[NU Sports] FORTY DAYS OF FOOTBALL: Day 26

[SjT (Stephen J. Truog)]

TGIF! Two weeks and counting!

FORTY DAYS OF FOOTBALL
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> DAYS 1-10: The top coaches of the decade

10) Glen Mason, Minnesota
09) Bret Bielema, Wisconsin
08) Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
07) Barry Alvarez, Wisconsin
06) Randy Walker, Northwestern
05) Lloyd Carr, Michigan
04) Kirk Ferentz, Iowa
03) Joe Tiller, Purdue
02) Joe Paterno, Penn State
01) Jim Tressel, Ohio State

> DAYS 11-20: The top games of the decade

10) 2000: Purdue 32, Michigan 31
09) 2001: Michigan State 26, Michigan 24
08) 2005: Michigan 27, Penn State 25
07) 2003: Minnesota 37, Wisconsin 34
06) 2004: Northwestern 33, Ohio State 27 (OT)
05) 2008: Penn State 13, Ohio State 6
04) 2009: Ohio State 27, Iowa 24 (OT)
03) 2002: Ohio State 10, Purdue 6
02) 2000: Northwestern 54, Michigan 51
01) 2006: Ohio State 42, Michigan 39

> DAYS 21-30: The top players of the decade

10) Laurence Maroney/Marion Barber, Minnesota
09) Antwaan Randle El, Indiana
08) Jamar Fletcher, Wisconsin
07) Dallas Clark, Iowa
06) Troy Smith, Ohio State

> DAYS 31-40: The top teams of the decade

TOP PLAYERS
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05) Damian Anderson, Northwestern

As one Chicagoland coach said many moons ago, "all the pieces are in place." Wanny turned out to be wrong, but those words could have been uttered by Randy Walker prior to the 2000 season as his Wildcats were poised to take the nation by storm with a high-powered offense that sports writers struggled to both believe and describe as it roared through Madison and East Lansing to open the Big Ten season.

The biggest piece of that puzzle was Damian Anderson, an undersized running back with an abundance of heart and desire who became the driving force in the Wildcats' new spread attack. He may not have fit the traditional back role at most schools, but Walker saw his speed, shiftiness and ability to find the lanes in a new style of offense as an asset ... and it paid off with a Big Ten championship.

Anderson was a gift left to Walker by Gary Barnett and made a strong debut his freshman season with 2 touchdowns in the 1998 opener against UNLV. He finished his first year with more than 500 yards on the ground and doubled that to top 1000 yards in 1999. Anderson was a strong runner in a traditional offense, but no one had a clue what he could really do until the following season.

The Cats conversion to the spread was ahead of the curve nationally, but what really made the NU spread different from others before them was how the Cats used it to set up the run more than just increase the receiving options. Clemson had used it to benefit their quarterback's ground game, and NU did that with Zack Kustok, but it was a true boost to Anderson's career.

In 2000, Anderson was the nation's second leading rusher and scorer and earned numerous All American selections while finishing fifth in the Heisman Trophy balloting. The one running back ahead of him? TCU's LaDanian Tomlinson. He joined a select club by rushing for more than 2000 yards and shattered school and league records for average yards per game, carry and scoring. He scored in 11 straight games and topped the 200 yard mark in four contests. It was a dream season that rejuvenated a team, defined an offense and turned heads across the nation.

Anderson's crowing moment of that season came in the game of the year, the 54-51 shootout with Michigan. He carried the ball 31 times for 268 yards and two touchdowns in front of a national TV audience. He also scored the winning touchdown in overtime to cap a 174-yard game at the unbeaten and No. 6 Badgers and followed it up the next week with 200+ yards at MSU in a won over the No. 15 Spartans. He ended the regular season with a four TD game against rival Illinois to clinch a share of the title.

Unlike the first "DA" in modern Northwestern history, this running back returned for his senior season and it gave rise to talk of NU as league favorites and Anderson as a Heisman favorite. Unfortunately, Anderson struggled to repeat the success of 2000. He never topped 200 on the ground in any game and missed the final three games with a shoulder injury. Still, he managed to cap his career as NU's all time leading rusher with more than 5000 all-purpose yards and 4,485 rushing yards (in the top 10 for league totals). Anderson went undrafted but had some promising games with the Arizona Cardinals before leaving the NFL in 2005, never quite able to rise above the role of a solid backup.

However, fans in purple remember "DA2" for revolutionizing the running back position in Evanston and for starting off a memorable string of Randy Walker backs in Evanston who utilized the spread for its running lanes and carried the Cats to victory, from Tyrell Sutton to Noah Herron.

Coming Saturday: Deserving of the jersey

GO CATS!!!
-SjT

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STEPHEN J. TRUOG
sjtruog at yahoo.com
GO CATS!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!
Super Bowl XLIV Champions!
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