When he was in high school, he stood all of 5-foot-11, had a comparatively smallish frame, and yet he yearned to be a tight end in the NFL. The dream didn't fit the tools. His father, who had a clearer view of the picture, often asked him, "Why do you even play football?"

It was a good question, really. Andersen never saw much time until he was a senior at Cottonwood High School, and that was facilitated by a growth spurt, landing him on the offensive line, immediately before that final prep season. He had been a quintessential scrub, at one point practicing to be a kicker just so he could get on the field.

It was all kind of a cruel hoax, a hoax that turned into a core track toward teaching football, not playing it.

He was slow to get the message, and that's part of the reason Andersen has become so effective as Utah's defensive coordinator, a position he has thrived in since taking over there in 2005. Playing the game wasn't bequeathed upon him. It was a hill to be scaled. And just when he ascended near to the top, it blew out his tendons and left him limping toward a career in coaching.

Adversity taught him lessons and altered his destiny.

"As a player, I learned to continue to fight," he says. "You set a goal, you reach a goal. Anyone who goes through anything, I understand. You have to sit down and listen to people, especially when you're coaching young kids."

The personal tale Andersen could tell goes like this: Love game despite slow start, strive to prove doubters wrong, walk on at Ricks College, earn a scholarship, transfer to Utah, work like a mother, get playing time, tear ligaments in knee, undergo surgery, work even more like a mother to come back, come all the way back, tear ligaments in the same knee again, get surgery again, rehab again, start asking your own questions like, "Why me?"

There was one more stop in Andersen's playing chronology: a tryout with the NFL's Rams. He had already been rejected by three or four other teams, but got one last shot in 1987. He lasted three weeks - until his knee exploded a third time.

"That was the worst one," he says, "because I knew then and there that football was over."

In reality, it had only begun.

The injury pushed Andersen onto the sideline, where he's spent the past 20 years journeying from place to place, finally landing and sticking as an assistant at Utah. En route, he studied the game and the people who play it, learning basics and nuances, X's and O's and motivational techniques, schemes and communication skills.

"He's like a second father to me," says senior defensive lineman Greg Newman. "He's developed me into the player I am. He knows all the smallest details and all the intangibles. And he cares about a player's individual success. He's just a great coach."

Andersen applied the same tenacity to teaching as he did playing, only this time he found within himself better tools. And no injury could derail him.

He started in 1988 at Southeastern Louisiana, where he was hired to help build a new program as an assistant head coach. It lasted four months - until administrators changed their minds and ditched football. From there, he and his wife, Stacey, drove back to their home in Salt Lake, and ended up at Ricks College, where Andersen coached for three years.

Thereafter, he somewhat serendipitously met up with Kyle Whittingham, whom he had not previously known, at Idaho State. That meeting and working relationship had profound effects later at Utah. Eventually, Whittingham went to Utah under Ron McBride; Andersen took the head-coaching job at Park City High School.

Andersen next got a call from Bronco Mendenhall, who was at Northern Arizona, asking him if he wanted to coach the defensive line there. Andersen took it, but two weeks later Mendenhall jumped to Oregon State. Andersen, too, left a year later, this time to be an assistant at Utah.

He says those early years with the Utes formed the foundation for his current defensive philosophies - following the lead of Fred Whittingham, Kyle's father, who originally molded the schemes during his years of coaching in the college game and in the NFL.

"What we do now is rooted in what Fred did," Andersen says. "Man coverage with a safety in the middle of the field, the terminology, the work ethic, the preparation, it's all from Fred Whittingham."

Essentially, that defense incorporates the aforementioned man coverage on the outside, allowing the Utes to put an eighth man in the box. Andersen's primary goal on each snap is to cancel all the gaps, and have his best players make the plays.

"It's sound defense," he says. "Everybody has a purpose."

Andersen, who was let go after the 2002 season, along with most of McBride's staff, was quickly hired as head coach at Southern Utah, where he stayed for one season. Urban Meyer tried to hire him back immediately, but Andersen had already committed to SUU, where he stayed for one year.

After that, Meyer's offer was too tempting, so Andersen returned to the Utes before the 2004 season. He was subsequently promoted to defensive coordinator by Whittingham, and he's remained in that capacity since.

"Kyle's done a good job of delegating," Andersen says. "He could have said, 'I'm the head coach, you're the defensive coordinator, but you're really not. I am.' It hasn't been that way."

Instead, Andersen has further earned the respect of his players and his boss, heading up a defense that has been a highlight during his time running it.

"Gary's done a great job for us," Whittingham says. "We hit it off right from the get-go. He's a good defensive coordinator, and he'll make a great head coach in the future."

Andersen makes no attempt to hide his interest in progressing into a job at the head of a program. He did it at SUU, and he believes he's ready to do it at the top college level now. Two decades of putting in 90-hour weeks during each season, he says, have taught him most of what he needs to know.

Fact is, the man is ready. He has the experience, the knowledge, the charisma, the management skills, and the trust of other coaches and his players. A smart athletic director will look his way, sooner rather than later.

Meantime, Andersen does his work at Utah, teaching his players, running his defense, honing his craft, enjoying his game, same as it ever was.

"I love football," he says.

And, finally, it loves him back.

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* GORDON MONSON hosts "The Monson and Graham Show" weekdays 2-6 p.m. on 1280 AM The Zone. He can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com.