There are few people who have any sort of idea what Utah State football will look like this fall.
For good reason.
Head football coach Blake Anderson is all but assuredly gone after Utah State — following an external investigation — alleged that he, deputy athletic director Jerry Bovee and USU football director of player development and community Austin Albrecht committed “violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence and failures of professional responsibilities.”
The loss of any head coach this close to the start of a season raises serious questions, but the loss of Anderson especially so, since he doubled as the the Aggies’ offensive play caller (co-offensive coordinator) and quarterbacks coach.
Anderson was the architect of USU’s prolific offensive attack, which finished the 2023 season ranked No. 26 in the country in scoring.
Defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling, new to Utah State as of January, has been named the team’s interim head coach. He will be the youngest head coach at the FBS level in 2024.
Nate Dreiling’s coaching background
By most accounts, Dreiling, 33, is a rising star in the coaching industry, and much of that praise is the result of his work at New Mexico State.
Those other Aggies are traditionally one of the most dismal programs in all of the FBS, yet, during the past two years, New Mexico State was competitive enough to upset Auburn in Alabama and play for a Conference USA championship. Dreiling’s defense played a key role in that success.
Bud Elliott of 247 Sports perhaps put it best, saying, “Nate Dreiling did an awesome job at New Mexico State (relative to the lack of athleticism you can sign there) and I thought he would get a better job than Utah State DC. Utah State HC is more like it.”
Still, what kind of head coach Dreiling will be is anyone’s guess, simply because he hasn’t done that job before. Up to this point, he’s been a defensive coordinator (USU, NMSU and Pittsburg State, the latter his alma mater), a defensive run game coordinator and inside linebackers coach, a safeties coach and a defensive analyst.
Roster turnover at Utah State
There is more to the confusion surrounding the Aggies’ future than just the unknown of Dreiling, though.
After escaping the first transfer window of the offseason relatively unscathed — the only player on the Aggies two-deep who left was safety Devin Dye — USU was decimated by transfer portal defections in the spring.
Some of the departed players are well known, like quarterback McCae Hillstead — he ended up at rival BYU — and running back Davon Booth, while others weren’t familiar faces, like defensive end John Ward and linebacker Gavin Barthiel.
Put it all together, though — transfers, dismissals, retirements and graduations — and Utah State has had to replace more than 50 players who were on the roster last season.
To add perspective, the average FBS team has a roster of around 115 to 120 players. That means USU has had to replace nearly 42% of its team from 2023 to 2024 ... one year after doing something pretty eerily similar in terms of roster construction.
The number of players that have been and/or need to be replaced is likely to grow, too, since NCAA rules mandate that players have 30 days to enter the transfer portal following the termination of their head coach.
That means players like safety Ike Larsen, wide receiver Jalen Royals and running back Rahsul Faison, among many others, are back in play for opposing programs to poach.
Many, if not most, Aggie players likely won’t be able to find landing spots at this point in the year, simply because the majority of teams have largely finalized their rosters. But for the right players, roster spots always manage to open.
Even if Dreiling and the Aggies somehow manage to hold onto the majority of the team, there are still a host of unknowns.
Anderson coached the quarterbacks himself and that position room consists of transfers (all coming in this offseason) in Spencer Petras, Bryson Barnes, Jacob Conover and CJ Tiller. There is no continuity in that room, the most important room in the sport.
The defense, meanwhile, was one of the worst in college football a year ago, ranking No. 120 in scoring defense, No. 126 in rushing defense, No. 61 in pass efficiency defense, No. 128 in first-down defense and, well, the list could go on and on.
Even if Dreiling is a defensive savant — a genuine possibility — the Aggies have a great deal of ground to make up to become even an average FBS defense, let alone a good one. That task only has the potential to get even harder with possible transfer portal defections.
Reasons for hope
All this isn’t to say it is all doom and gloom in Logan.
As of right now, the Aggies appear primed to have a good-to-great offensive attack, with co-offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo still on the staff.
Most of the key offensive pieces from last year are back, including — for now — Royals, a dynamic record-breaking receiver.
But beyond him, the Aggies still have Micah Davis — an experienced pass catcher — an explosive ball carrier in Faison, and a rugged one in Robert Briggs III. They also boast experienced tight ends in Will Monney and Josh Sterzer, plus some key upgrades along the offensive line in transfer George Maile and Trey Andersen, to go along with promising up-and-comers in Bo Maile and Teague Andersen.
There is also other talent brought in during the offseason, such as junior college All-American wide receiver Robert Freeman IV.
At the announcement of Utah State athletics’ “Reach and Rise” fundraising campaign in June, Cefalo was bursting with optimism about the Aggies’ offense and how it might perform this season.
“I feel awesome 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 opportunities to leave and they chose to stay here. They stuck around and they want to make the most of it.
“From an offensive standpoint, from a wide receivers standpoint, I go to my meeting room and I have like one new face in there,” he continued. “We have a bunch of kids that chose to be here, that chose to stick around. And they are also good players.”
Cefalo wasn’t concerned about the newcomers at quarterback either, noting that Petras only has one year of eligibility remaining and wants to make the most of it. Nor is he your usual transfer quarterback either, after having been coached at Iowa last season while rehabbing from injury.
Petras was at the fundraiser and expressed a real belief in the Aggies’ offense and what Utah State can accomplish this season.
“I’ve adjusted quickly (to the offense) and it is a lot of fun,” he said. “Like any tempo or system, if executed well, it is a huge advantage, so I am looking forward to it.”
He then added, “First and foremost, the Mountain West championship is our goal. With how the playoff is constructed now, there are attainable higher goals than that (even). I’m not a huge fan talking about anything like that. I just know if you do things right day-after-day and you play well and have a good team, you’ll get rewarded.”
All the belief and optimism in the world can’t cover up the fact that Utah State football has myriad questions surrounding it, though, and little time to come up with solutions with fall camp bearing down quickly.
The Aggies’ season opener against Robert Morris is only 60 days away. The rivalry game at home against Utah is only 74 days away, as of Tuesday night.
You can be sure the staff and team know that too.
“As coaches we’ve had to tell ourselves, rather than complain about the new, that this is our team and we have to embrace it,” Cefalo said, in reference to the roster turnover of the last two years.
It is a statement that holds even more weight now.
“I think we have done a phenomenal job putting the team together,” Cefalo added, “and now we have a ton of work to do to be successful.”
More work than ever now that Anderson is gone.
That is the only thing of real certainty at this point with Utah State football. That Anderson is no longer the head coach of the Aggies and that the program, now in its Dreiling era, has a ton of work to do and little time to do it in.