Randy Sanders inducted into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame

Published 8:53 am Monday, May 1, 2023

By C.Y. Peters

Randy Sanders is the only person to have been a part of both the first and last  Bowl Championship Series(BCS) National Champions, having been quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator for the University of Tennessee in the first (1998) and quarterbacks coach for Florida State University in the last (2013).  From Morristown, Tennessee, Randy played sports at Morristown East High School.  He played football for the University of Tennessee from 1984 until 1988.  After graduation, he stayed on at UT as a volunteer assistant coach and spent 22 years at the University under Johnny Majors and Phillip Fulmer.

    Sanders left Tennessee following the 2005 season and became quarterbacks coach for head coach  Rich Brooks at Kentucky in 2006.  Kentucky had a winning record in each of his first three seasons, and the Wildcats won three straight bowl games for the first time in school history.  In 2013, Sanders joined Florida State as quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator under head coach Jimbo Fisher.  There he won 53 games and two ACC titles and, in 2013, won the National Championship.  He also coached Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jameis Winston, who went on to be the first pick in2015 NFL Draft and was selected by Tampa Bay.

    On December 17, 2017, the East Tennesee State named Sanders their eighteenth head coach.  ETSU was predicted to finish in the last two teams in the conference but Sanders team went 8-3, earning a share of the Southern Conference championship.  Sanders was named Southern Conference Coach of the Year and was one of 15 finalists for the Eddie Brown Coach of the Year Award.  He was inducted this past Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel in Johnson City into the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.