Utah State football head coach Blake Anderson will not be continuing his duties with the Aggies. The school notified Anderson about their intent to terminate his employment after an investigation into alleged noncompliance with Title IX policies. Anderson was given 14 days to respond, and Utah State made the final to decision to move on. Anderson is no longer the head coach of the Aggies.
“This action is based on significant violations of his contractual obligations related to USU’s employee reporting requirements,” The statement read. “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.”
Utah State president Elizabeth Cantwell spoke on the matter, and she is confident that the school is making the right decision.
“While I recognize that today’s decision has a significant impact, it is the only one that could be made based on the facts,”Elizabeth Cantwell said, according to an article from KSL TV.. “We are committed to moving forward in building a winning athletics program grounded in student success and integrity.”
Blake Anderson was the head coach of the Utah State football team for three seasons. The Aggies had a lot of success during his first season as they finished 11-3 and ended the year with a victory in the LA Bowl.
The past two seasons haven't gone as well for Utah State. They have finished 6-7 both years, and both have ended with losses in bowl games.
Blake Anderson's legal team provided a statement
Blake Anderson is expected to release his own statement soon, and his legal team, led by Tom Mars, released a statement on Thursday night.
“We were disappointed to learn this evening that Utah State University has terminated the employment of head football coach Blake Anderson,” The statement read. “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.”
The Utah State football team will get their season started in a little over a month as they will take on Robert Morris at home on August 31st. The Aggies are certainly dealing with a lot of distractions right now, and that will make things difficult on them as they prepare for their season. They will also be breaking in a new head coach on limited time, so there will be a lot of adjustments for this team to make in the coming weeks.
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