Home is where the heart is.
For LSU tight ends coach Steve Ensminger, coaching in the city where he grew up and at the school where he played quarterback is a dream fitting the phrase.
Ensminger became LSU’s tight ends coach Feb. 25, replacing Don Yanowsky, who left LSU for Memphis.
With LSU’s 2010 spring practice nearly complete, Ensminger said he is blessed to coach at his alma mater. Ensminger played quarterback for LSU under coach Charles McClendon from 1976-79, and threw for 2,770 yards and 16 touchdowns during his career.
“I’ve coached for 28 years, and I’ve coached at some great schools,” Ensminger said. “But probably every coach in the country who’s coached on the college level would love to get back to the school they played at, so this is really exciting.”
Ensminger said playing for McClendon helped him realize his own calling to a coaching career.”He’s the greatest man in the world,” Ensminger said. “He helped me get into college coaching when I went to the national clinics. He would always call me aside, and we’d spend nights together eating and talking football.”
Ensminger’s wife, Amy, said moving back to Louisiana after her husband’s six-year tenure at Auburn “couldn’t come at a better time.” The couple’s oldest daughter, Krystalin, is getting married June 25 in Amy Ensminger’s hometown of Donaldsonville.
“It’s a lot easier to do things for the wedding being home,” Amy Ensminger said. “My family was really excited. It’s been a long time since we’ve been home.”
Steve Ensminger’s coaching career began in Louisiana at Nicholls State in 1982, where he was the wide receivers coach for two years. His next two stops were close by, as he spent three years each at McNeese State and Louisiana Tech as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Before his coaching career, Ensminger spent three years in the professional ranks playing in the Canadian Football League for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles.
Ensminger played for the Eagles under coach Dick Vermeil, another influential figure in his life.”Dick Vermeil was an outstanding coach, and knowing I wanted to coach, I asked if I could stay a little while longer just to learn the philosophy,” Ensminger said. “He is the smartest coach I’ve ever been around.We’d have quarterback meetings that would last four or five hours.”
LSU junior tight end Deangelo Peterson said Ensminger “is exciting to be around” and shows the tight ends exactly what he expects of them.
“He breaks down the simple stuff we get wrong,” Peterson said. “I want a coach who will push me to be better. He is that coach.”
Ensminger brings past experience in the Southeastern Conference with him to LSU.He was quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator at Georgia from 1991-93, and most recently, quarterbacks coach at Auburn in 2003 and tight ends coach there from 2004-08.
Ensminger has also coached in the high school ranks at Central High School from 2000-02, West Monroe High School in 2002 and Smiths Station High School in Alabama in 2009.
“Whether you’re in class all day or on the road all week, the fun part of coaching is getting to practice and watching the kids get better,” Ensminger said. “College kids are more mature, and they want to be good, so you don’t have to teach them everything.”
Steve Ensminger has coached in 11 different places throughout his career, and Amy Ensminger said being a coach’s wife brings joys and challenges because of the amount of traveling involved.
“It’s hard when you’re not doing so well, but that’s when you have to stick it out and support them as much as you can,” Amy Ensminger said. “When I had my kids, I didn’t have any family around. That was the hardest part … Of course you had the support of other coaches’ wives. We all had the pressures and had each other to talk to.”
Now Steve Ensminger has been reunited with his hometown, and LSU coach Les Miles said he knows Ensminger is in the right place.
“He’s demonstrated expertise in coaching on the offensive side of the ball, and he gives us a coach who will be very valuable in recruiting,” Miles said in February. “He’s also an LSU guy, which reinforces that this is the right hire for us.”
—–Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]