Many people believe that when a coach’s kid plays on their team, that kid gets preferential treatment. Not in the case of former Wisconsin, now current Oregon State head football coach Greg Andersen. According to reports his own son, who’s a Wisconsin walk-on didn’t find out his dad was leaving the team and heading West to Oregon State until he told the rest of the team did.
The coach explained his decision to keep this big news from his son in his introductory press conference at Oregon State.
“It was hard for Chasen. I felt he needed to be educated in that process,” Andersen said, as transcribed by Coaching Search. “He was on that team and part of that team, and I wanted Chasen to be educated in that process the way the rest of the team was. He is a young man now. He is not a 13- or 14-year-old kid. He is not going to be living with us here and is out on his own. He was given an opportunity to hear it just like the rest of the team was. I think that took him a little bit by surprise, and I get that, but that is just what I thought was best as a dad and I thought that was best as a coach.”
His reasons for not telling his son he was leaving Wisconsin actually make a lot of sense. Why should his son get special treatment? Sure he’s in a rare position where his college football coach is also his father but if he were in any other situation he would find out with the rest of his teammates. I think Andersen did the right thing as not only a coach, but a dad. His son is now transferring and most likely heading West with his dad.
H/T: The Big Lead