Andersen hires Matt Wells as quarterback coach
Utah State football is on its way up. That’s the message of head coach Gary Andersen, who despite leading the team to a second straight 4-8 season, is confident that the Aggie program is close to turning a corner. The 2010 season was fraught with injuries and unlucky breaks, but it didn’t stop the team from registering some tremendous accomplishments, including a 31-16 win over rival Brigham Young before a national television audience. While the team is only a little more than a month removed from the season, Andersen has wasted no time in getting ready for next fall, making several staff changes and bringing in a new group of junior college transfers. The Utah Statesman recently sat down with Andersen and got his thoughts on his job security in Logan, his expectations for new players, and the effects of Utah State’s recruiting efforts both in Utah and out-of-state.
Utah Statesman (US): Over the break you hired Matt Wells as a quarterback coach. What was it about Wells which convinced you to hire him? Given his experience, do you expect him to have a relatively smooth transition?
Gary Andersen (GA): The reasons for hiring Matt is he is an experienced coach who has been at a number of different programs. He’s been at Tulsa, he’s been at Louisville. He’s been at Navy and New Mexico. It brings another experienced coach onto the staff that has a bunch of years in Division-I coaching. The next thing I would say is he understands Logan. He went to school here. He’s an alumni, and that’s a positive for us – but is that the reason we hired him? No, but each one of those pieces to the puzzle is why Matt is a terrific fit for us. The most important thing about Matt and why we hired him at the end of the day is number one, he cares for players first – which is always my number one when I hire anybody – and number two, he is a great recruiter. Those are the two main reasons why I hired Matt Wells.
US: Your program signed four junior college players in the last month. What are your expectations for those young men, particularly quarterback Adam Kennedy? Will Adam be in the running to replace Diondre Borel when the team begins spring ball?
GA: We have two freshman quarterbacks – one will be a sophomore while the other one will be a (redshirt) freshman – both in their first year of college. It just felt like we needed, number one, and like any position on the football field, to create competition. Number two, you want to space yourself effectively for not just the 2011 season, but for 2011 and beyond. We needed to be able to have a quarterback in there who is a junior, and we felt like we needed a junior college quarterback who has played in college games at the junior college level. It’s a major step up to go to Division-I – there’s no question about that – but Adam has done a nice job competing at a high level of junior college football and he brings some maturity and college experience to the quarterback position. What I expect out of Adam is to come in here and compete for the job. I would expect every young man on the football team to look at themselves and say, “I expect myself to be a start.” I’m sure that’s how Adam Kennedy looks at it and I’m sure that’s how Alex Hart looks at it and I’m sure that’s how Jeremy Higgins looks at it. If it’s any different than they’re not the true competitor that I hoped they would be, but I believe all three of those young men are looking to be the starting quarterback at Utah State when we go to Auburn next fall.
US: How have things been going on the high school recruiting trail? Are you noticing more recruits are receptive to the idea of playing at USU than when you first arrived in Logan?
GA: No question, absolutely. We always start in-state first, and when you sit back and look at in-state you look at our ability to first of all get into a recruiting battle with a highly recruited young man, we’re right in there with everybody in the state. If we can compete with people within the state that is a great sign. People know who we are and they understand what we’re about. They understand the core identity of our program and in the state of Utah that is to recruit the state of Utah first. Not just the recruits understand that, but I think the (high school) coaches understand that. That trickles down to parents and that trickles down to families. The word is out that this is a great place to go to school and get your degree. It is a tremendous social environment and we’re getting better at football.
Our core values are that our coaches are going to take care of the young men first and foremost, and we’re going to put a high expectation level on the young men in the area of academics and a high level of expectation on each young man in the social world that they live in. Obviously on the football field, we’re going to place the expectation that we compete at a high level day in and day out, and we expect our young men to succeed in all three areas.
US: Based on last year’s experience with offseason injuries and this year’s unlucky injury streak, do you approach offseason workouts and spring ball any differently this season to try to prevent injuries?
GA: You know, if you sit back and look at it, we really didn’t lose guys in workouts. Robert Turbin was a complete non-contact scenario – kind of a freak accident if you will. Stanley Morrison was non-football related. Matt Austin was in a game competing. Kellen Bartlett was in a game competing. The list goes on and on as far as where those kids are, so you look back and say, “Can we get our best 22 starters to get on an airplane and go play a football game?” The answer is absolutely and we’ll do everything we can to do to protect them, whether it’s in the weight room, whether it is in the offseason, whether it’s during practice or in a game. But at the end of the day we have to do what we have to do to get as big and as strong and as fast as we can in the offseason. We won’t really change how we operate, although it does make you step back and say, “Boy, we want to be a little careful.” We always try to put safety first. Call it bad luck, call it whatever you want, but it’s not going to change how we approach our offseason, nor our practices or conditioning in the weight room.
Looking for more on the Aggies’ 2011 season? Want to know what coach Andersen thinks of the changes in the WAC and the state of his job security? Make sure to check Friday’s paper as the third year head coach talks about his personal expectations going into the offseason,
– adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu