Bart Andrus

Bart Andrus (born March 30, 1958 in Los Angeles, California) is an American football coach. He was the head coach of the NFL Europa team the Amsterdam Admirals where he has held that position from 2001 until 2007, when the NFL Europa ceased operations.

History

Andrus graduated from the University of Montana, where he played quarterback for four years from 1978 to 1981. One of Andrus' earliest experiences with coaching was when he served for three years as head coach at St. Patrick High School in Vallejo, California. After this, in 1984, he went to work as graduate assistant at Brigham Young University, followed by serving as offensive coordinator at three different schools: Humboldt State (1986-1989), Montana State (1990-1991) and Southern Utah University (1993-1995).

After this Bart Andrus continued his - now 25 year running - coaching career and advanced to coaching at collegiate level when he served as head coach at Rocky Mountain College for one season in 1996. For this he received the 1996 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Coach of the Year Award because of his efforts in restructuring a struggling program that had not managed to win a game in four years. With Andrus at the helm, Rocky Mountain ended the season at 6-4 with their offense ranking first in the nation.

Andrus moved on to spend three seasons in the NFL with the Tennessee Oilers as an offensive assistant from 1997-1998 and as the quarterbacks coach (tutoring NFL star Steve McNair) in 1999 when the team had been renamed to Tennessee Titans. He was a member of the Titans coaching staff during Super Bowl XXXIV following the 1999 NFL season.

In the new millennium, Andrus changed the United States for Europe, when he took the position as offensive coordinator for the NFL Europa team Rhein Fire, located in Düsseldorf, Germany. Here he won his first World Bowl ring with his new team. Fire's offense topped the league in total yards gained and total points scored that year with Andrus as offensive coordinator.

One year later Bart Andrus switched to the NFLE team the Amsterdam Admirals when the position of head coach became available there. During this year Andrus lead the Admirals to a 4-6 season, only just missing out on clinching a berth in World Bowl IX with a loss in week 10 (the final week). Three years later, in 2004, Andrus guided the Admirals to their first non-losing season since 1998 by establishing a 5-5 record.

Probably due to his own history as quarterback and later on as quarterback coach, Andrus has traditionally provided the Admirals with strong offensive teams. This is shown by the fact that the Admirals ranked number one in total offense in 2005, averaging 357.4 yards per game. After posting a 6-4 mark that year and leading his team to victory for the first time in World Bowl XIII against three-time World Bowl winner Berlin Thunder, he was named NFL Europa League Coach of the Year and earned his second World Bowl ring. While guiding the Admirals to a league-best 7-3 regular season record in 2006, Andrus was once again coaching one of NFL Europa's most potent offenses, with his men averaging 332.3 yards per game. However, his team did not manage to deliver him his third World Bowl ring after he lost his starting quarterback.

On January 20 2006 the Atlanta Falcons interviewed head coach Bart Andrus for their vacancy at quarterback coach. However, Andrus will be filling the position of head coach for the Amsterdam Admirals in 2006 for the seventh year in a row.

Georgia Tech interviewed Bart also in 2007, but he decided to stay with the Admirals.

On July 27 2008 the Tennessee Titans added Bart Andrus to their coaching staff. He was hired as an offensive assistant coach.

Sources:
* [http://www.nfleurope.com/teams/coaches NFLEurope.com]
* [http://www.admirals.nl/team/coaches/bio_andrus.html Admirals.nl]