Utah State will need a new head coach. Blake Anderson was fired in July after the school claimed he improperly handled a Title IX situation.
Anderson and his lawyer have disputed the school’s stance and may take legal action, but Anderson is not coming back as head coach. He went 23-17 in three seasons, winning the Mountain West in 2021 and reaching bowl games each year.
Preseason changes at Utah State and Fresno State give the Mountain West eight new head coaches entering 2024.
So where could the Utah State search go? We obviously have to wait to see the season play out first, but here are the factors and potential names to keep in mind.
This program has become a consistent winner
Utah State football dates back to 1892 and enjoyed a winning history for much of the 20th century. But its results began to dip in the 1980s as it struggled to garner support to join the Western Athletic Conference with Utah and BYU. The program finally picked up again in the late 2000s starting with Gary Andersen’s arrival in 2009.
USU has reached a bowl in 11 of the last 13 seasons across four head coaching stints (two by Andersen), winning at least 10 games four times. It has become a job where coaches know they can win, which will help its appeal.
Utah State has been behind in NIL, but facilities are a plus
The Aggies have seen a high number of starters transfer out of the program in recent years, though Utah State did a better job this past offseason of holding onto them. Blake Anderson was appreciative of the Blue A Collective that helps USU athletes, but he admitted on signing day last year that more work needs to be done, even to keep pace at the Mountain West level.
“It is far from where it needs to be to be truly competitive,” Anderson said last December. “We’re in a different world, but it was a good first step. And I appreciate that they did stay. I appreciate the people that did help. This is a good first step, but this is not a finished product, we still have a long way to go. And our league is only going to get stronger and more difficult to compete in. I think this is a great first step towards them. … We have a ton of room to make up.”
On a positive note, the facilities have been strong for a while and are in the upper tier of the Mountain West. The Aggies have had an indoor practice field since 1998. Maverik Stadium has space for a training table and nutrition. There’s a sports medicine complex attached to the stadium and a sports performance facility.
Anderson’s $1.37 million salary was middle-of-the-pack in the Mountain West but might be high enough to entice some power conference coordinators.
Will regional ties be necessary?
Logan is a remote town, and getting recruits to campus can be tough. The program also has had a long history of success with players of Polynesian descent and players returning from missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; the Aggies typically have the second-highest number of players on missions, behind BYU. That takes an understanding of the culture and the system, as well as good roster management. The team boycotted its last game in 2020 over a comment from the school president about interim coach Frank Maile’s background, which players perceived as discriminatory.
Anderson had no regional connections as a Texan who’d mostly coached in the Southeast, but he had a similar background as former AD John Hartwell, who hired him. He embraced how the players felt when he arrived in late 2020, and the next year’s team won the Mountain West.
Current Utah State AD Diana Sabau came from the Big Ten and previously worked at Ohio State. Could she look toward someone from the Midwest?
So what names could get in the mix?
The list has to start with interim head coach Nate Dreiling, because the season has yet to take place. Dreiling was formerly the defensive coordinator who came over from New Mexico State last winter. We saw both Northwestern and Boise State promote interim head coaches who won after taking over last year. If Dreiling can have a good interim season, perhaps the search stops there.
BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill has been in the state of Utah for his entire life and would bring head coaching experience. The University of Utah alumnus coached at the school from 2001 to ‘13 before going to FCS Weber State as head coach and leaving with a 68-39 record. He posted a top-10 finish in four of his last five years before joining the BYU staff.
Former Boise State and Auburn coach Bryan Harsin’s name floated around a lot of Mountain West jobs last year. Harsin went 69-19 as Boise State’s head coach from 2014 to ‘20. He won the Fiesta Bowl and finished with a No. 16 ranking in his first season but never quite reached that level again, though he did go 45-8 in Mountain West play and won three conference championships. Harsin was fired less than two years into his tenure at Auburn, a place that never made sense from a fit or culture perspective. But back out west, he could be a good fit again.
Montana State head coach Brent Vigen was in the mix for several Mountain West jobs last year. He’s 32-9 in three-plus seasons, reaching the FCS national championship in 2021 and the semifinal in 2022. Before that, he was a Wyoming offensive assistant for seven seasons and a North Dakota State assistant for 16 years.
Idaho head coach Jason Eck has turned the Vandals from a losing team into a top-10 FCS program, going 9-4 and reaching the FCS quarterfinals in Eck’s second season. He was previously at South Dakota State, including three years as offensive coordinator.
South Dakota State head coach Jimmy Rogers went 15-0 in his first season after being promoted to head coach following a decade as an assistant there. Rogers is expected to get more attention if SDSU continues its recent run supplanting North Dakota State as the top program in the FCS, but pulling Rogers away from his alma mater could be tough.
Washington State defensive ends coach Frank Maile would be a Utah State guy. The 42-year-old played at the school and spent a decade on staff, including two stints as interim head coach. The school president who made comments about his background is no longer there, but the tension around that situation might not be something the school wants to revisit.
Georgia Tech associate head coach Ricky Brumfield is a former Utah State player who has coached all over the country, including in the NFL. As Georgia Tech’s special teams coordinator, Brumfield produced a freshman All-America kicker and led a unit that finished third nationally with four blocked kicks. He has also coached at Virginia, UTSA, Western Kentucky and FIU.
Air Force offensive coordinator Mike Thiessen has been an Air Force lifer, but he continues to do well and get interest for head coaching jobs. He’s a former Falcons player and has been on some kind of Air Force staff for the last 20 years.
Would Kansas State co-offensive coordinator Matt Wells be interested in coming back? He went 44-34 as USU head coach from 2013 to ‘18, including two 10-win seasons. That came after eight years as an assistant at his alma mater. He was fired midway through his third season at Texas Tech, finishing with a 13-17 record. He spent the past two years at Oklahoma in an off-field role and nearly got the New Mexico job last winter, before taking the co-OC job at K-State. The Wildcats could have a big season with quarterback Avery Johnson. The last time Utah State went back to a former head coach with Gary Andersen, it was a disaster. Would the school try again?
Former Nebraska and UCF head coach Scott Frost is about to spend his second year out of coaching while living in Arizona, but he was on a rapid rise before Nebraska, including a successful run as Oregon’s offensive coordinator that saw Marcus Mariota win the Heisman Trophy. He took over a winless UCF program and went 13-0 in his second season. His 16-31 record at Nebraska has been tough to overcome. If he’s able to show he’s ready to run a program again, perhaps he could get a look.
Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein is entering his first season with the Aggies after seven seasons at his alma mater Kansas State, including the last two as offensive coordinator. The 34-year-old former Heisman Trophy finalist has impressed as he’s risen up the coaching ranks in Manhattan, and a big season in College Station could get him looks at more Group of 5 head coaching jobs.
Oregon tight ends coach Drew Mehringer spent 2021 as New Mexico’s quarterbacks coach, so he’s been in the conference. The 36-year-old has moved around, coaching at eight different schools since 2013, including Ohio State and Texas. While with the Longhorns, he was ranked as one of the top recruiters in the country.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.