Stanford Coach Lance Anderson Broyles Award Nominee

Stanford Defensive Coordinator Lance Anderson is a nominee for the 2014 Broyles Award.

"The Broyles Award honors the top assistant college football coach in America and was established in 1996 to honor legendary Arkansas Head Coach Frank Broyles."

This is Anderson's first season as the Willie Shaw Director of Defense, he replaced Derek Mason when Coach Mason left for Vanderbilt. Anderson previously coached the linebackers before being promoted to Defensive Coordinator. Coach Anderson is also the team's liaison to the admission's department ensuring that Stanford football recruits will surpass the rigorous Stanford admission requirements.

It is difficult to imagine giving a coaching award to a coach of a team playing just above .500. Stanford's defense has played well all season. Given the state of the Stanford offense, it is safe to say that if Coach Anderson's unit had not played as well as they have this season, then Stanford certainly would not be going bowling this year.

The Stanford defense will have an excellent opportunity to bolster Coach Anderson's candidacy for the award on Friday afternoon when they face the 8th ranked team in the nation, UCLA. The Stanford defense has currently allowed only 16.5 points per game which is 7th best in the nation. UCLA, however, is currently ranked 30th in the nation in scoring offense. Stanford is likely to be the toughest defense that UCLA has faced all year and should be an exciting matchup.