Craig Hayward said in an interview that he wasn't even contacted by the coaching staff. I know of several instances for other top recruits from that era contacting him and Anderson actually directed them to go to PSU.

 

[e5fdny]

Dick Anderson came here to keep NJ prime PSU territory. He did't even bother contacting the top recruits out of North Jersey. When asked why he didn't consider RU for college, Craig Hayward said in an interview that he wasn't even contacted by the coaching staff. I know of several instances for other top recruits from that era contacting him and Anderson actually directed them to go to PSU.

The story I heard on Ironhead was that he wanted a scholarship for himself, his brother Nate and both their girl friends at the time.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

I can answer a lot of detail on this...will do this weekend.
M

 

[LeapinLou]

"I know of several instances for other top recruits from that era contacting him and Anderson actually directed them to go to PSU."

Nonsense.

He was/is a man of high character. A disciplinarian that expected his players to act like men, not boys.

The Sandusky thing must have been extremely conflicting. He showed loyalty to a fault.

 

[50 yd line RR]

"I know of several instances for other top recruits from that era contacting him and Anderson actually directed them to go to PSU."

Nonsense.

He was/is a man of high character. A disciplinarian that expected his players to act like men, not boys.

The Sandusky thing must have been extremely conflicting. He showed loyalty to a fault.

Darren Roberts Franklin twnsp. Hardly recruited by Anderson, if at all. Seems like certain players were "hands off". Maybe I'm
wrong, but seemed to be the consensus of Rutgers fans then.

 

[wheezer]

The story I heard on Ironhead was that he wanted a scholarship for himself, his brother Nate and both their girl friends at the time.

---
that part I never heard..... I do remember that the newspapers and Craig himself talked more about RU not offering him than his actual commitment.

Craig sounded insulted, but we will never know if he would have gone to RU with an invite.

a rumor at the time, was that Craig got into a fight, or caused an incident, possibly at a PSU
camp...... this would have turned Anderson against recruiting him, and PSU possibly also

 

[koleszar]

He lives in Massachusetts?

Not sure where they live now? But my sister in law and Jon's wife grew up together right down the street from one another in Bound Brook. I've meet him several times years ago. I'll have to ask her and get back to you @shields .

 

[JDNB]

Been around for a while. Here’s how I would rate te coaches I have seen. In this order: Burns, Schiano, Steigman, was here only 4 years, Harman,best years post war, Bateman, best years with Steigman’s recruits, Graber, good recruiter, had no academic support,Anderson, Flood,Shea, did win coy once, Ash.

 

[NickKnight 1]

Been around for a while. Here’s how I would rate te coaches I have seen. In this order: Burns, Schiano, Steigman, was here only 4 years, Harman,best years post war, Bateman, best years with Steigman’s recruits, Graber, Anderson, Flood,Shea, did win coy once, Ash.

i'll go with Burns, Steigman, Harman,Bateman, Shea, Anderson, Graber, Schiano ,Flood, Ash.

 

[mikeinsec127]

The story I heard on Ironhead was that he wanted a scholarship for himself, his brother Nate and both their girl friends at the time.

I don't know about the girlfriends, but Pitt definitely took Nate fully scholly to get Craig.

 

[mikeinsec127]

"I know of several instances for other top recruits from that era contacting him and Anderson actually directed them to go to PSU."

Nonsense.

He was/is a man of high character. A disciplinarian that expected his players to act like men, not boys.

The Sandusky thing must have been extremely conflicting. He showed loyalty to a fault.

Nope, 100% true from the mouths of guys who went through it. I won't name them, because it would out them, when they themselves have never gone public with it.