Football
Sep 20 (Sat)
5:00 pm MT
- Title:
- Inside Linebackers
- Phone:
- 719-333-0778
Ron Vanderlinden begins his sixth season at Air Force as the inside linebackers coach. Vanderlinden came to the Academy after 13 years at Penn State where he coached linebackers.
Vanderlinden’s time at the Academy has been memorable, leading linebacker Jordan Pierce to second-team all-conference honors while leading the Falcons and ranking sixth in the conference in tackles with 119 in 2015. Pierce had 19.5 tackles for loss and 7.0 sacks and registered 10 straight games with a stop behind the line of scrimmage during the season. In addition, Connor Healy was second on the team in tackles with 90 while forcing a team-best two fumbles. Both players were in their first season as full-time starters in 2014.
As linebackers coach for the Nittany Lions, Vanderlinden oversaw the school’s traditional “Linebacker U.” He helped develop a linebacker unit that included All-American 2005 Butkus and 2005/2006 Bednarik award winner Paul Posluszny, a consensus All-American and 2006 All-American and 2007 Bednarik Award winner Dan Connor. He also coached Michael Mauti to first-team all-Big Ten and first-team All-American honors in 2012. In addition, he had nine former players on NFL rosters in 2013.
In 1997, he was hired as the head coach of the Maryland Terrapins, a team without a bowl game and only one winning season since 1990. In both the 1999 and 2000 seasons, Maryland narrowly missed achieving a winning season and bowl game bid by losing their finale and ended both years with a 5-6 record. Vanderlinden recorded a 15-29 record.
Maryland improved significantly during Vanderlinden’s tenure, winning more games in 1999 than the previous two years combined. His staff also recruited players who would be instrumental in the team’s meteoric rise in 2001 to an ACC championship, a Bowl Championship Series game, and a top-10 final ranking. Some of these players included linebacker E.J. Henderson, quarterback Shaun Hill, and wide receiver Guilian Gary. Also during Vanderlinden’s tenure, running back Lamont Jordan set the school record for single-game rushing with 306 yards.
Vanderlinden’s 40-year coaching career began in 1978, as a graduate assistant at Bowling Green, where he also earned a master’s degree in 1979. He also coached as a graduate assistant at Michigan. His first full-time coaching position was with Ball State in 1981-82. From 1983 to 1991, he was the defensive line coach at Colorado under head coach Bill McCartney. During that timeframe, Colorado won the 1990 National Championship and three straight Big 8 championships. From 1992 to 1996, Vanderlinden served as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Northwestern. There he played a part in the reversal of fortunes of a struggling football program into a two-time Big Ten champion. Northwestern led the nation in scoring defense in 1995 and played in the its first Rose Bowl since 1936.
Vanderlinden is a 1978 graduate of Albion College where he played football as a four-year starting center. He was named all-conference two years and was part of the 1976 team that achieved a perfect 9–0 record. Both the 1976 and 1977 teams have since been inducted into the Albion College Hall of Fame.
Originally from Livonia, Mich., Vanderlinden played on two state championship teams at Divine Child High School in Dearborn, Mich., where he first interacted with McCartney, who was his high school head coach.
Vanderlinden and his wife, the former Lisa Eckstrom, have one son, Reid, a daughter, Chelsea and her husband David Schweer and two granddaughters, Lucy and Cora. Reid is a 2013 graduate of Johns Hopkins and was a four-year football letterman. He earned a master’s degree at Penn State and is currently working at Temple in academic support. Chelsea is a fourth-grade teacher in Indianapolis, Ind.
