Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? dred teenage student-athletes with everything from Bible study to on- the-field development. The program morphed into his approach to foot- ball in 2010 when he took the head job for one year at Pope John Paul II High School in Boca Raton, Fla. Denson said he preaches the same principles to his running backs at Bethune-Cookman that he did for his high school team and while running Poise as a full-time operation. He credited his current group's success to growing "socially" off the field more so than improving on it. Denson's teammates from Notre Dame aren't surprised that he has returned to coaching, or that he's found success with a somewhat unique approach. "You go to work in the office in the business world and you do your job, and then you go home at night and that's the end of it. In coaching there's so much more," said former Irish quarterback Ron Powlus, who shared a backfield with Denson for three seasons. "You have so much more responsibility for a young per- son's development in life, and that is one of the great aspects of coaching — having the chance to help mold a young man. "I think Autry would be terrific at that." Powlus has worked as an assistant coach himself since 2005 at Notre Dame and Akron. He was most re- cently hired as Kansas's quarterbacks coach in December. He said he re- members Denson always having an upbeat attitude in the huddle and a smile on his face every time he ran the ball. Powlus and Denson actually started their careers on opposite sides of the ball. Notre Dame head coach Lou Holtz recruited Denson as a running back out of high school, but slid him over to cornerback when he arrived for training camp as a freshman. That experi- ment lasted one weekend once the season got started. Northwestern upset the Irish known for his mind games did threaten to move him much further during the season. Denson recalled a meeting with Holtz in late Septem- ber leading up to a big game against No. 4 Ohio State. The coach called him into his office and told the soph- omore to pick any school in the coun- Rk. Player, Years NOTRE DAME'S ALL-TIME LEADING RUSHERS 1. Autry Denson, 1995-98 2. Allen Pinkett, 1982-85 3. Vagas Ferguson, 1976-79 4. Darius Walker, 2004-06 5. Julius Jones, 1999-2003 17-15 in their opening game that year. In the locker room after the game, Holtz told Denson to practice with the running backs on Monday. He ran for 695 yards that year and earned a starting spot by the end of the season. The following fall he was moved again, this time to wide receiver to try to add some speed to that position. "A lot of our receivers graduated so he moved me to wide receiver. I cried like a baby again, but I said I have to trust in the process," Denson said. This time the position change lasted only one half before he got bumped back to his natural spot at running back. Holtz never took him out of the backfield again, but the old coach Attempts 854 889 673 693 634 Yards 4,318 4,131 3,472 3,249 3,018 try to transfer to because he didn't have what it takes to play at Notre Dame. "I'm sitting here really hurt, like, 'Coach what is going on?' because you don't know how to respond to this," Denson said. "We went through all of that, and he finally said, 'OK, just go back to class, and we'll talk about this later.' "It was all just to get fired up for Ohio State." Notre Dame lost that game 29-16. Denson broke his finger early in the game, but stuck around and returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown in the final minutes only to have it called back for a holding penalty. Holtz never questioned his spot on the team again. He went on to post three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and score 43 touchdowns in an Irish uniform. In today's game a pair of four-digit years as a running back is usually a ticket to the NFL Draft. Plus, passing is becoming the dominant mode of transportation for college offenses, making it hard for any back to ap- proach the 4,000-yard mark. Since Denson graduated in 1998, no other Notre Dame runner has come within 1,000 yards of catching him. None- theless, he is at least hopeful that his 13-year-old record will fall. "I pray that somebody breaks that Denson, who recently completed his first season as the running backs coach at Bethune-Cookman University, aspires to be a head coach on the Division I level. PHOTO COURTESY BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY www.BLUEANDGOLD.com thing soon," he said. "I love my uni- versity and if somebody breaks that record that means we're playing some pretty good football and win- ning a lot of games. I need somebody to step up and break that thing be- cause I want us to start winning more football games." ✦ FEBRUARY 2012 53