Blake Anderson officially terminated as USU football coach

LOGAN, Utah — Blake Anderson has been officially terminated as the head football coach at Utah State.

The university informed the coach, who has been on administrative leave since July 2, Thursday afternoon. The university posted a story on its website, and an attorney representing Anderson released a statement.

“Utah State University notified Blake Anderson on Thursday that it is moving forward with terminating for cause his employment agreement,” the story on the USU website stated. “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. Additionally, Anderson failed to manage the team in a manner that reflects USU’s academic values.

“Consistent with Anderson’s employment agreement, the university provided him with written notice of its intent to terminate and 14 days to respond. To USU’s disappointment, Anderson’s response 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.”

On Friday, the university released an additional statement: “USU Policy 340 is the university’s policy on reporting sexual misconduct. This policy is a companion to USU Policy 339 (Title IX jurisdiction) and USU Policy 339A (non-Title IX jurisdiction) — two USU policies that prohibit sexual misconduct. USU Policy 340 requires employees to report sexual misconduct, including domestic violence, that would fall under either USU policy 339 or 339A. In short, employees are required to report any sexual misconduct involving USU students.

“Every employee at USU goes through a mandatory annual training to ensure they understand their responsibilities.”

Tom Mars, who is representing Anderson, posted on X earlier this week that a 70-page response had been sent to USU. Mars called it a “sham investigation.” He also said the 70-page response would not be commented on while Anderson was still employed. That has changed now.

But the university did not feel that way about the response and followed through with terminating the coach, who had been at the Aggie helm for three seasons.

USU President Elizabeth Cantwell released a statement regarding the termination.

“While I recognize that today’s decision has a significant impact, it is the only one that could be made based on the facts,” Cantwell said. “We are committed to moving forward in building a winning athletics program grounded in student success and integrity.”

Anderson was notified of the process to terminate him on July 2. Also on that day Associate Vice President & Deputy Athletic Director of External Affairs Jerry Bovee (Interim Athletic Director, 2023) and Utah State Football Director of Player Development & Community Austin Albrecht were dismissed. Six days later Amy Crosbie was dismissed from the athletics department. No reason was given by the university. Crosbie was the executive associate athletics director for internal affairs/senior woman administrator.

The Mars Law Firm posted a statement on X Thursday evening. It stated.

“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 term’s 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, who has been active on social media since being retained by Anderson, also posted: “Very disappointing.”

When this first was reported, the university stated actions taken in the spring of 2023 is what caused this action. USU said back on July 2: “This decision comes after a thorough 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.”

Meanwhile, Nate Dreiling was named the interim head coach by USU Athletics Director Diana Sabau. Dreiling, who was hired in January to be the defensive coordinator, will guide the Aggies during the 2024 season.