Utah State University officially fires head football coach Blake Anderson

LOGAN, Utah ( ABC4 ) — Utah State University has officially fired head football coach Blake Anderson, two weeks after informing him of its intent to terminate his contract because of alleged actions in 2023 that the school said violated his contract and university policy.

The school cited “significant violations” related to the reporting requirements for all Utah State employees.

“Utah State University notified Blake Anderson on Thursday that it is moving forward with terminating for cause his employment agreement,” the release from USU states. “This action is based on significant violations of his contractual obligations related to USU’s employee reporting requirements. These reporting requirements include a prohibition on employees outside the USU Office of Equity from investigating issues of sexual misconduct, including domestic violence.”

The university claimed that Anderson “failed to manage the team in a manner that reflects USU’s academic values.” They continued to state that Anderson failed to acknowledge his responsibilities as a USU employee and as a head coach, and “instead sought to make excuses and unsuccessfully recast the clear language of USU’s policies.”

As of now, the university has given Anderson written notice of the intent to terminate and 14 days to respond. While Anderson has not yet issued a statement, his legal team stated the following Thursday evening:

We were disappointed to learn this evening that Utah State University has terminated the employment of head football coach Blake Anderson. 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.

We will be pursuing all available legal remedies on his behalf.

Coach Anderson will be issuing his own statement at the appropriate time.

Mars Law Firm

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