USU football hires North Texas’ Bodie Reeder as new OC
As first reported Tuesday evening by Brian Phillips on Twitter, Utah State will be hiring former North Texas offensive coordinator Bodie Reeder to fill the same role with the Aggie football team. He will replace Mike Sanford Jr., who was hired away by Minnesota after just one season in Logan as an assistant under Gary Andersen.
Bodie Reeder comes to Utah State with three seasons as a Division I offensive coordinator. One with North Texas in 2019 and two with FCS school Eastern Washington from 2017-2018. He also served as quarterbacks coach concurrently with being the OC at both those schools.
In his one season with the Mean Green, Reeder commanded an offense that ranked 27th in the nation in passing at 283.3 yards per game. Those yards led UNT to average 30.6 points per game, 52nd nation-wide. Reeder benefited from having one of the nation’s top QB’s heading into 2019: Mason Fine. In his first three seasons, Fine threw for 9,417 yards in three seasons with 64 touchdowns to 25 interceptions and completing 63 percent of his passes.
Reeder replaced Graham Harrell at UNT in 2018, the architect behind the Mean Green’s 2018 air raid offense that pushed UNT to a 9-3 regular season and an eventual bowl matchup with Utah State in the New Mexico Bowl. Harrell departed for USC at season’s end.
In 2019, North Texas finished 4-8 on the year, fourth in the West division of Conference USA and 10th overall in the conference. That fall from 2018 prompted defensive coordinator Troy Reffett and Reeder to be fired at season’s end.
Before taking his talents to North Texas, Reeder dominated defenses at Eastern Washington as its offensive coordinator. In 2018 under Reeder, the Eagles set a school record for points in a single season with 623. Overall in FCS, the team ranked fourth in scoring at 43.1 per game on an average of 528.2 yards per game.
Thanks in large part to his offensive, the Eagles made the FCS title game in 2018. Reeder’s offense was greatly balanced that season as both his passing and rushing attacks ranked in the top 20 at 20th and 13th, respectively.
In 2017, his first season with the EWU, the Eagles were eighth in passing in the FCS at 320.5 yards per game and fifth in total offense (476.7). They were also 14th in scoring (34.5) and 11th in third down conversion rate (46.1 percent).
In addition to bringing on Bodie Reeder, several shifts in the existing football staff were announced by USU Athletics. The 2019 defensive coordinator, Justin Ena, will no longer serve in that capacity, instead focusing primarily on coaching inside linebackers. Stacy Collins and Frank Maile will be co-defensive coordinators for the upcoming season.
Maile, who was the assistant head coach and tight ends coach in 2019, was co-defensive coordinator in 2018 along with Keith Patterson. Maile was also coaching the defensive line at the time. In addition, he served as interim coach for the Aggies in the 2018 New Mexico Bowl after the departure of Matt Wells. Collins was the running backs and special teams coach in 2019, though he too coached on the defensive side in 2018, being in charge of inside linebackers.
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Photo via Twitter: @CoachBodie4