By Tyler Wooten
GoSycamores.com
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – For Indiana State head coach Mike Sanford, coaching football is a family affair.
Sanford, whose storied coaching career spans back to the late '70s, isn't the only Mike Sanford coaching at the Division I level anymore. His son, Mike Jr., was recently named the offensive coordinator upstate at Notre Dame following an impressive season as Boise State's offensive coordinator in 2014 amid other stops at Stanford (2007-08, 2011-13), Western Kentucky (2010), Yale (2009) and as a graduate assistant under his father at UNLV in 2005-06.
“I'm very proud of Mike and excited about his new job at Notre Dame,” Sanford said. “I love having him and his family there, meaning I now have two of my grandkids in the state.”
Sanford Jr.'s only season in Boise was prolific offensively, where he – as well as current Sycamore wide receivers coach Kriss Proctor – helped mentor Grant Hedrick, who was one of the top quarterbacks in the nation in 2014. Sanford Jr. himself was a Bronco quarterback from 2001-04.
Sanford Jr. is considered one of the best up-and-coming young offensive minds in college football. It probably didn't hurt that he was around the game his entire life throughout his father's career, who was and still is known for his offensive expertise. Sanford Jr. even worked as a ball boy while Sanford Sr. was the wide receivers coach at USC (1989-96) and then as Notre Dame's quarterbacks coach for three seasons (1996-98) under head coaches Lou Holtz and Bob Davie, gaining valuable insight as to what goes on down on the sidelines.
“He's obviously in a great situation,” Sanford Sr. said. “It's fun for him and me because I coached at Notre Dame and he went to Penn High School up there as a quarterback, so it's kind of full circle for both of us.”
While Sanford Sr. is known for his offensive prowess, he attests the most important thing he's learned about coaching football is not about the scheme.
“The number one thing is that it's all about the players,” Sanford Sr. said. “I want to do everything I can do within the framework we have to make it as good as possible for the players.”
“At the same time, I demand and expect a lot of them,” Sanford Sr. continued. “It's all about having a balance of being disciplined and demanding, but also caring about them and trying to bring out the best in them. That's really important to me, and that's probably the biggest thing I've learned in my coaching career.”
Junior agreed in an Irish Extra story written by Curt Rallo:
"At the end of the day, what I've learned about coaching is all based on relationships," Sanford Jr. said. "One thing I learned from my dad was that the relationships he built with his players were really deep. Even myself, as a young kid, growing up around the USC players and the Notre Dame players, I had a chance to forge some pretty special relationships. To see that all come to a head in an emotional game-day atmosphere, it was pretty unbelievable, even spectacular, if you will.”
"Everything I do is based on the relationships,” he continued. “I think you build really good relationships with the staff and players feed off that positive energy. They can tell when things are right.”
The apple may not fall far from the tree, but it's not often that it hits in the exact same spots.
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