Blake Anderson knew exactly the situation he walked into at Utah State last December as the new head coach. He knew what the players really thought.
“They didn’t get the head coach they wanted,” he said.
Utah State had gone 1-5, head coach Gary Andersen was fired during the season, and players boycotted the final game in response to what they viewed as racially and religiously insensitive comments about interim head coach Frank Maile from the school president. Players jumped into the transfer portal.
Advertisement
So when Anderson arrived in Logan, Utah, to meet what was left of the team, he was upfront. He told the players he was excited to be there, but he understood they might not feel the same. He said he hoped to earn their trust over time and that the program would foster equality, inclusion and diversity.
“They could have made this miserable for us,” Anderson said of the transition. “But they’ve done the exact opposite.”
One year removed from the program’s worst season in more than a decade, Utah State is 7-2 and alone atop the Mountain West’s Mountain Division. The Week 1 comeback win at Washington State was the program’s first road win against a power-conference opponent in 50 years. It might be the most impressive turnaround in the country, considering where the program was on and off the field.
“It reminds me of when I first got here in 2018, back when we were good and were close to the championship,” said receiver Deven Thompkins, who leads the nation with 1,314 receiving yards. “It’s amazing. It feels like that all over again.”
Thompkins is the prime example of Utah State’s change. He entered the transfer portal last November, unhappy with what the program had become, and he wanted to get closer to his two young children in Florida. Thompkins loved Utah State. The Aggies were the only FBS school to offer the 5-foot-8, 155-pounder out of high school. But he saw a program falling apart.
Anderson not only needed to gain the trust of the players who were still around but also made a push for several players who had entered the portal. Thompkins was at the top of that list. Wide receivers coach Kyle Cefalo called Thompkins every day. To that point, Thompkins’ career hadn’t been all that special. He was a starter and led the team with 20 catches last year, but his numbers didn’t jump out. What Anderson and the coaches saw on tape was speed.
Advertisement
“We knew he was a difference-maker,” Anderson said. “We knew he was a super hard worker and that he was explosive and was a great kid. We were trying to hold the thing together and feel like he’s a kid that fits us really well.”
Cefalo and Anderson sold Thompkins on the receivers they’d produced at Arkansas State, like Jonathan Adams Jr., Kirk Merritt and Omar Bayless, players who earned All-America honors and received shots in the NFL.
But what grabbed Thompkins’ interest the most was the diversity of the staff Anderson put together. It’s believed the be the only FBS staff with a minority offensive coordinator (Anthony Tucker), defensive coordinator (Ephraim Banda) and head strength coach (Paul Jackson).
“At that time, there were a bunch of things going on with racial issues, and it was one of the first things he brought to my attention, that he was bringing in this diverse of a staff,” Thompkins said. “That piqued my interest a lot. I was like, this man is really about business.”
Anderson has White, Black, Hispanic and Polynesian coaches on staff. They were hired because of their coaching ability, but the value of different backgrounds was especially important given the state of the team and larger society.
“Some guys felt they weren’t represented well, weren’t listened to,” Anderson said. “The strategy of bringing in a diverse staff and a group that would keep their door open and listen, along with my asking questions and taking their feedback, it all works together. There were mistakes in the past we didn’t want to make again.”
Thompkins returned to the team, and his 2-year-old son is with him in Utah, often around the football building. Anderson and the coaches are more than happy to babysit at home or even around the office.
“Playing for a man like him is any player’s dream, honestly,” Thompkins said. “You don’t find a lot of coaches like him.”
Advertisement
Anderson brought some players back from the portal and also landed more from elsewhere. Depth was an immediate issue, so Utah State added 11 transfers, including seven from Power 5 schools and three from Arkansas State. The three who followed Anderson from Arkansas State have been impact players. Quarterback Logan Bonner leads the Mountain West in yards per pass attempt, wide receiver Brandon Bowling is second on the team in receptions, and linebacker Justin Rice is fifth in the Mountain West in tackles.
None of the three was an immediate addition. Bowling and Rice didn’t join the Aggies until January. Bonner didn’t hear from Anderson for several weeks after he got the job and didn’t transfer in until late December. The two had met, hugged and cried about Bonner’s decision to transfer back in Jonesboro, before Anderson left. After battling injuries and splitting time with Layne Hatcher, Bonner wanted a fresh start and a chance to win a job to be his own.
Bonner heard from several schools, including Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee. But when the two finally did connect again, it was clear it would be a fit. The offense remains similar to what Anderson ran at Arkansas State, with some UCF concepts from Tucker. Bonner missed spring and summer with a broken foot, then had a battle with Andrew Peasley. He ultimately won the job and is thriving.
“I’m having more fun playing football these last five months than the last couple years,” Bonner said. “I’m really enjoying it.”
Bonner also worked as a sounding board for the players who weren’t used to Anderson’s coaching style. As the Aggies went all-out with running and tempo in spring, players asked if this would really pay off. Bonner promised it would.
It took one game for the proof of concept. The Aggies trailed Washington State by 12 with less than six minutes to play but scored two touchdowns to pull out the win, with Bonner connecting with Thompkins for the winning score with 13 seconds left.
“I talked to them all week, ‘They’re bigger, they’re longer, they’re talented, but this is not going to be about being more talented,’” Anderson recalled. “They’re going to be better than us in the first half, you’re gonna start seeing them fade in the third quarter, and in the fourth quarter, they’re going to be gassed and we’re going to take over. And it literally happened exactly like we talked about. You could see their eyes, that’s how we’re going to do it.
Advertisement
“The Air Force game was scripted the same way. At that point, it took a life of its own.”
The Aggies are 4-0 in one-possession games, and their 78.5 offensive plays per game are the fourth most nationally.
Now Utah State sits atop the Mountain Division with a 4-1 record, and the remaining games against San Jose State, Wyoming and New Mexico are winnable.
For Anderson, it finally feels like a normal football season again. It had been a while since he had one.
His wife, Wendy, was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died in August 2019. His father had emphysema and died in May 2020. As the COVID-19 pandemic raged, Anderson tested positive last season and said he lost 13 pounds while battling a bad fever for eight days. Through all the heartbreak and illnesses, he felt he needed to leave Jonesboro to start anew, and he has in every way.
He found the fresh start in Utah. He got engaged in January to Brittany King, a woman he met in Jonesboro after Wendy’s death. The two got married two days before spring practice, and he adopted her two kids.
Bonner was close with Wendy. The Anderson he sees now is the Anderson he saw as a freshman, when Arkansas State won the Sun Belt and the coach was jovial in everything he did.
“You could see it was wearing on him for years,” Bonner said. “This fresh start, the things happening to him lately have re-energized him. He’s just like he was in 2016, 2017 when we were competing for championships, and we love it. The guys feed off it.”
It’s been everything Anderson dreamed, off the field and on it, with a team that might just be ahead of schedule. His trials put everything in perspective and make it easier to enjoy everything that comes with a normal football season again.
“It’s fun to come to work, be on the field with the guys and you don’t feel like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders,” he said “The valley has embraced us. Without having illnesses and COVID weighting you down, (the new job) came at a great time, and I’m having a blast.”
G5 mailbag
What is the current timeline for announcing the addition of WKU and MTSU to the MAC? — Dan F.
A few hours after publication, Middle Tennessee announced Wednesday that it will remain in Conference USA. I’ve been told WKU would accept a MAC invitation if it comes, but MTSU had been less interested in the move from the beginning. It may be unlikely the MAC invites WKU without Middle Tennessee. Though there has been support for expansion, MAC officials haven’t viewed adding MTSU and WKU as “transformational” like other conference moves, as sources have put it.
Advertisement
Will there be any more G5 conferences that add current FCS schools? And if so, who would you think has the best chance? — James K.
It’ll only be Conference USA, and that’ll likely happen only if WKU and Middle Tennessee leave for the MAC. If that happens, C-USA will be down to seven schools, and conferences need eight in the FBS (and six to get an NCAA Tournament berth in basketball). UConn football has been in the discussion, and UMass would like an invitation, though it’s a long shot.
From the FCS, Sam Houston and Jacksonville State are already in. Other possibilities include Eastern Kentucky, Tarleton State, Stephen F. Austin and McNeese State.
EKU was a finalist to join the Sun Belt several years back when Coastal Carolina got the spot. Tarleton State is transitioning up from Division II but has money and an aggressive administration. SFA is a longtime rival of Sam Houston.
Can a one-loss San Diego State be ranked high enough if Cincinnati doesn’t win the American to get the NY6 bid? Or would it be safe to assume a one-loss Houston who wins the AAC plus a win over Cincinnati would jump the Aztecs? — Jeremy
Considering San Diego State is already in the CFP Top 25 and Houston isn’t, it’s certainly possible. The Aztecs have a head start, and they still play Nevada (7-2) and Boise State, plus the Mountain West championship game. There are opportunities for notable wins, while Houston has only Cincinnati left.
My guess is that Houston would jump SDSU if it wins out, but until the Cougars show up in the Top 25, I wouldn’t be so sure.
There’s been several sportswriters putting Coastal Carolina in non-Sun Belt conference tie-in bowl games. Is this something they do just for clicks or is there a legitimate chance CCU can play in a game outside of their tie-ins? Like the Gasparilla Bowl vs. LSU For example. — Brian F.
I asked my colleague and bowl expert Stewart Mandel, and he said those ESPN-owned bowls can largely swap around any teams they want. It’s made bowl projections particularly difficult, and it’s why Stew puts “ESPN pick” for a lot of slots in his projections. He has Coastal vs. UCF in my backyard in the Frisco Bowl.
There are some non-ESPN-owned bowls with Sun Belt ties, but there is leeway to play different teams. However, bowls typically pair up Power 5 teams with each other and Group of 5 teams with each other, so I’m not sure we’d get an SEC-Sun Belt matchup like LSU and Coastal, though I would very much prefer that.
Advertisement
Rumor has it that Sonny Dykes is considering the TCU job while an extension offer from SMU is sitting on his desk. Now the Ponies have lost two straight (which seems to be their M.O. in November). Are the losses hurting his chances of moving across town? Are the questions around his job status impacting these games? And if he does move on, to whom does SMU pivot? — Andrew G.
I’ve confirmed the general terms of SMU’s offer, which is an extension of five years or more that would make him one of the highest-paid Group of 5 head coaches, if not the highest, along with more money for assistants and further commitments for a football operations building.
The recent losses do not affect interest from TCU. He’s at the top of its list because he checks off every box athletic director Jeremiah Donati listed. He’s turned SMU into a team that has hung around the Top 25 by emphasizing DFW with an exciting offense. It’s exactly what TCU needs.
Is this talk affecting the team? I’m not in the building and I’m not a player, so I can’t say. But I will say this is nothing new and there’s nothing new to ask Dykes until he makes a decision. This is how it normally works. A good Group of 5 coach gets a lot of interest from Power 5 schools, the G5 school provides an offer, the P5 schools offer more, the coach takes his time and makes a decision at the end of the season. Jeff Traylor committing to UTSA with a 10-year contract and a huge buyout is not the norm, as I wrote last week.
Dykes has options. Until he makes his pick, we wait. If he leaves, I’d look to Graham Harrell, Rhett Lashlee or Garrett Riley as potential replacements.
Temple has to fire Rod Carey, right? Seemed like a rushed hire at the time and it’s clearly not working out. Who do you think would be a good replacement? — Chris P.
I’ve been asked about Carey every week this season. For a long time, without an athletic director in place for more than a year, there was no chance anything would happen, given the leadership situation at Temple. There finally now is an athletic director in Arthur Johnson. But what hasn’t changed is Carey’s buyout of $8 million. That’s a lot of money for any school, let alone a place like Temple.
The Owls are 4-12 over the past two years and are 3-6 this season with blowout losses to USF and East Carolina over the past two weeks. Things are not good. But I don’t know if there’s enough money to make a change.
G5 power rankings
1. Cincinnati (9-0)
2. UTSA (9-0)
3. Houston (8-1)
4. BYU (8-2)*
5. San Diego State (8-1)
6. Louisiana (8-1)
7. Coastal Carolina (8-1)
8. Fresno State (7-3)
9. Nevada (7-2)
10. Appalachian State (7-2)
Advertisement
Just missed: SMU, Army, Utah State, Air Force, UCF, Boise State
* As an independent, BYU is not eligible for the Group of 5’s New Year’s Six spot
Games of the week
American: UCF at SMU (-7.5)
Noon ET, ESPNU
Pick: SMU
C-USA: UAB at Marshall (-5)
3:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
Pick: Marshall to win, UAB to cover
MAC: Ball State (-2.5) at Northern Illinois
7 p.m. ET Wednesday, ESPN2
Pick: NIU
Mountain West: Nevada at San Diego State (-2.5)
10:30 p.m. ET, CBS Sports Network
Pick: Nevada
Sun Belt: Louisiana (-6.5) at Troy
3:30 p.m. ET, ESPN+
Pick: Louisiana to win, Troy to cover
(Top photo: James Snook / USA Today)
