Big Andrew Gentry anxious for second season at BYU after transferring from Michigan

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Andrew Gentry is a mountain of a man at 6-foot-8, 315 pounds.

A former Michigan Man, he is settling into his second season in BYU football this fall. He’ll be among the anchors on the offensive line protecting BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier, and it’s a huge duty.

The big guy is up for the challenge.

He’s big enough to bully. He’s strong enough to push with authority. But his humility, his innate kindness and loyalty, are what really stand out.

Just don’t let him pile on if you are on the bottom.

Gentry will be one of the leaders on BYU’s offense this season, part of a unit praised by a myriad of outside observers, including NFL Draft Buzz.

This is what Draft Buzz projected for Gentry and company:

“The line is experienced and imposing. Center Bruce Mitchell anchors the group and is regarded as one of the best in the conference at the position, and mammoth 6-foot-8 right tackle Andrew Gentry, a Michigan transfer, returns after a full season of starts.

“Guards Sonny Makasini and Kyle Sfarcioc bring plenty of snaps, and the staff added Washington transfer Paki Finau and Stanford transfer Zak Yamauchi up front. BYU ran for 178 yards per game while allowing just 16 sacks a year ago, and the front is deep enough that the staff feels strong about its three-deep despite losing three starters.”

Oh, and yes, he’s been asked hundreds of times to compare the football cultures of Michigan and BYU since he transferred from Ann Arbor more than a year ago.

He’s in a perfect position to make that judgment and describe the spirit of LaVell Edwards Stadium and Kalani Sitake’s locker room as well as that of the Big House and a storied blue-blood program.

“I’d say if you look at some of the similarities, the first is that both are just championship programs,” said Gentry. “There’s a rich history for both of winning games, winning at the highest level, being consistent, being teams that people just don’t want to play. They are both physical teams.

“People know what they’re going to get when they play Michigan or BYU,” he said.

But the big difference is that at BYU there is the church element of the culture and for him, that was a big contrast.

“It’s a different world (in and around Ann Arbor). There are not very many members of the (Latter-day Saint) faith out there,” Gentry said.

“There are great people in Michigan. I love the people out there, and there are some members out there. I think there are 55,000 undergraduate students at Michigan and only seven active members of the church that were in the undergraduate program.”

While at Michigan, Gentry attended a small young single adult branch with about 60 active members, but that included two major universities between Eastern Michigan and the University of Michigan, plus people working for Ford and General Motors in that area.

“You’ve got a lot of people out there, but not very many members of the church — so that is different,” Gentry said.

“I’m very grateful to be here and surrounded by members of the church in Utah Valley, but I’m also really grateful for the experience I had out there to be a missionary and to make friends there with really great people.”

Gentry praised the coaches he had at Michigan, starting with head coach Jim Harbaugh, and also his current head coach Kalani Sitake.

“I see a lot of similarities between those two, but also differences,” he said. “I think the first similarity is they know how to win and they know how to do it consistently.

“Also, they love their players at the same time. Both are coaches you know care about you. They want to win, but they never did it at the expense of costing a relationship between players and coaches. They just knew how to motivate you to play well because you love the game of football and team you play for.”

Gentry said Sitake is “so laid-back and such a personable guy that you can have a conversation with, where coach Harbaugh seemed like he’s always hyped up on caffeine and ready to roll. But the cool thing is they both know how to win.”

Gentry, raised in Colorado, served a full-time mission in the Provo-Orem area where his father attended junior and senior high school. It is also where his grandparents Bob and Marilyn Gentry currently reside. Bob Gentry is a former superintendent of Provo School District.

Ironically, the big football player is back where he used to knock on doors wearing a white shirt and tie and preaching for his faith.

“Yeah, it’s surreal to be back here, that’s for sure,” said Gentry. “It’s kind of been a journey of how different things happen for different reasons, but it’s been really cool to look back and see how God stood behind everything that got me here when I needed to get here.”

Gentry will work with an offense that returns a lot of talent, including starting quarterback Bachmeier and the Big 12’s top running back LJ Martin. The Cougars will be searching for playmakers at the receiver spot after losing Chase Roberts, Parker Kingston and tight end Carsen Ryan.

Gentry likes what he sees and the building blocks on offense.

“I mean, when you bring back a guy like LJ Martin, who, in my opinion, is the best running back in the country, and you have him in the backfield in that rushing attack, it’s going to be tough for teams to stop him,” Gentry said. “But then, at the same time, having Bear Bachmeier back there, too, I don’t think people realize how good he’s going to be this year, and the jump that he’s going to make from that freshman season to that sophomore season.

“So I think we’re going to have a really dangerous team with a lot of different weapons, and that we’re going to be able to throw the ball over your head if we need to, we’re going to be able to run it up the gut if we need to.

“It’s a team that’s kind of a pick-your-poison of where they want to stop us, and I’m excited for what we can do.”

BYU will need to settle its guard combinations as Gentry and Washington transfer Paki Finau will be the bookends at left and right tackle. At center, Michell is being praised as one of the best centers in the country, certainly among the best in the Big 12.

This will be an interesting season for sure.

And Gentry’s big shoulders will be in the thick of it all.

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