Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? Autry Denson, 1995-98 Running Back Notre Dame's all-time leading rusher is off to a strong start in his coaching career BY DAN MURPHY back Autry Denson. It would be hard to pin down a single game or even a season when he reached his peak. The 5-10, 180-pound back just kept coming back. Denson played the role of work- T horse with pride for Notre Dame in the late 1990s and along the way grinded out a program-record 4,318 rushing yards. Denson topped 100 yards in a game 21 times during his four years in the backfield at Notre Dame, which is just two behind re- cord holder Allen Pinkett. Teammates agree with Denson when he says that a genuine love for the game was the instrument to his consistent success. Four years of playing in college and six more on the professional level weren't enough to get his fill. After a few years in the business world, Denson got back into the game as a coach. He just finished his first season as the running backs coach at Bethune-Cookman Univer- sity, a member of the Football Cham- pionship Subdivision. "The game has been good to me," Denson said. "I've been blessed to have so many successes, and I've learned so many life lessons from the game of football that it was a natu- ral transition to feel obligated and responsible to give back to the same game that gave so much to me." The Wildcats won their last six games of the season to finish with an 8-3 record and improved their run game despite losing their lead- ing rusher from an undefeated 2010 season. Redshirt sophomore Isidore Jackson led the team with 866 rush- ing yards. As a group, Denson's backs led a rushing attack that aver- aged 259 yards per game, which was crucial for a team that started three different quarterbacks this year. Denson said his past experience on the field gave him some instant 52 FEBRUARY 2012 Denson topped 100 yards in a game 21 times during his four years with the Irish and finished with a program-best 4,318 rushing yards. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME SPORTS INFORMATION credibility in the locker room. After finishing his record-setting career at Notre Dame, the undersized Denson was drafted by the Tampa Bay Bucca- neers and bounced around the NFL for four years. He spent a season with the NFL Europe's Rhein Fire before ending his playing days on a high note by rushing for a career-high 772 yards for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League. The grind of playing in foreign lands and a desire to make the most of his Notre Dame degree caused Denson to retire. He returned to his native Florida to spend more time with his wife and four kids, and took a job in a managerial position at Mer- rill Lynch. He tried to stay connected with the game by volunteering while working full-time in the business world, but eventually the void left by football's absence was too much. Denson thinks his experience at Merrill Lynch and on the field will help him in the long run. He said he has no doubt that he will land a head coaching job at a Division I school before he is done. "I say that not to be arrogant; I say that because I understand that what I'm doing is a bigger cause," he said. "I'm not just coaching football. I'm using this platform in athletics to in- fluence lives positively." Denson's coaching career began three years ago without a team. He left Merrill Lynch with no plans other than to return to football and soon formed his own youth program called Poise — an acronym for Per- severance, Opportunity, Intelligence, Sacrifice and Effort. The program helped several hun- BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED here isn't any one play that sticks out in the career of Irish running