Utah State officially fired football coach Blake Anderson after an investigation turned up noncompliance with university policies concerning Title IX, the university announced on Thursday. The school placed Anderson on administrative leave and notified the former Aggies coach of its intent to fire him on July 2.
“This action is based on significant violations of his contractual obligations related to US’s employee reporting requirements,” the school said in a statement. “These reporting requirements include a prohibition on employees outside the USU Office of Equity from investigating issues of sexual misconduct, including domestic violence. Additionally, Anderson failed to manage the team in a manner that reflect’s USU’s academic values.”
Anderson’s attorney, Tom Mars, says his client plans to contest the termination.
“We were disappointed to learn this evening that Utah State University has terminated the employment of head football coach Blake Anderson,” Mars wrote in a social media post. “Coach Anderson’s legal team believes this decision — as well as USU’s deliberately inflammatory July 2nd press release — violate the terms of Coach Anderson’s Employment Agreement and the implied covenant of good faith.”
Though the incident that led to Utah State’s notice to Anderson occurred in Spring 2023, former player Patrick Maddox filed a lawsuit against Anderson and Utah State alleging that Anderson retaliated against Maddox after Maddox recorded Anderson making disparaging remarks about sexual assault victims in a team meeting. In the recording, Anderson can be heard saying that it “has never been more glamorized to be the victim” of sexual assault.
The suit, which was filed in Oct. 2022, claims that Anderson held a meeting with Maddox in which he encouraged Maddox to apologize to the team for recording Anderson’s comments. Anderson also warned Maddox that teammates might “try to get answers out of him” through whatever means possible if he did not apologize to the team. According to the suit, Maddox issued an apology in a later team meeting. Anderson also publicly apologized in Dec. 2021 for the comments he made regarding sexual assault victims.
Utah State paid Maddox $150,000 in a settlement of the case, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
The 55-year old Anderson was set to return for his fourth season with the Aggies, who open their 2024 slate on Aug. 31 against Robert Morris. Anderson was hired to replace Gary Andersen at Utah State in 2021 after seven years at Arkansas State.
Anderson immediately led the Aggies to an 11-3 record with a Mountain West title and a win over Oregon State in the Los Angeles Bowl. The Aggies also placed 24th in the final AP Top 25, the first time they finished the year ranked since 2018 and just their third ranked finish of the century.
Utah State hasn’t enjoyed as much success over the past two years, however. The Aggies have gone 6-7 in each of the last two seasons with a 9-7 mark in MWC play during that span. They’ve also lost two consecutive bowl games and have finished no better than tied for third in the Mountain West’s Mountain division.
Defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling will serve as Utah State interim coach for the 2024 season.
