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By B.J. Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com Senior Editor
SouthernPigskin.com Senior Editor B.J. Bennett reflects on retiring FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews’ legacy. Follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/SouthernPigskin.
This Saturday will be the last home game for long-time Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews. The FSU Associate Head Coach recently announced his retirement, effective at the end of this season. One of the lead architects of one of college football most successful programs, Andrews will end his home career this weekend as the Seminoles host ACC foe Maryland at Doak Campbell Stadium.
The accolades for Andrews are humbling. He is the longest tenured assistant coach in the ACC, as this is his 26th season in Tallahassee. He has won two national championships as a coach at FSU and won two more as a player at Alabama under Bear Bryant. He even won an NAIA championship as a coach at Livingston. Andrews was named the nation's top assistant coach in 2000 by the All-American Football Foundation, the National Defensive Coordinator of the Year in 1998 by the American Football Coach's Magazine and the National Assistant Coach of the year by Athlon Magazine in 1991. He was the first ever winner of the Frank Broyles Award, a proper honor, given to the nation's top assistant coach.
To date, Andrews has coached a stunning 18 first round NFL Draft picks, nine of whom were top ten picks. He has coached a total of 80 players who have gone on to play in the NFL. He has coached two Jim Thorpe Award winners, two Butkus Award winners and two Lombardi Award winners. His students include Deion Sanders, Terrell Buckley, Marvin Jones, Derrick Brooks, Corey Simon and Antonio Cromartie.
Entering the 2009 season, Florida State's run defense had been ranked in the top ten nationally seven of the last 16 seasons. No college football program in the country has produced more top ten rush defenses since FSU's national championship in 1999. In 2008, the 'Noles led the nation in tackles for loss. Over his career, no defensive unit has been more consistent.
Beyond all that, Andrews has become a part of FSU football tradition and lore. An emotional coach with a doghouse as infamous as any in the game, Andrews holds his players to a high standard. A missed tackle, blown assignment or poor effort and his face will turn as purple as a fresh turnip and his chin will jut out like an open drawer. Classic Mickey.
Andrews has been the quiet catalyst for the style of play that the nation has come to associate with Seminole football. A fast, athletic, attacking defense with ends who run like linebackers and linebackers who run like defensive backs. That brand of defense, now commonplace across the nation, is Andrews’ creation.
For as much as Andrews has accomplished in Tallahassee, he was quite the star in Tuscaloosa during his college days. Everyone knows of his success with FSU and his trademark sideline scowl. Much fewer are aware of his many honors earned as a two-sport star with the Crimson Tide. He earned second-team All-American honors as a wide receiver and defensive back at Alabama, winning aforementioned national titles in 1961 and 1964. The 1964 Hugo Friedman Award winner given to Alabama's best all-around athlete, Andrews doubled as an All-SEC selection as a member of the Crimson Tide baseball team. It may initially sound like hyperbole, but Andrews stands as one of the most versatile and lauded talents in Alabama history.
A gritty kid from Daleville, Alabama, Andrews is southern college football. A star for Bear Bryant’s legendary Alabama Crimson Tide, Bobby Bowden's right-hand man and a groomer of dozens of future NFL stars. A feared but respected football coach who could stop a platoon of soldiers with his trademark glare, Andrews' passion and enthusiasm has long been evident watching his players perform on the field.
Known as a gruff, hard-nosed veteran with a grizzled old school style, Andrews is a caring, insightful mentor who has helped hundreds of current and former players find their way in life.
“I really came to Florida State for two reasons. Number one, was him (Coach Andrews) and the other was we had a bunch of TV games the next year,” said former FSU All-American and Jim Thorpe winner and current assistant coach Terrell Buckley. “From that point up until now he’s meant a lot; like a father figure on what it takes to be successful. Professionally, from being what I call my supervisor, just learning what it takes to be a great coach, dealing with different players and personalities and how you prepare for a ballgame, what is acceptable and what is not…He’s just welcomed me with open arms. Words can’t describe, when you combine the personal and professional, what he has done for me. He’s been tremendous.”
Many echo those sentiments.
As Andrews ends his home career this weekend at Doak Campbell Stadium against Maryland, college football will pay homage to the end of an era. One of the best assistant coaches, defensive minds and men the game has ever seen, Andrews isn’t one for the media or fan spotlight. Give him game film and a tough opponent and he's on forty going north; it's an old southern saying, folks say this in Alabama.
"He's been here 26 years and we've had such success and you just have to credit him with the success we've had since he came," FSU head coach Bobby Bowden said. "He's done such a great job. We'll miss him and his wife and family. He's a good church man and a good civic man and always has his priorities in order and puts his family ahead of football. He's a guy that has never slowed down. He's just as enthusiastic now as he was when he came here."
Just as it will be unreal to see another head coach at helm for the Seminoles, it will be odd to see another coordinator calling the shots for Florida State. Andrews announced in early November that this would be his last season.
"I just want to thank Coach Bowden for giving me the opportunity to come to Florida State in 1984. It has been 26 great years working for him. I also want to thank all the outstanding coaches and staff people I have worked with through the years. I especially want to thank all the players who gave so much of themselves to make this program so successful through the years. And finally, to the fans who make FSU so special - Go Noles!,” Andrews said.
Citing wanting to spend more time with his family, Andrews will hang up his whistle but will remain an absolute pillar in Florida State football history.
"For 47 years it's been about me," Andrews said upon announcing his retirement. "Now it's time to be about us - my family."
Hundreds of former players and dozens of soon-to-be former colleagues would argue that it's never been about Mickey Andrews. It's been about his players. It's been about his program. A coach players never wanted to walk by on the field but one they couldn't stay away from off of it, Andrews has impacted many lives during his time in Tallahassee. This Saturday will be about Mickey for Florida State. Fitting, considering so many Saturday’s in the past have been constructed, in large part, by him.
It's common knowledge that current Seminole head coach Bobby Bowden has built the Florida State football program. If Bowden has been swigging the hammer all these years, Andrews has been holding the nail.
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