Playing catchup, new Utah State football coach Blake Anderson brings in a load of transfers on signing day

The Utah State football team featured a slew of younger, inexperienced players on its roster last year. Inexperience bred inconsistency, and it led to a disappointing 1-5 record.

In an effort to alleviate that issue, coach Blake Anderson made a point to bring in experience with his 2021 class of new players. Of the 19 announced Wednesday, 11 are transferring from a college program — 10 from Division I schools, one from a junior college.

Three of the transfers — junior quarterback Logan Bonner, senior wide receiver Brandon Bowling and senior linebacker Justin Rice — played for Anderson when he was at Arkansas State. That prior relationship was instrumental in them deciding to join the Aggies.

Anderson said Bonner and Bowling already had plans to leave Arkansas State before he decided to take the job at USU. And because the two were roommates and close friends, they came as a package.

Rice, on the other hand, was undecided about whether to declare for the NFL draft or return to college. If he did return, Anderson said, he would not want to go through another coaching change. His familiarity with Anderson, special teams coordinator Nick Paremski and passing game coordinator Kyle Cefalo appears to have made the decision easy for him.

Anderson said he did not want to formally recruit his three former players. If they decided to join the Aggies, he wanted it to happen naturally.

“[I] encouraged every single one of those players to go back to Arkansas State and to see how things go,” Anderson said Wednesday during a virtual press conference. “But these three guys clearly were not going back, were going to move on with their careers. We’re really lucky to have them here with us.”

The addition of Bonner is perhaps the most intriguing. From the outside, it could indicate Anderson is already tapping his former quarterback to be the starter at Utah State. Other than sophomore Andrew Peasley, the other three quarterbacks on USU’s roster are freshmen.

But Anderson rebuked that idea, saying he has never promised a starting spot to any player.

“Whoever wins the job this spring is going to be the starting quarterback,” Anderson said. “He obviously has the skill to do that. But I think we have other guys in the room that have skill as well.”

Eight players in USU’s full 2021 signing class are from the state of Utah. Anderson said that in the future, he would love to see “over half” of recruiting classes consist of local players.

That said, Anderson seems open to exploring how getting players from the transfer portal will work out. He said the portal is “uncharted territory” for the Aggies.

“I think we have to see what kind of success we have with the transfers that we’ve brought in, see how they blend with the team, how they find in our culture, and then kind of make decisions moving forward,” Anderson said.

Anderson added that he would not ever want an entire signing class to be made up of transfers.

Utah State announced four signings during the early period, and added Peoples three days later. Anderson said with the combination of the early signing period, transfer portal pickups and return missionaries, he really only signed three players on Wednesday.

“That is unique territory,” Anderson said.

As a whole, Anderson said that from a physical standpoint, the staff wanted to recruit speed. But when it came to team culture, the team wanted players who would “buy in to how we’re going to do things.”

“We really stressed faith, family and a fun environment of football,” Anderson said.