31 Days Until Kansas Football: BWR Q&A With Brandon McAnderson, Pt. 1

We catch up with the former Jayhawk running back to talk about optimism around this year's team, his recruitment, and conference realignment.

Brandon McAnderson knows Kansas football.

He’s a Lawrence native. He’s an Orange Bowl winner. He’s tied for third all time in career rushing touchdowns at Kansas. And he’s now the sideline reporter for the Jayhawks radio network and host of the Crimson & Blue Show.

So who better to talk to while getting ready for the Kansas football season? In part one, we dive into optimism around this team, his recruitment, conference realignment, and more. And make sure to check out part two tomorrow.

Editor’s note: Some questions and responses were condensed for space.

Kyle Davis: There’s obviously a lot of optimism coming into this season given the way the season ended last year. You’re as locked into the program as anyone, how are you feeling coming into the fall?

Brandon McAnderson: That question is always funny to me because I'm such a lifer that I'm excited no matter what. So, you know, it doesn't matter what the circumstances are. I will say there's an elevated sense of, I think there are more knowns in this incoming year than we've had in a long time. The things that we could count on going into a season have been very few and I think there are several things that we can count on coming into this season. And I'm excited about it.

KD: I would assume you’ve gotten to know Lance Leipold a bit now. He’s been fascinating for me because there have been some big personalities leading the program of late and it hasn’t worked out. But it does feel like the rapport he’s built with the players so far and the way he’s handled that first year is different. Can you give us a sense of if there’s something different about him or what makes him successful?

"You know, he's not a guy that's really selling anything. He is telling you what's happening, he’s telling you what he's thinking."

-Brandon McAnderson on Kansas Coach Lance Leipold.

BM: You know, what I liked about him and I always say this as a compliment —I don't know if it always sounds like a compliment — but this coaching staff kind of reminded me of high school coaches. And I mean that in the highest regard in that, you know, this is such an ego-driven business, and the coaches I played for and the coaches I've been around, they're all looking at career advancement, as they should. You know, like how much money can I make, where can I go next, what's on the docket for me, what's my dream job, that sort of thing.These guys are so present. Every one of them, and it starts with the man leading the charge in coach Leipold, he’s just very present like he's focused on making better humans, better football players, and you hear them say all the time getting 1% better. You know, he's not a guy that's really selling anything. He is telling you what's happening, he’s telling you what he's thinking.

And not only is he telling you what he's thinking, he's probably communicating something similar to his team. And I think that's been what I've liked about him the most is that consistency and I think that the players and such — a lot of the guys that have been here before him had been in such unstable environments. He just provides automatic stability in his demeanor and his approach, and I think it's appreciated.

© Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK

KD: And it’s worked for him wherever he’s gone. So you went through your share of summer workouts at KU. Can you give us a sense of what those are like and do you have a go-to story you could share?

BM: So that time, there's always intense workouts but there's also time to like focus on football. And you know, we would usually have like midweek where it had to be a player-run, seven-on-seven, o-line/d-line kind of situation where guys got workouts in, but it was player-led. So that always helped with building leadership going into the season.

And in terms of the summer workouts themselves, man, they were hard. You're always preparing to take the run tests, you know, so you can pass and show that you have the proper fitness level. That was always kind of weary because a 300-yard shuttle was not fun.

But the summer workouts, too, were also about having competition. And competition is going to be a major theme for this program because look how many people stayed and look how many people we brought in. We're going to have positions with six or seven possibilities. You're going to have positions where, you know, I found myself talking the other day about a guy I'm really excited about in Tommy Dunn Jr. who’s gonna be a redshirt freshman and he may not see the field at all. Or, he may be able to win one of these competitions and be a guy that factors into the rotation. I think you could make that argument across the board.

You know, guys that have played in the past, like (Taiwan) Berryhill, where does he fit? He's a guy with some experience. He's a guy with some physicality, you know, good-looking body. Guy that can play a little bit, but he's going to be in a group where there's gonna be three guys that have played that weren't here last year that played significant snaps at other universities and then he's going to be behind three other guys that played a ton of snaps for this team.

So there's going to be a level of competition that I'm kind of brimming with excitement about. Because this is not, you know, last year. They kind of said we don't know the team. We don't know the guys, we're going to play the veteran guys, the guys who think they can get it done, and we're just going to stick with them and try to make them better.

I don't imagine that's going to be the case this year. Not the getting better part. Obviously, that's going to be there. But there's going to be guys having other players nipping at their heels for snaps. It's not going to be a given that you're going to see the same guy every week, just because there's just way more depth than what we've had here in the past decade, let alone last season.

© David Yeazell-USA TODAY Sports

KD: I think most people know you are a Lawrence native, Lawrence High, but how many people realize you were a top-65 recruit at linebacker? Was there ever a time where you thought you might be playing on that side of the ball?

BM: Yeah, I mean most schools recruited me to play linebacker. Iowa recruited me to play linebacker. Wyoming, Missouri. You know KU never even really talked about what I was going to play. I just got recruited and said he looks like a player here.

And I think it's one of those things where, you know, me being a top-65 player at that position, I think people, those stories about us, that a lot of our players being recruited are kind of unsung, those have more staying power than reality. So I don't really even pay attention to it. It’s not like I was someone that no one wanted. That's not the case. But that's kind of been the story. It kind of goes with our Cinderella story of our seasons and career so I'm like whatever, you know, that's cool, I don't have the attachment to that ranking.

But I don't think a lot of people know. I think they just assumed that I was some nobody that came from nowhere and that's partially true, that's just not all the way true. So yeah, kind of to your point, I got recruited pretty heavily to play linebacker. I was a very good special teams player over my career. It's something that I love doing. I love it and I love tackling and it just worked out that Kansas never mentioned it. They just put me at fullback and running back and I just kept on going.

© John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

KD: You mentioned the Missouri part. You mentioned the Iowa part. I think I also saw K-State offered you. Obviously you’re a Lawrence guy, so what percentage chance was it that you end up wearing purple or black and gold instead of crimson and blue?

BM: I don't want to say zero because that would be silly, you know, if you're talking about getting opportunities to play. But it's pretty damn close to zero. You know, growing up in Lawrence, a lot of your teachers, half of them go to K-State and half of them went to KU, so that part is pretty normal. I feel like Kansas State is more, that rivalry’s a little bit more friendly in terms of just because, knowing people from both sides, and you know not rooting for them, but really not rooting against them. So, they were just kind of around and they recruited me. They were more like kind of late into the game kind of thing, so I don't know how interested they were at all. But K-State would be one way I'd say yeah maybe some consideration.

Missouri was probably no all the way through. I mean that's a place I don't like, I don't even like to talk about.

KD: You’re going to get a lot of applause when people read that. All anyone wants to talk about is conference realignment. You played in the original Big 12. I’m curious what your take on all of the movement recently is? Do you miss the days of Nebraska, Colorado, and everyone else being in there?

BM: You know, I'm not nostalgic about it as a fan. I have some nostalgia as a player, just because it was really fun to play in Nebraska and they had a great fan base that was loud. A great stadium. Colorado is such a beautiful place and man, this is like the low-key scoop but the hotel we stayed at had like the best beds ever.

So I call up these little things, so it's more like nostalgia for the experience. I'm not nostalgic about whether or not we play them mostly because I'm from Lawrence and Nebraska rolled into our town like pirates. And there were 40,000 of them and they beat the crap out of us and left and that wasn't always great, and I know they're not that version of Nebraska. But I don't know how much I would miss that, some of those experiences. But you know, some of the whoopings we put on them kind of made up for 20, 30 years of destruction that we had to face at their hands. So I don't know if I'm ecstatic about not playing them anymore or nostalgic about the Big 12 in general.

I'm thinking more like a radio host who gets to have some experiences. I'm thinking, hey let's combine with the PAC 12, you know, that'd be good. Let’s go to Oregon. Let's go to Washington. You know, let's go to North Carolina. Let's go to Chapel Hill. I love Chapel Hill. So some of that is more like the experience of things, because I honestly don't have an opinion on the realignment.

It's been so out of control and wild and I feel like some of the pieces and parts don't always make sense. You know, like the Texas part didn't make sense to me. They don't need more money, so I don't know why they did that. Oklahoma, that one made sense. USC, they don't need more money. UCLA obviously needs more money.

So there's these little things that were like, oh that makes sense to me. Then I look at it and say that makes no sense to me. You know, the Notre Dame part, why would Notre Dame give away the thing that they have? They have what everyone already is seeking. Why would they give that away? So some of these things don't make sense to me and that's probably because TV and viewership don't make sense to me. Especially with like the streaming services and where they are and how now the streaming services want football, because they know how much of a great viewing product it is, and they want that money, too.

So what I'm hoping for is that Kansas comes out financially about where they were before or a little bit ahead and that there's some fun road trips for our fanbase to go to. It's kind of, I know that's not a great answer but it just seems like it's so out of control and so subject to change that I don't think we should be holding on to traditions like that. We like supporting our team so I'm going to support them, wherever they go and they play.

Kyle Davis: And if you can see a beach while you're there then even better.

BM: Even better.

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