Where Do Utah State Aggies Go Now? Deseret News

Few people have any idea what Utah State football will look like this fall.

For good reason.

American football head coach Blake Anderson has all but left Utah State after an external investigation found that he, associate athletic director Jerry Bovee and USU director of player development and community Austin Albrecht violated university policies regarding reporting of sexual and domestic violence and neglect of professional responsibilities.

Losing a head coach so close to the start of the season raises serious questions, but the loss of Anderson in particular, as he also served as the Aggies' offensive play caller (co-offensive coordinator) and quarterbacks coach.

Anderson was the architect of USU's prolific offense, which finished the 2023 season ranked 26th in the nation's scoring rankings.

Defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling, new to Utah State in January, has been named the team's interim head coach. He will become the youngest head coach at the FBS level in 2024.

Nate Dreilings coaching background

By most accounts, Dreiling, 33, is a rising star in the coaching industry, and much of that praise comes from his work at New Mexico State.

Those other Aggies have traditionally been among the most dismal programs in the entire FBS, but over the past two years, New Mexico State has been competitive enough to beat Auburn in Alabama and play for a Conference USA championship. Dreilings' defense has played a key role in that success.

Bud Elliott of 247 Sports maybe best said, saying, Nate Dreiling did great at New Mexico State (relatively considering the lack of athleticism you can draft there) and I thought he would do a better job than Utah State DC. Utah State HC is more like it.

What kind of head coach Dreiling will be is anyone’s guess, simply because he’s never done the job before. So far, he’s been defensive coordinator (USU, NMSU and Pittsburg State, the latter his alma mater), defensive run game coordinator and inside linebackers coach, safeties coach and defensive analyst.

Change in the selection at Utah State

However, there's more to the confusion surrounding the Aggies' future than just the unknown of Dreiling.

After making it through the first transfer window of the offseason relatively unscathed, safety Devin Dye was the only player on the Aggies roster to depart. USU was decimated by transfer-portal defectors in the spring.

Some of the players who left are familiar faces, such as quarterback McCae Hillstead (he ended up at rival BYU) and running back Davon Booth. Others, however, were not, such as defensive end John Ward and linebacker Gavin Barthiel.

When you add it all up, you have to conclude that Utah State has had to replace more than 50 players who were on the roster last season through transfers, firings, retirements and graduations.

To put it in perspective, the average FBS team has a roster of around 115-120 players. That means USU will have had to replace nearly 42% of its roster from 2023-2024… a year after they did something pretty eerily similar in terms of roster construction.

The number of players who have been replaced or need to be replaced is also likely to increase, as NCAA rules dictate that players have 30 days to register for the free agency market after their head coach is fired.

That means players like safety Ike Larsen, wide receiver Jalen Royals and running back Rahsul Faison, among many others, are once again eligible to be traded to the opposing team.

Many, if not most, Aggie players will likely not be able to find landing spots at this point in the year, simply because most teams have largely finalized their rosters. But there will always be spots available for the right players.

Even if Dreiling and the Aggies somehow manage to keep most of the team, there are still a lot of unknowns.

Anderson coached the quarterbacks himself, and that position space is made up of transfers (all of whom come in this offseason) in Spencer Petras, Bryson Barnes, Jacob Conover and C.J. Tiller. There is no continuity in that space, the most important space in sports.

The defense was one of the worst in college football a year ago. They were ranked 120th in scoring defense, 126th in rushing defense, 61st in pass efficiency defense, 128th in first down defense, and the list goes on.

Even if Dreiling is a defensive savant, there’s a real possibility the Aggies still have a lot of ground to make up to become even an average FBS defense, let alone a good one. That task could only get harder with potential transfer portal overflows.

Reasons for Hope

All of this isn't to say that Logan is all doom and gloom.

Right now, the Aggies appear to have a good to excellent offense, with co-offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo still on staff.

Most of last year's key offensive players are back, including, for now, the Royals' dynamic, record-setting receiver.

But alongside him, the Aggies still have veteran pass catcher Micah Davis, an explosive ball carrier in Faison and a stalwart in Robert Briggs III. They also boast veteran tight ends in Will Monney and Josh Sterzer, plus some key upgrades along the offensive line in transfers George Maile and Trey Andersen, to go along with promising newcomers in Bo Maile and Teague Andersen.

Other talent is also acquired during the offseason, such as junior college All-American wide receiver Robert Freeman IV.

When Utah State Athletics' Reach and Rise fundraising campaign was announced in June, Cefalo was optimistic about the Aggies' offense and how it could perform this season.

I feel great and it starts with the kids that chose to stay, he said. We have a lot of kids, the kids that chose to stay here, your Jalen Royals, your Ike Larsens. They had the opportunity to leave and they chose to stay here. They stayed and they want to make the most of it.

From an offensive standpoint, from a wide receivers standpoint, I go into my meeting room and I have one new face in there, he continued. We have a bunch of kids that chose to be here, that chose to stay. And they're good players, too.

Cefalo also wasn’t worried about the newcomers at quarterback, noting that Petras only has one year of eligibility left and wants to make the most of it. He’s also not your typical transfer quarterback, having coached at Iowa last season while he rehabbed from an injury.

Petras attended the fundraiser and said she truly believes in the Aggies' offense and what Utah State can accomplish this season.

“I've adapted quickly (to the attack) and it's a lot of fun,” he said. “Like any tempo or system, if it's done well, it's a huge advantage, so I'm looking forward to it.”

He added: First of all, the Mountain West championship is our goal. With the way the playoffs are structured now, there are bigger goals to be had than that (even). I'm not a big fan of talking about something like that. I just know that if you do things right day in and day out and you play well and have a good team, you're going to be rewarded.

All the faith and optimism in the world can’t hide the fact that there are still countless questions surrounding Utah State’s football season. And there’s little time to come up with solutions as fall camp quickly approaches.

The Aggies' season opener against Robert Morris is just 60 days away. The rivalry game at home against Utah is just 74 days away, starting Tuesday night.

You can be sure that the staff and team know that too.

As coaches we had to tell ourselves that this is our team and we have to embrace it, instead of complaining about the changes, Cefalo said, referring to the roster changes over the past two years.

It is a statement that now carries even more weight.

I think we've done a fantastic job putting the team together, Cefalo added, and now we have a lot of work to do to be successful.

Now that Anderson is gone, there is more work than ever.

That's the only thing that's really certain about Utah State football at this point. That Anderson is no longer the Aggies' head coach and that the program, now in the Dreiling era, has a lot of work to do and little time to do it.