For most of Damien Anderson’s news conference Friday, head coach Randy Walker sat stoically by his side, staring off into space.

He had the dazed look of a coach whose top running back had just bolted to the NFL.

But as Anderson rose from his chair at the end of his “I’m staying” conference, Walker slapped him on the arm and broke into a grin as wide as any hole the Heisman candidate will see next year.

“Obviously I’m very excited for him and for our football program,” said Walker, now entering his third season at Northwestern. “He makes us a better football team when he walks on the field. He’s going to be a strong representative of Northwestern for a long time.”

Walker downplayed his role in Anderson’s decision, saying he talked more with Damien’s father, Boysen Anderson, than with the tailback himself. But Walker did reveal that he gave Anderson one big piece of advice.

“The most concrete piece of advice I gave Damien was about a week ago,” Walker said. “I said, ‘Hey, there’s something in your heart, and you need to trust it.’ I said this is a win-win situation. He is a rare underclassman who will graduate in June. I can’t sit here as a coach and say, ‘Come back for your education.'”

Anderson’s father informed the coach midweek that his son would return. The two men had worked to gather opinions as to where Anderson might be drafted, and Anderson said Walker helped the family track down sources for reliable advice and information.

Walker’s willingness to help, as well as his hands-off approach, allowed Anderson to feel comfortable with making a decision.

“I didn’t want it to be an emotional decision – I wanted it to be a smart decision,” Anderson said. “And Coach Walker being a coach, he wants what’s best for me. That’s what I appreciate about the whole situation. He told me to look into it. He told me, ‘If you have that opportunity, go for it. But at the same time, do what’s in your heart.'”

Walker made it clear to Anderson that he wouldn’t get royal treatment if he decided to return. Walker is renowned for his taxing conditioning programs and generally demands a lot of his players.

Anderson, Walker has said, will not have any red carpets waiting for him at practice.

“You know what you’re getting into coming back,” Walker said. “I promised Damien, ‘Listen, I’m not going to treat you with kid gloves just because you’re a Heisman Trophy candidate. I’m going to yell at you just like I always do, and get after you and coach you hard.’

“I said, ‘You need to really want to be here to stay here.'”

Walker stressed the need for Anderson to be comfortable and happy. The coach was determined not to talk him into staying just because the team is better off with him back.

In fact, Walker suggested the team might be worse off if Anderson returned with his heart set on playing in the NFL.

“If I talked him into staying and he didn’t really want to, we’d have some issues. We would probably have some problems,” Walker said. “Damien is staying because he wants to stay, not because I talked him into it – he really thinks this is the right thing to do. I do the same thing in recruiting. And I never try to hard-sell kids. I want people who want to be here, whether they’re guys who could be Heisman Trophy winners or they’re guys who will just be freshmen.”

Walker said he “would have understood either way,” but Anderson wasn’t too sure the coach was expecting him to run for the professional ranks. The nation’s second-leading rusher said he was leaning toward staying for most of the time and guessed that Walker was likely thinking the same way.

“I think he knew,” Anderson said. “Personally, I think he knew the whole time.”