USU makes major changes to its football program

Utah State University officials notified head football coach Blake Anderson on Tuesday of their intent to terminate his employment contract for actions taken in the spring of 2023. Those actions violated both his employment contract and university policy. Under his employment contract, Anderson will have 14 days to respond.

The decision follows an extensive external review of alleged noncompliance with university policies that implement Title IX, which require full and timely reporting of disclosures of sexual misconduct — including domestic violence — and prohibit employees from investigating disclosures of sexual misconduct themselves.

Jerry Bovee, associate vice president and assistant athletic director for external affairs (interim athletic director, 2023) and Austin Albrecht, Utah State Football’s director of player and community development, were also let go.or violations of university policies related to reporting sexual and domestic violence and failures to meet professional responsibilities.

In accordance with Utah public records laws and USU policies, the university is unable to release additional information until all opportunities for response and/or appeal have expired, which is a minimum of 14 days.

This morning, USU Vice President and Director of Sports Diana Sabau met with student-athletes and football program staff to inform them of these changes and to announce that defensive coordinator and defensive ends coach Nate Dreiling will serve as USU’s interim head football coach for the 2024 season.

In an email to faculty and staff this morning, President Cantwell and Sabau stressed the importance of taking the following steps:

“As leaders, we have a responsibility to ensure that allegations of violations of USU policies are investigated. Today’s actions are the result of a thorough external investigation, and we believe the evidence demands immediate action. Our job is to fearlessly hold ourselves and others accountable for our conduct and to ensure that, for the sake of our students and community, we live by our university values. While we recognize the impact of these decisions on our student-athletes and football program, we will continue to take the necessary steps to provide a respectful, transparent and winning culture at Utah State University.”