PINE BLUFF -- A day after Ben Anderson signed to play football at Arkansas-Pine Bluff 4 1/2 years ago, he was taking swings at a baseball off a tee at Little Rock Parkview High School.
Not long into his workout, one of his baseball coaches approached him. As Anderson tells it, the coach had just taken a phone call from an LSU baseball coach who wanted to know if Anderson, an outfielder, was interested in signing to play baseball at a junior college and then joining the Tigers' program the following year.
At a glance
SCHOOL Arkansas-Pine Bluff
CLASS Senior
HEIGHT 6-3
WEIGHT 200 pounds
POSITION Quarterback
HOMETOWN Pine Bluff
NOTEWORTHY Has won 18 games in 34 starts in three seasons for the Golden Lions. … Led UAPB to its first outright Southwestern Athletic Conference title in 2012. … Has gained 8,372 career yards of total offense, a school record. … UAPB’s first four-year starter at quarterback in more than three decades.
Anderson’s year-by-year statistics
YEAR;COMP.;ATT.;YARDS;TD;INT.;RUSHES;YARDS;TD
2011;166;309;1,893;10;9;98;28;2
2012;174;299;2,346;16;115;519;5
2013;210;357;2,777;19;11;183;809;9
TOTALS;550;965;7,016;45;33;396;1,356;16
The Tigers were a day late. Anderson's path already had been set the day before.
"I almost broke down in tears, but everything happens for a reason," UAPB's senior quarterback recalled last week. "I'm not going to say I wished I could go back and do it over. If this was meant to happen, it happened."
Instead of possibly playing in the outfield for one of college baseball's most storied teams, Anderson has carved out what has been one of the most successful and unpredictable careers of any UAPB football player.
When the Golden Lions open the season Aug. 30 at Texas State, Anderson is expected to start his 35th consecutive game. One school official said it's been more than 30 years since a quarterback started all four years at the school.
Anderson also will try to build on his 18 victories. His 7,016 passing yards and 45 touchdowns are already school records, as are his 8,372 yards of total offense. If Anderson gains 1,628 yards this season, he'll break the 10,000-yard mark, something only 33 players in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision have done.
What he'll likely look back on most fondly, however, is leading UAPB to the school's first outright Southwestern Athletic Conference title two years ago, but he still wants more.
"I'm still greedy," Anderson said. "I'm not at the finish line yet, so I won't look back on anything until I'm done."
When he does, he'll see a few bumps, too.
In 2011, his first season as a starter, UAPB controlled its path to reach the SWAC title game for the first time in five years when a postgame brawl between Southern University of Baton Rouge led to dozens of suspensions and two consecutive losses to knock the Golden Lions out of the race.
Last year, UAPB was trying to defend its SWAC title when 12 players were ruled ineligible for at least one game because of NCAA certification concerns. Three starters were lost for the season, and UAPB lost its first seven games on its way to a 2-9 finish.
"A learning experience," Anderson said.
It also was Anderson's best all-around season statistically. Mostly because he had no choice, Anderson passed for 2,787 yards, ran for 824 and his 3,611 yards of total offense ranked sixth in the FCS.
UAPB's new offensive coordinator saw it firsthand when Anderson passed for 330 yards, rushed for 88 and combined for 5 touchdowns in a 50-42 loss at Alabama A&M.
"He makes you change things," said Anthony Jones, who was hired after spending the past 12 years as Alabama A&M's head coach. "You can't just go in there with a regular game plan. You got to go in there knowing how you're going to handle him or how you're going to attempt to handle him."
It's been a pleasant evolution to watch for UAPB Coach Monte Coleman.
Coleman said he can't remember who recruited Anderson -- UAPB is on its fourth offensive coordinator since it offered Anderson a scholarship -- but he remembers seeing him first at a camp in Pine Bluff before his junior season in 2008. Anderson never led Parkview to a state title, or even deep into the playoffs, and his highest high school honor was being named to the Class 6A all-state team by high school coaches.
Coleman offered him anyway, and Anderson committed to the Golden Lions over interest from Ouachita Baptist and Millsaps College. He redshirted in 2010 before winning a position battle during fall camp in 2011, and he's taken virtually every snap since for the Golden Lions.
"Good quarterback coming in," Coleman said. "He's one of the premier quarterbacks in the league right now."
Still, Coleman isn't sure he wants to see Anderson put up the statistics he did a year ago. He did much of that out of necessity because of what the ineligibility issues did to the offense. Jones would like to see Anderson evolve in ways other than putting up bigger statistics.
"He's already a dual threat," Jones said. "Now I want him to develop the mind so he's a triple threat. He knows what we're trying to do, and if he sees them try to take it away he can do what he has to do to make things right for us."
Anderson said he might join the UAPB baseball team after this season, but until then he'll try to cap a football career that has landed him in the UAPB record books after beginning unceremoniously.
"I've always played with a little bit of a chip on my shoulder," he said. "I'm used to being the underdog. It's kind of grown on me. I don't get discouraged by it at all. It always makes for a better story coming from the bottom."
Sports on 08/21/2014