Mike Sanford, one of college football’s brightest offensive minds and a former Hilltopper assistant, was named the 20th head football coach at Western Kentucky University on December 14.
Sanford, a 12-year college coaching veteran who coached quarterbacks on The Hill in 2010, returned to WKU following six seasons of success and achievement at Stanford, Boise State and, most recently, Notre Dame.
Since taking over the reins of the program in December 2016, Sanford’s mark on the program both internally and externally has been evident from the beginning. Pushed by a program he calls “The Pursuit,” Hilltopper student-athletes and coaches are actively pursuing his five chief program initiatives on a day-to-day basis from the moment they wake up to the minute they go to sleep.
The Pursuit’s 5 Goals
- Graduate every player.
- Serve our community relentlessly
- Win the C-USA Championship
- Defeat a Power 5 team annually
- Win a New Year’s 6 bowl game
In his first spring on The Hill, Sanford’s Hilltoppers increased their community service commitment by more than 500 percent over the previous semester with weekly opportunities for WKU football players to go out into the Bowling Green and greater Warren County community.
Academic achievement was also sustained as 75 Hilltoppers saw their grade point average rise in the spring and 39 players posted a 3.0 semester GPA or higher, nearly half of the available roster this past spring.
A former quarterback at Boise State (2000-04), Sanford holds coaching experience from three Fiesta Bowls and two Rose Bowls, along with playing experience in the Humanitarian, Fort Worth and Liberty Bowls.
With accomplishments at every level, Sanford spent the previous two seasons as the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame where he tutored Fighting Irish quarterback DeShone Kizer to stellar performances while in South Bend.
Kizer had near-record breaking marks in Notre Dame single-game history for rushing yards by a quarterback (second), touchdown passes (t-second) and total offense (seventh) to go along with the single-season record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback (10) in 2015. Kizer finished his career at Notre Dame with the best per-game total offense average in school history (272.2), the highest points responsible for per-game mark (15.6) and the second-best passing efficiency rating (147.7).
The Fighting Irish averaged 466.4 yards of total offense per game in 2015, the third-most in program history and the most since 2005, to go along with a near-record 34.2 points per game that season - three points shy of the program record. The year was capped by Sanford’s fifth-consecutive appearance in a New Year’s Six or BCS Bowl Game, the 2016 BattleFrog Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State.
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Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly
This is an incredible opportunity for a tremendous football coach and an even better person. Mike possesses all the qualities you’d want in a head coach — clear communication, organization, commitment, passion and an astute teacher of the game. As a coach’s kid, Mike learned these traits at a young age and developed them throughout his career, especially during over his two years at Notre Dame. He’ll work tirelessly to not only uphold the standard of success at WKU, but also build upon it. He’s truly earned this opportunity and I’m excited for him, Anne-Marie and the kids.
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Prior to Notre Dame, Sanford spent one season at his alma mater, Boise State, in 2014, where he guided a Broncos offense that was one of just five FBS schools to rank among the top 30 nationally in all four major offensive statistical categories (scoring, total offense, passing offense and rushing offense).
The Broncos went 12-2 that year, won a Mountain West Conference championship and defeated Pac-12 South champion Arizona in the Vizio Fiesta Bowl. Quarterback Grant Hedrick led the FBS in completion percentage (70.8), while ranking seventh in passing yards per attempt (8.91), ninth in passing efficiency (157.2), 13th in passing yardage (3,696) and 14th in total offense per game (306.3).
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Washington Head Coach Chris Petersen
Mike is a wonderful person. He treats everyone the way they should be treated. He is an energetic, creative, passionate coach who knows how to develop players, and, in particular, quarterbacks. If you follow his track record, everywhere he has been, he has been extremely successful, and I have no doubt that will continue at Western Kentucky. The program is in good hands, and there is no question that he will do some very big things there.
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While Sanford’s development of quarterbacks is well documented, his work with Boise State running back Jay Ajayi is even more notable. In Sanford’s offense, Ajayi led the FBS in scoring with 13.7 points per game and become the only player in FBS history to record 1,800 rushing yards and 500 receiving yards in the same season. The current Miami Dolphin and 2017 Pro Bowler set Boise State single-season records for rushing yards (1,823), rushing touchdowns (28), all-purpose yards (2,358) and carries (347) under Sanford.
Everywhere Sanford has been, great players have followed. He helped bring in top 15 recruiting classes each of his two seasons at Notre Dame, the top-rated class in the Mountain West during his season at Boise State, and back-to-back top 20 national recruiting classes - including a top-five class in 2012 - each of his final two seasons at Stanford while serving as the program’s recruiting coordinator. Twenty-three members of the Cardinal’s 2012 and 2013 signing classes were rated in the top 25 nationally at their respective positions while 22 were rated at least four stars, including six five-star selections.
During his second stop in Palo Alto, Sanford helped the Cardinal capture Pac-12 Championships and Rose Bowl appearances in both 2012 and 2013, as well as a Fiesta Bowl trip to cap the 2011 season. As the running backs coach from 2011-12, Sanford was instrumental in the development of Doak Walker Award and 2013 Rose Bowl offensive MVP Stepfan Taylor, Stanford’s all-time career leading rusher (4,300). Taylor set the Cardinal program record for total touchdowns (45) and is second all-time in career rushing touchdowns (40). Sanford then moved into the quarterbacks room in 2013 where he mentored then-sophomore Kevin Hogan, a 2016 NFL Draft fifth round selection.
Sanford spent the 2010 season at WKU on Willie Taggart’s first coaching staff as the passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach after one year at Yale - his first full-time coaching position - where he coached the tight ends, fullbacks and served as recruiting coordinator in 2009. Sanford spent two years on Jim Harbaugh’s staff at Stanford as an offensive assistant from 2007-08 and enjoyed a two-year run as a graduate assistant at UNLV under his father, Mike Sr., then the head coach of the Rebels.
A father of three, Peyton, Gunnar, and Griffin, Sanford is married to the former Anne-Marie Mitchell. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Boise State in 2005.
THE SANFORD FILE
PERSONAL
Born: Feb. 4, 1982
Hometown: Lexington, Va.
College: Boise State, '05
Wife: Anne-Marie
Children: Peyton, Gunnar, and Griffin
PLAYING CAREER (Quarterback)
College: Boise State (2000-04)
COACHING CAREER:
2005-06: UNLV (Graduate Assistant/Specialists/Asst. Quarterbacks)
2007-08: Stanford (Offensive Assistant/Quarterbacks)
2009: Yale (Recruiting Coordinator/Tight Ends/Fullbacks)
2010: WKU (Passing Game Coordinator/Quarterbacks)
2011: Stanford (Running Backs)
2012: Stanford (Recruiting Coordinator/Running Backs)
2013: Stanford (Recruiting Coordinator/Quarterbacks/Wide Receivers)
2014: Boise State (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)
2015-16: Notre Dame (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)
BOWL EXPERIENCE
2002: Humanitarian (Boise State, Player)
2003: Fort Worth (Boise State, Player)
2004: Liberty (Boise State, Player)
2011: Fiesta (Stanford, Coach)
2012: Rose (Stanford, Coach)
2013: Rose (Stanford, Coach)
2014: Fiesta (Boise State, Coach)
2015: Fiesta (Notre Dame, Coach)
