Blue & Gold Illustrated: 2012 Notre Dame Football Preview
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BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED 2015 FOOTBALL PREVIEW ✦ 37 After three seasons as an assistant at Bethune-Cookman in Daytona, Fla., Den- son served as the running backs coach for 2010-13 Irish assistant Chuck Martin at Mi- ami (Ohio) for one year before accepting the same position this January at the Uni- versity of South Florida — where his wife, Elaine, graduated and where she has family in Tampa. Then the call from Denson's other "home" came. "From the time I got into coaching, this was my dream job," Denson said. "So I heard it was open [Feb. 6] and here's the funny thing about it: I heard about it at 1:30 or 2 p.m. and our furniture for the reloca- tion to USF wasn't even getting there until 3:30 p.m. So I had to take a deep breath and say a quick prayer before I ap- proached my wife. I went in with caution, but of course she was excited as well." He joked he was a "good father" because he had brainwashed all four of his chil- dren, ranging in age from 19 to 7, about Notre Dame. Oldest daughter Ashley even is transferring into Indiana University South Bend to be with the family, which is especially touching to her father. "They understand that coach- ing for me is a ministry and they understand the end-all goal," Denson said. " … It is a dream come true. It was something in the back of my mind. Who knew that God was going to speed it up, and it happened a lot quicker than I thought." When asked what he said in his interview that awed a skeptical Kelly into imme- diately canceling meetings with all other candidates as the running back coach, Denson with a sheepish smile replied: "I have no idea." "My philosophy always has been I'm just going to be myself and if that's not good enough then it's just not in the plans and God didn't have it for me," Denson said. "I did my routine, prayed before I went in and talked to my beautiful wife, always my cheerleader." It was the same approach he took when he was switched to cornerback in August of his freshman year in 1995, prior to a 17-15 loss in the opener versus Northwestern. "When I got here I planned to be the best running back at Notre Dame," Denson said. "After I cried and called my mother, her re- sponse was always the same: Let's pray first and understand you went there for a reason. I switched gears and it was like, 'Alright, now I've got to be the best cornerback to ever come out of Notre Dame.' "Thank God —and I hate to say it — we end up losing to Northwestern, and they ended up moving me back. "When you talk about being able to relate to guys, there's nothing that they're going to do that I haven't done. … I know what it is to be a Notre Dame running back. That's a lot more than just on the field. There are a lot of other things that go into that that's going to allow them to develop to their full potential." It's all part of his ministry. ✦ THE DIRECT RECRUITING APPROACH Current assistants and former Fighting Irish stars Todd Lyght and Autry Denson feel they will excel on the recruiting trail because of their belief in the product they are selling. However, both maintain that their recruiting approach is going to be direct and not sugarcoated. "They're going to have to be comfortable being uncomfortable," said Lyght, whose recruiting territories will include Louisiana, Houston, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon and Washington, plus any highly rated de- fensive backs in California. "We know this place isn't for everybody, but the really special ones that want to push themselves, they'll realize what a great opportunity this is and they'll come here and do great things. … We're looking for guys that want to work hard and set themselves up for life." The son of a former police chief in Flint, Mich., Lyght noted that "getting in trouble was not an option" when he was growing up in a house of discipline. He believes it will be easier to sell prospects on being uncomfortable when you are a walking advertisement as a national champion, Super Bowl champion and a former All-Pro and 12-year NFL veteran who engaged in that lifestyle. "There are a lot of kids out there that want to push themselves, want to excel both on and off the field at a very high level," Lyght said. "When people define greatness as how you measure up against somebody else or how you measure up maybe against a peer group, true greatness is defined by how you push yourself, how you strive to be better on a daily basis, mentally, physically and spiritually. "I think that when we can teach these guys how to achieve greatness and how to go for greatness and how it's achieved over a process and over a period of time, that we can develop some really, really great student-athletes. "I bring a credibility factor because I've been there, done that." Denson, who will recruit in southern Florida and other SEC states such as South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama, echoes the sentiment that the worst thing a Notre Dame recruiter can do is try to mask the challenges a student- athlete will confront. "To tell them anything other than the truth, he would be signing up for something that is not real and I wouldn't be able to coach him because I would be babysitting him, as opposed to being able to mentor him," Denson said. — Lou Somogyi Denson still stands No. 1 on Notre Dame's all‑time rushing chart with 4,318 yards. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME MEDIA RELATIONS "Notre Dame is like no other place. That's what we all understand. That's why you either love us or you hate us, and even the people that hate us, they still kind of want to snoop around and see what the mystique is about." DENSON ON THE ADVANTAGE OF BEING A FORMER NOTRE DAME STUDENT-ATHLETE