Petrino hires two for UI staff
MOSCOW - University of Idaho coach Paul Petrino announced the hiring of Mike Anderson and Ronnie Lee to his staff for the upcoming season.
Anderson will be the Vandals' linebacker coach, and Lee will be the defensive coordinator.
Anderson returns to Moscow after having played linebacker and defensive end for the Vandals from 2002-05.
Lee is returning to the Palouse where he played football for and graduated from Washington State before spending 1992 coaching the secondary at the University of Idaho. His coaching career since he left the Palouse has taken him across the country - and now back.
"He's had all kinds of experience," said Petrino, who roomed with Lee when both were assistants at Idaho in 1992. "He's definitely a great teacher. He's a motivator. He's a disciplinarian. Any time you can get disciplinarians at your coordinator positions, that's good because they're speaking the same language I am."
It didn't take long for Petrino to make the call to Lee.
"Ronnie was the first guy I called; the first guy I asked to be defensive coordinator," said Petrino of Lee, who was co-defensive coordinator at Minnesota in 2009-10. "For me, I hit the jackpot and got the guy I wanted. It's great."
Lee was recently at Indiana State University as the running backs coach and special teams coordinator in 2012. The Sycamore finished the season 7-4 behind a ground game led by running back Shakir Bell, who averaged 134.1 yards per game and 5.5 yards per carry.
Most recently, Anderson was on the staff at the University of Washington but he also served as a graduate assistant at Idaho in 2008.
"He's a Vandal. He was a great player here," Petrino said. "He has a lot of pride. He wants to see this program where it needs to be."
Petrino knows some of Anderson's coaching mentors and they endorsed their former student.
"I like his passion," Petrino said. "He'll be a great teacher. That's the biggest thing I was looking for - guys who will be great teachers and motivators. And he has a lot of connections in the Northwest."
After graduating from Idaho in the spring of 2006, Anderson first was a student assistant at Washington State then was a graduate assistant in 2007 before returning to Moscow.
He headed west to Seattle and the University of Washington in 2009. Among his duties as an assistant strength and conditioning coach for football and football defensive assistant for the Huskies in 2011 and 2012 were: assisting in all aspects of the football strength and conditioning program; creating and producing position specific training, and assisting with weekly game plan preparation, charting game day tendencies, protections, and assisting in defensive run game adjustments.