Nate Dreiling stood out at Mountain West Conference football media days.
In his blue suit with an accompanying blue tie — he was the only one of the conference’s 12 coaches who elected to wear a full suit to the proceedings — it was apparent that the 33-year old interim head coach of Utah State football wanted to be taken seriously.
And though he is the youngest head football coach in all the FBS and inheritor of a situation few would be envious of after USU fired Blake Anderson as the program’s leader, Dreiling should be taken seriously.
The moment he opened his mouth Thursday while being interviewed on the Mountain West Network, it became clear that Dreiling knows football.
He fielded questions about the Aggies’ offense with ease, despite having little to do with that side of the ball as the team’s defensive coordinator with just six months spent on the job. He praised quarterback Spencer Petras and talked up an offensive line that will be vital to Utah State’s success. He spoke glowingly about wide receiver Jalen Royals, going so far as to call him a “first or second round” NFL draft pick.
Dreiling talked about running backs Robert Briggs and Rahsul Faison as though he’d known them all his life, and the same thing happened when he talked about wide receiver Micah Davis.
When the conversation turned to defense, he was as football coach as they come.
“Offensively we are very excited,” he said. “They have the chance to be special. Let’s get the defense caught up and let’s go win some games.”
Unfortunately for Dreiling, and the games part, football itself has taken a back seat right now at Utah State.
Anderson’s firing, along with that of deputy athletic director Jerry Bovee, director of player development Austin Albrecht and executive associate athletics director Amy Crosbie, has thrown many in Utah State’s athletics department.
With only eight weeks left until the start of the 2024 college football season, the Aggies are dealing with things that usually happen months prior — in the dead of winter — for a reason.
“I mean, it is news no player wants to wake up to,” safety Ike Larsen said. “It’s been hard and was a surprise for all of us.”
How the Aggies respond will determine what kind of team they end up being this year. Or so Dreiling believes.
“We talk about toughness and it is not about being able to whoop the guy in front of you, but how you respond to certain situations, like where we are at right now as football program,” he said.
Dreiling, for his part, isn’t ready to say exactly what sort of team he has.
While he is excited about the Aggies’ potential, going so far as to say they are going to be in contention for the MW title, he doesn’t believe they’ll know who they are until a few weeks into the season.
“We talk all the time, with my leadership council, what is our identity,” he said. “You can say stuff and put in on the wall, but that isn’t your identity. We are going to find out in the first couple of games:
- “What is our toughness level?
- “How much do we care about each other?
- “Ultimately, is this team going to come together and prevail?
“Right now it is very resilient group,” he added.
Dreiling also expressed real appreciation for the players who followed him from New Mexico State — he was the defensive coordinator of the other Aggies the last two seasons — noting that guys like safety Jordan Vincent and defensive lineman Gabriel Iniguez Jr. will be the key to any success he has this year as USU’s interim head coach.
“These guys mean so much for me,” he said. “The longer you are around players, the connection you get to build with them, with JV and Gabriel, and there will be a handful of other players coming that we will announce when the time comes, it is so much trust on the level, right? And that is what I have to make sure the whole team understands. The hard part about this job, with where we were at, I’ve been around the defensive guys so much. Now I have to get these offensive guys to believe in me as well and if this is going to be successful.
“To have those guys (Vincent and Iniguez) speak on my behalf, who’ve been around me longer than six months, has been huge. What they can do on the field, obviously they are here for a reason because they are extremely talented people, but even more importantly, they are going to walk and be the citizens that Cache Valley is going to be extremely proud of when they are off the field too. It is a win-win situation for me and that is why I do feel confident. I have people like that in my corner that are going to do whatever it takes.”
Despite everything going against Utah State — which, to put it succinctly, is 50-plus new players on the roster including a completely remade quarterback room, what needs to be a completely redone defense after the Aggies were one of the worst teams in football on that side of the ball in 2023, plus a first-time head coach — Dreiling is confident in what USU has the potential to do.
“Circumstances don’t define you, but they do reveal you,” he said. “With the players, coaches and staff that I have in front of me, I just feel more confident in the world that they are going to come out swinging and have a huge chip on their shoulder.”
And if things work out right for USU, by mid-October the entire Mountain West will be taking Dreiling and the Aggies seriously.