Illinois State football head coach Brock Spack bolstered his offensive coaching, with the hiring of former Minnesota assistant coach Brian Anderson as the team’s new wide receivers coach in 2018.

Anderson recently spent his six seasons as an assistant coach on the Gopher Football staff, serving as wide receivers coach from 2014-16 after leading the Gophers' running backs from 2011-2013. 

Minnesota receivers flourished under Anderson in 2015. Sixteen different Gophers, seven of them receivers, combined to catch 251 passes for 2,793 yards and 15 touchdowns. The 251 receptions were the most by a Minnesota team since 2008 when it had 258. Gopher receivers combined to catch 158 passes (62.9 percent) for 1,794 yards with 12 touchdowns. Anderson coached senior KJ Maye to a record-breaking season in 2015. Maye, who started his Minnesota career as a running back, caught 73 passes for 773 yards and five touchdowns. His 73 receptions rank second all-time (most ever for a senior) in a single-season behind Eric Decker's 84 receptions in 2008 and his 773 yards are the most for a Gopher since Decker had 1,074 in 2008. 

Under Anderson's direction in 2014, Isaac Fruechte recorded Minnesota's first 100-yard receiving game since 2012. In 2013, Anderson helped produce the Gophers' first 1,000-yard running back since 2006. In 13 games, junior David Cobb rushed for 1,202 yards to become the first back to rush for more than 1,000 yards (and 1,200 yards) since Amir Pinnix. In 2012, Anderson coached Donnell Kirkwood, who churned out 926 yards during his redshirt sophomore year. 

Prior to his stint in Minneapolis, Anderson coached tight ends at Northern Illinois for three years from 2008-10 and coached wide receivers and kick returners at Southern Illinois from 2001-07 for head coach Jerry Kill. Prior to joining Southern Illinois, Anderson coached at Coffeyville (Kan.) Community College from 1997-2000. At Coffeyville, three of his student-athletes went on to play in the NFL, and Anderson also coached for two seasons at Highland Community College in Kansas (1996-97). He began his coaching career at Western Illinois, serving as a student assistant in 1994, before coaching wide receivers in 1995-96.

Anderson's playing career began at Ellsworth Community College in Iowa Falls, Iowa. At Ellsworth, Anderson took part in the 1988 Royal Crown Cola Bowl and the 1989 Mid-American Bowl, that season's NJCAA national championship game. He then moved on to Western Illinois, where he lettered as a wide receiver in 1991 and 1992.

Anderson holds a bachelor's degree from Western Illinois, and he and his wife, Kerri, have a daughter Annabelle.