Bart Andrus, Bryan Scott two of USFL's best kept secrets — for now
By RJ Young
FOX Sports Writer
Bart Andrus is one of the best kept secrets in the United States Football League.
Over the past four decades, he has quietly developed a reputation as one of the better quarterback coaches in football. He has worked with some of the best offensive minds in the sport, and he has proven he can turn a perennial loser into a winner.
And as Philadelphia Stars head coach, he’s walking into a spring league with a quarterback with whom he won a Spring League championship and perhaps the best pro QB that no one is talking about in Bryan Scott.
Indeed, the Stars could be set up to open the season sharper than any of the other seven teams in the USFL precisely because Andrus and Scott share a kinship and an understanding of what it takes to win with a small roster and a small coaching staff.
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Among the people who share that opinion is Michigan Panthers coach Jeff Fisher, who coached the Tennessee Titans to a Super Bowl appearance with Andrus working as QB coach.
"Bart has made a career — and a good career — out of participating in alternate leagues," Fisher said. "He understands better than anybody what it's like to go into a situation where you have a small coaching staff, where you are smaller than some [USFL coaches] are used to. You have a small roster, and he knows how to put those things together."
Fisher told me he has leaned on Andrus to better understand how to marshal resources and structure practices as he begins his first foray into coaching outside of the NFL — for good reason.
Andrus has coached at the Power 5, junior college, FCS, Division II, NAIA and high school levels. He has been an assistant on an NFL coaching staff, as well as a head coach in NFL Europe, the Canadian Football League, XFL and The Spring League.
He graduated from the University of Montana, where he played quarterback, splitting time with future NFL head coach Marty Mornhinweg.
Andrus' first opportunity to coach came at St. Patrick’s High School in Vallejo, California. He was there just three years before he committed to learning to run a proper modern offense as a college coach.
"I wanted to learn the passing game," he said.
He applied to graduate school at three places: Stanford, Miami and Brigham Young. At the time, that meant he was looking to study under Jack Elway (Stanford) — whose son is Denver Broncos legend John Elway — Jimmy Johnson (Miami) or LaVell Edwards (BYU).
All three programs were slinging the ball at a time when Barry Switzer and Oklahoma were still dominating by running the wishbone.
"Unfortunately, I couldn't get accepted into the Stanford graduate program," Andrus said. "I wasn’t the smartest guy, but I had a B average."
Bart Andrus' gratitude to Jeff Fisher
He did get accepted at Miami and BYU, which proved serendipitous. Andrus joined the Cougars staff as a grad assistant, with Edwards putting together one of the all-time great offensive staffs in the sport. BYU’s offensive coordinator then was Norm Chow. Its quarterback coach was Mike Holmgren.
With quarterback Robbie Bosco under center, the Cougars ran the table to 13-0 and were crowned the 1984 consensus national champs.
"Yeah, maybe that was very fortunate that I got to go in with such a talented team, such a talented coaching staff," Andrus said. "And I got to learn from those guys. And that was the best part of the education in getting my master's degree — the football part of it."
After stops at Humboldt State, Montana State and Southern Utah — all as offensive coordinator — Andrus landed his first head-coaching gig in 1996 at Rocky Mountain College, a program that hadn’t won a game in four years when he arrived.
He installed "a high-speed, no-huddle offense" at Rocky Mountain, a move ahead of its time, trying to score as quickly as possible. Andrus’ philosophy was simple: Rocky Mountain was going to put more points on the board than their opponent and see what happened.
As a first-year head coach of a team that hadn't won since November 1991, Andrus decided to try to incentivize his team to win its opener against Black Hill State.
"Before the game, I was in the locker room, and I don't know what came over me, but I told the team, ‘If you guys win this game, I'm going to get you on "SportsCenter."’ And then I walked out of the locker room, and I went, ‘Why did I say that?’"
It worked.
Bart Andrus on Rocky Mountain College and getting on ‘SportsCenter’
Rocky Mountain quarterback Bob Bees passed for 348 yards with five touchdowns in a 70-8 rout of Black Hill State. Andrus’ Bears racked up 522 yards of offense and led 49-8 at halftime en route to snapping their 41-game losing streak.
Andrus kept his word. He called ESPN and told whoever answered the phone that his team had just snapped a four-year losing streak with a 70-8 victory.
The show told their story. What’s more, the Rocky Mountain Bears led the nation in scoring, total offense and passing yards that season, finishing with a winning record (6-4). Andrus was named NAIA Coach of the Year.
The next year, Fisher invited Andrus to work as an offensive quality-control assistant for what were then known as the Houston Oilers. Shortly after his hiring, Andrus went to work with future NFL MVP Steve McNair and homed in on what it took to play quarterback as a professional.
Since leaving Rocky Mountain, Andrus has made nearly a dozen stops — including one more with the Titans and another with the St. Louis Rams — and coached some unique talents at the quarterback position.
The Stars' Scott is in a league with the best of them.
"I had Steve McNair through Super Bowl 34," he told the Sporting News last year. "As a head coach in NFL Europe, I had Danny Wuerffel and Shaun Hill. In the UFL, I had Troy Smith and Eric Crouch on the same team; both won the Heisman Trophy. Bryan is in that class as far as his talent."
I asked Andrus if he’s willing to stick to that after selecting Scott with the Stars’ top pick at No. 3 overall in the inaugural USFL Draft.
"Absolutely," he said. "This guy is gonna open a lot of eyes when he takes the field in a few weeks. I'm excited for Bryan."
Bryan Scott could be USFL's most exciting QB to watch
Scott played college football at the Division III level at Occidental and, like his head coach, is one of the best kept secrets in the USFL. After I mentioned Scott to Fisher, he jokingly asked me to "break his finger on his throwing hand the next time you see him for me."
The gamesmanship between Fisher and Andrus extends back to their Pop Warner football days, when Andrus was quarterback of their team.
Fisher is right to be leery of his former assistant coach paired with the Division III dynamo. Andrus and Scott are the only head coach and QB with working knowledge of each other and their offensive scheme, and they have never lost a game.
"Jeff had an opportunity to look at some video of Bryan playing," Andrus said. "I think that at one time, being in the L.A. area and Jeff being head coach of the Rams, they knew about Bryan. I think that they probably looked at him, maybe considered him in a late round or maybe as a free agent at one time. He sees the type of player that Bryan is. Any opposing coach would not want Bryan Scott to line up against him."
Scott could be bitter about how his pro career has gone so far, having never participated in more than camp at the NFL level. Instead, he plays for his family, his friends and his coaches, past and present.
"It’s not the kind of thing where he plays with it with a chip on his shoulder," Andrus said. "He plays to prove everybody that believes in him right."
If he does, like Andrus, he won’t remain a secret much longer.
After all, coaches who can coach and players who can play find a way to break out.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.
