On Gary Andersen, the Pac-9, Jess Lewis, SI’s power list and Justin Herbert’s contract
Updated 8/1/2023 4:30 AM
A mid-summer notes column …
I hadn’t talked to Gary Andersen since he departed Oregon State abruptly with a shocking resignation and no explanation midway through the 2017 season. Since then, Beaver Nation has regarded him as a pariah, and his successor, Jonathan Smith, as the program’s savior.
I can’t speak for anyone else in the media, but I enjoyed working with Andersen. I consider him a decent guy who had some quirks with neurotic tendencies that seemed to overcome him when things went bad his third year at the OSU helm.
I reached out to him recently requesting an interview for a story I’m working on about Steve “Lightning” McCoy, the veteran athletics equipment manager for Oregon State. “For Lightning, anything,” Andersen texted back, and soon we talked about his former associate at some length.
Eventually, I asked how he felt about his departure at OSU. Did he have regrets? Not surprisingly, he said he didn’t want to touch on that subject. “Just not something I want to do,” he said.
After Andersen left Oregon State, he spent one year as associate head coach and defensive assistant for Kyle Whittingham at Utah. Andersen then became Utah State’s head coach for the second time — he coached the Aggies from 2009-12 — and went 7-6 the first season. But he was fired after starting his second season 0-3 in 2020. Andersen spent 2021 as an advisor and defensive assistant at Weber State under Jay Hill, whom he coached as a player and then coached with at Utah. That was the end of a long, sometimes successful, sometimes tumultuous coaching career.
When I asked how life is treating him, he said he is in “a very good place.” Gary and wife Stacey are dividing time between residences in Logan, Utah, and Salt Lake City. They now have six grandchildren from sons Keegan, Hagen and Chasen, who all live in the area and are no longer in coaching.
“My 33 years of coaching were amazing, but what you miss when you’re in the hustle and bustle is quality time with your kids,” said Gary, now 59. “So I appreciate what I have in life now. What I get to do with my grandkids these days is unbelievable.”
Andersen is co-founder and director of the Utah State NIL collective, “Blue A,” which began operation in June. According to media reports, the school has two other collectives that were created this year — “Rocky Mountain” for just football, and “Light It Blue.” Andersen said “Blue A” is creating opportunities for athletes in football, basketball and volleyball.
“We’re behind (in NIL) here,” Andersen said. “We’re just getting started. It’s a necessity. It’s not going to go anywhere. It has changed college football. If you are a fan, a coach, involved with the university, you can’t just complain about it. You have to do something about it. I’m out there communicating. It’s an educational process.”
Utah State does not offer the annual cost-of-attendance stipends the NCAA approved in 2015 for student-athletes, so NIL money is even more important with the Aggies.
“We’re out there recruiting our brand, and we’re tied heavily with charities and fund-raising events,” Andersen says. “We’re in it to help make the student-athletes’ lives a little better, maybe let them eat a little better, get some groceries in the frog, have a parent be able to come to a game, pay the first month’s rent.”
Like Oregon State’s “Dam Nation,” Andersen’s collective won’t be involved in recruiting high school athletes or transfers.
“We’ll have an opportunity for retention (of Utah State’s athletes),” he said. “I want the kids out doing things, too. I want them out in the community, not on their cell phones all day.”
Before we said our goodbyes, I asked Andersen if he misses coaching.
“Sure I do,” he said. “The thing I miss most is the kids. That’s the good thing about being part of the collective. We are volunteering our time — nobody is making money — but it’s a way to be involved with kids. I enjoy that very much."
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With the news that Colorado is joining UCLA and Southern Cal as soon-to-be former members of the Pac-12, let’s go back to 2011, when the conference decided not to add Texas and Oklahoma, and perhaps Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. The independence of the vaunted Longhorn Television Network was a factor, and in those days, commissioner Larry Scott considered his conference a model of stability.
Ah, for want of the good old days.
Whether there is panic among the remaining members of the Pac-9 or unity remains to be seen. We’ll know soon after the highly anticipated media rights deal current commissioner George Kliavkoff proffers. Or at least we think it will be soon. On Monday, word spread that Kliavkoff is expected to present a potential package to member institutions within 48 hours.
Perhaps that will be enough to keep the remaining band together. For sure, Kliavkoff and his posse must get on their horses and round up some expansion candidates. San Diego State has committed to the Mountain West until 2024 and cannot leave until 2026 without paying a significant exit fee. But that’s fine. Come aboard, Aztecs, when it’s convenient.
Not sure what other institutions should be pursued (Boise State, Fresno State, SMU?), but I like an idea offered by sportswriter emeritus Bud Withers — Gonzaga. No football, but a basketball powerhouse that would create a buzz Pac-12 hoops hasn’t had for awhile.
I’d certainly like to see the Pac-9 teams stay together. The geography makes sense, and the long-standing rivalries are worth saving. In the end, of course, it will come down to one thing — the almighty dollar.
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Jess Lewis blows out candles on his birthday cake during celebration at Trysting Tree Golf Club. At left is Jess’ older brother Jim. At right are sister-in-law Sharon Lewis and close friend Sharon Hanson (courtesy Ron Iwasaki)
I was privileged to be among the 30-some folks who gathered at Trysting Tree Golf Club in Corvallis last Friday to help Jess Lewis celebrate his 76th birthday.
The former football All-American and NCAA heavyweight wrestling champion at Oregon State was joined by many friends, including Rich Brooks, Chris Pendleton, Pat Casey, Mitch Canham, Jon Sandstrom, Craig Hanneman, Scott Freeburn, Dale Branch, Mark Dippel, Len Kauffman, Ron Iwasaki, Alexis Serna, Lauren Johnson and Jess’ brother, Jim Lewis.
All of the attendees were asked to stand and tell how they met Jess and offer their thoughts about him. The same adjectives and nouns were used over and over: Kind, gentle, strong; classy, good heart, strong; role model, hero, strong. He’s a teddy bear, but physically, more like a grizzly.
Kauffman was an assistant wrestling coach at Oregon State when he visited the Lewis home in Aumsville when Jess was a senior in high school.
“His mom said he was up in the ‘back 40’ picking up ‘sticks,’ ” Kauffman said. “We found him on the back of the property picking up logs.”
Lewis is a survivor. After college and a short NFL career, he got hooked on drugs and was a lost soul until former OSU wrestling coach Dale Thomas staged an intervention “that saved my live,” Jess said. He went through a treatment program, returned to OSU with a part-time job in athletic grounds maintenance, got a master’s degree in education, was hired full-time and then went about giving back to his alma mater.
For nearly 20 years, Lewis helped teach a class called “Drugs in Sports,” offered to the general student body as well as the school’s athletes. He spent time counseling many Beaver athletes on the pitfalls they could encounter off the athletic fields. One of those athletes was Canham, the current Beaver baseball coach who considers Lewis a hero.
In 2015, Lewis suffered a stroke and a near-fatal heart attack within nine days of each other. Since then, he has lost sight in one eye and has encountered other health problems. There is no doubting his resilience.
Said Lewis in reference to his football coach: “Dee Andros always said, ’It’s no shame to be blocked; it’s a shame to stay blocked.”
Brooks spoke for the group when he closed his talk in describing Jess this way:
“An All-American in football, an All-American in wrestling, an All-American human being.”
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Sports Illustrated devoted much of its most recent magazine to what it calls “the Power List.” On one page, it hails 10 “influencers.” Three of them have Oregon ties.
Rahmel Dockery, a former Oregon State receiver, has four million followers and has the self-proclaimed “best hands on TikTok.” Grayson “The Professor” Boucher, a Salem native and a “Streetball” legend, has 7.5 million YouTube subscribers and 8.3 million followers on TikTok. Terrence Ross, the Jefferson High grad and veteran NBA wing, is a “massive NBA2K streamer on Twitch” with nearly 400,000 followers in TikTok.
I hope that still leaves the fellas time to exercise.
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Justin Herbert is getting paid $52.5 million a year to play football for the Los Angeles Chargers
NFL contracts are typically not fully guaranteed, but with the money being thrown at quarterbacks these days, it hardly matters.
The top 11 players on the “highest salary” list are QBs, including former Oregon standout Justin Herbert, who just inked a five-year, $262.5-million deal, with $218 million of it guaranteed, with the LA Chargers. That’s the second-highest contract in history behind Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson, all of his five-year, $230 million deal guaranteed.
For average annual rankings, Herbert is No. 1 at $52.5 million per season, with Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson ($52 million), Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts ($51 million), New York Jets’ Aaron Rodgers ($50.2 million) and Denver’s Russell Wilson $48.5 million) filling out the top five.
Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow could blow up the list, however, when he signs what is expected to be a deal in the neighborhood of $54 million per year with the Bengals.
I’d have been happy to sign for half of that.
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