The Complex Legacy of Gary Andersen

Parts One, Two, and Three

Part One: The Iliad and Odyssey of Utah State Football

Gary Andersen is seldom considered Utah State’s greatest coach of all time.

In his defense, it’s difficult to compete with a coach immortalized by history who, at the time, was the namesake of the stadium. Whether or not it’s a fair assessment of his impressive, transformative, and historic coaching performance at the university, he just isn’t often referred to as such.

His two different tenures with the Aggies are so contrasted that they stand to oppose each other, making any categorization of the coach impossible. So, generalized titles, vague absolutes, simple judgments, and hyperbole are not fit to describe Andersen or his career.

While he might not be considered the greatest, his reputation is anything but small. Andersen is a giant in his own right.

The complex legacy of Gary Andersen is a captivating saga for the ages, with a storyline and a character arc worthy of the silver screen. It speaks of the triumphs and the frailties of human nature, it has suspense, tragedy, comedy, irony, drama, and heartbreak.

Everyone knows Andersen’s name. Everyone has strong feelings about him. To some, he is a legend. To some, he is the opposite. He is an enigma.

Will there ever be a Gary Andersen statue at Utah State University? Probably not. Will Gary Andersen’s name be forever remembered? Absolutely. But how will the story of the two-time head coach be written?

Andersen’s legacy is almost paradoxical in nature. Andersen was the architect of one of the greatest turnarounds in Utah State history yet the reason another one was necessary.

Nothing about Andersen, or his legacy, is straightforward. His timing, his influence, his accomplishments, his departure, and his return is all a nuanced and complicated epoch. Andersen’s story begins long before he arrived at Utah State and will continue to even now that he’s gone.

Andersen’s onboarding was necessitated by a long period of mediocrity. After a rich early history, Utah State football had fallen into decades of irrelevance.

When he was a senior at Utah State, Bobby Wagner observed the state of the program commenting, “When I first came to Utah State, all football was looked at was a way to pass the time until basketball season. Coach Andersen has changed all of that. He came in and made an impact in the community. Football has come a long way. Coach Andersen has changed the entire outlook of the program. Now, when we play our spring game, the stands fill up like it’s a real game. People get excited about football now, and that’s because of coach Andersen.”

Utah State football was, indeed, in the midst of one of its darkest hours. Just as Wagner noted, “Andersen changed all that.”

The half-decade before Andersen’s arrival paints a clear picture of the state of the program at the time and reinforces Wagner’s observation of the bleak outlook. In those five years, Utah State had fired two coaches and amassed a record of 12–46. It had taken the Aggies five full seasons to collect a single season’s worth of wins and had done so by beating only six different teams. In that half-decade, Utah State had only beat Fresno State, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico State, San Jose State, and UNLV. In that same span, the Aggies also lost to each of those teams at least once and only had a winning record against two of them. Utah State went 1–3 against Fresno State, 1–3 against Hawaii, 3–2 against Idaho, 4–1 against New Mexico State, 1–3 against San Jose State, and 2–2 against UNLV.

In 2004, the Aggies were in their second and final year in the Sun Belt Conference and were led by Mike Dennehy in his fifth and final season. Utah State went 3–8 overall and 2–5 in-conference, tied with Idaho for last place in the Sun Belt. The Aggies were shut out once at Middle Tennessee, and on the season, were outscored by 333–184 which is a difference of 81%. They gave up a season-high of 49 points at Troy and gave up 48 twice, at Alabama and against no. 15 Utah.

In 2005, Brent Guy made his debut as Utah State’s head coach while Utah State made its debut in the Western Athletic Conference. Utah State again finished with an overall record of 3–8 going 2–6 in conference play, tied with Idaho for sixth place, finishing only above the 0–12 and 0–8 New Mexico State team. Utah State didn’t win any games at home and was outscored 360–208 for a difference of 73%. The Aggies weren’t shut out, but scored a season-low of 3 points at no. 5 Alabama. They allowed as many as 53 points in a loss at Fresno State.

2006 could be called Utah State’s worst season ever and is certainly in contention for that dreaded title. Utah State’s one-win season started with a four-game losing streak including losses to rivals Wyoming, BYU, and Utah. During that time, the offense couldn’t find the end zone or kick a field goal and the Aggies were outscored 144–7 with the only points coming from returned interception. Utah State finished the season tied with Louisiana Tech for last place in the WAC with a 1–11 overall record and 1–7 in-conference record. The one victory came at home in a 13–12 win over Fresno State. On the season, Utah State was outscored by an immense 225% with a score of 462–130, a difference of 332 points. Utah State gave up as many as 63 points to Colt Brennan’s Hawaii Warriors. They also gave up 49 points to no. 13 Boise State and they gave up 48 points twice, once to Utah and once to Louisiana Tech. Utah State gave up 40 or more points in seven of the 12 games and was shut out four times. That season, the Aggies scored only 15 touchdowns. They passed for nine and rushed for six meaning they lost more games than they had passing touchdowns.

In 2007, Guy’s penultimate season, after losing 10 straight games, Utah State beat New Mexico State and Idaho to finish the season. The Aggies went 2–10 overall, 0–5 at home, and 2–6 in the WAC. Utah State was shut out once and was outscored by 406–247 for a percentage of 64% on the season.

2008 was Guy’s final season at the helm for Utah State. Guy was fired on November 17th, just ahead of the season finale against New Mexico State, but would stay on for that game which the Aggies won 47–2. Utah State ended with an overall record of 3–9 and a conference record of 3–5. They were outscored 416–288, a difference of 44%.

The program was stuck in a purgatory of losing seasons. Each year, the program grew more and more distant from a strong history, slowly driving the all-time record deeper and deeper underground. That is, until Andersen arrived.

In a vacuum, Andersen’s four wins in his inaugural 2009 season might seem unimpressive, but it was Utah State’s most wins since 2002. The Aggies were also playing competitive football again, scoring as many as 53 points in a win against Southern Utah. They ended the season 4–8 and 3–5 and were outscored just 408–349, a mere 17% and a marked improvement from years past.

2010 was similar to the previous year. The Aggies had an identical overall record of 4–8, but digressed in-conference and finished 2–6. Utah State was outscored 405–264 or by 53%. The Aggies also gave the no .7 Oklahoma Sooners an “unexpected scare” in the first game of the season, falling just short of victory 31–24.

Then, in 2011, Utah State went 7–6. It was the first winning season since 1996 and the most total wins since 1993 when a team featuring redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Wells had the same record.

It was also the most regular season wins since 1979 when the Aggies won the Pacific Coast Athletic Association with an 8–3–1 record with wins against three schools, Pacific, Long Beach State, and Cal State Fullerton, that no longer sponsor football. That year, Utah State also beat now-conference rival, Fresno State, in what was just their second matchup ever and their first-ever trip to Fresno.

Utah State’s 2011 conference record of 5–2 was good enough to tie with Nevada for second place in WAC. The Aggies also went 5–2 at home after three straight seasons of going 3–3. It was the first winning record on their home field since 2003 when Utah State went 3–9 winning three of only five home games.

At the time, the 2011 season could have easily felt like the peak. After being deprived of winning seasons for 15 seasons, the Aggies would have been satisfied staying at 7–6 for a few more years, maybe even decades. But for Andersen and his new-look Aggies, 2011 was merely a warning shot.

The 2011 season started with one of the most memorable losses of the era. In a season that served to put the world on notice, game one, with the defending national champions, the no. 19 Auburn Tigers hosting Utah State, was a microcosm of the season at large.

The Aggies led for most of the game and even led by double digits twice. Auburn was forced into an on-side kick and had to score twice in the final 2:07 to escape the Aggies. Utah State lost 42–38.

“The Aggies seemed poised for a stunning victory before Auburn’s final rally,” the Associated Press recapped, “(Auburn) managed to avoid an embarrassing opening loss against a team that has now lost 44 straight road games against Top 25 teams and was starting a freshman at quarterback.”

After the game, a dejected but confident Andersen went as far as to say “I felt like we were stronger than them. I felt like we were faster than them. I felt like they made plays when they had to, and we didn’t.”

The Auburn game was invigorating and motivating, yet heart-breaking and demoralizing. The Aggies likely left Alabama with a bit of cognitive dissonance and went on with their season. They won one, lost two, won one, lost two.

When the Aggies got to Hawaii for game eight, they had led in every single game they had played and hadn’t lost a game by more than 10 points, but they couldn’t get themselves over .500.

There was a 35–34 overtime loss against Colorado State when the Rams scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion with 42 seconds in regulation to tie the game. Then in overtime, the Aggies failed to convert a two-point attempt and lost by a point.

Then, a 27–24 loss at BYU where backup quarterback Riley Nelson threw a touchdown pass with just 11 seconds left in the game to sneak by Utah State.

There was a 10-point loss to Derek Carr and Fresno State and a seven-point loss to Louisiana Tech. The Aggies were leading both Bulldog teams until the mid-fourth quarter.

Utah State was playing intense, competitive, gritty football, but the results weren’t yet apparent. Then on November 5th, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, something clicked.

Utah State came into the game 2–5 on the season. During the first half, star quarterback Chuckie Keeton was carried off in a stretcher after an apparent neck injury and Utah State trailed 28–7 at halftime.

But in the second half, the Aggies outscored the Warriors 28–3 and in a refreshing twist, Robert Turbin ran in a touchdown with 14 seconds left to take the lead. The Aggies won the game 35–31 in a hard-fought, well-earned, and most of all, a much-needed victory. With the win, the Aggies improved to 3–5 on the season and notched their first conference win.

This sparked a five-game win streak and put the Aggies on the right side of close games. Utah State was playing intense, competitive, and gritty football, just as before, but now, they were the ones coming out ahead in the win column when the dust settled.

In a set of games that almost mirrored the games before Hawaii, Utah State beat San Jose State 34–33 at home scoring 27 in the second half in another come-from-behind victory of their own.

Then they held off the University of Idaho in a 49–42 double overtime victory. After nearly blowing another fourth-quarter lead, the Aggies scored two touchdowns in overtime to put the Vandals on ice.

The 2011 season ended with Utah State’s first bowl invitation since 1997. A last-second loss to Ohio in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl capped off Utah State’s dramatic season.

In 2012 Utah State saw real, objective, genuine success, not just relative success compared to a decade of failed campaigns.

In game two, the Aggies beat the Utes for the first time since 1997 in a 27–20 overtime win in Logan. The Aggies were led by Keeton who later said, “It’s the biggest win I’ve been a part of. Seeing the fans rush the field was incredible… Many said this is the biggest thing that’s happened around here in a long while.”

After going undefeated in conference play, the Aggies were named outright WAC champions, winning their conference for the first time since 1997, when the Aggies were the co-champions of the Big West with Nevada. This was the first outright conference championship since 1936 when Utah State, led by E.L “Dick” Romney, won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

Utah State is also technically considered the 1979 outright champion of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, now known as the Big West. At the time, however, Utah State was named co-champions with San Jose State, but later the Spartans were forced to vacate wins because of the use of an ineligible player, so Utah State was retroactively named outright champions.

Utah State was invited to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl where they routed Toledo for their first bowl win since 1993. With that historic bowl win, they finished the 2012 season with a record of 11–2, Utah State’s first ever 10+ win season.

Landing at no. 16 in the nation, Utah State finished the season in the Top 25 for the first time since 1962, when John Ralston’s Aggies went 9–1–1 and finished at no. 10 in the nation.

By the end of 2012, Utah State was on its hottest run in decades. The Aggies ended the season on a seven-game win streak and going back to mid-2011, since the Hawaii game, Utah State was 16–3 in its last 19 games, losing three games by a combined total of 8 points.

In just four years, the Aggies had gone from a three-win team to a two-loss team. Gary Andersen had transformed the program from a team on the brink of collapse into a team with a conference championship and a bowl game victory.

This would be Andersen’s last season of his first tenure at Utah State. So far, Andersen had left a strong legacy at Utah State. A legacy that would only grow as his understudy and successor continued to drive the Aggies to new heights. Andersen had set the course and left the team with a cup runneth over with talent, success, and potential.

Andersen handed the reins to Wells and said goodbye to the no. 18 team in the country, leaving a 26–24 record behind to join the Wisconsin Badgers.

If the story ended there, Andersen would be remembered only as the hero of the program. But the story doesn’t end there, and the complexities of Andersen’s legacy were beginning to brew.

The years went on and Utah State continued the precedent set by Andersen. Stumbling just a few times as the Aggies adjusted to their new conference and acclimated to a permanent winning culture. The years in Andersen’s absence weren’t without growing pains, but the Aggies kept up their newfound tradition of victory.

Then Andersen returned.

Andersen’s second tenure began when his old job opened back up after his successor took a job at Texas Tech following the 2018 season. Andersen was no longer with the Badgers. He had left Wisconsin, made a stop at Oregon State, and was back at the University of Utah.

Years ago, Wells inherited from Andersen a program in great shape. Now, Wells returned the favor and handed over a team loaded with talent. With Andersen back at the helm, the Aggies faced high expectations.

Andersen’s first season back was clouded by those expectations. The Aggies ended the season bowl eligible and accepted an invitation to the Frisco Bowl where they lost to Kent State. Utah State ended the season 7–6.

Measured against the steep expectations for star quarterback Jordan Love’s senior year, the 2019 season was considered by many to be a failure, although it really wasn’t. The failure came later. Under normal circumstances, regression from an 11–2 season to a 7–6 season is perfectly acceptable. It would create an average record of 9–4 between the two seasons without compromising the team’s winning culture or tradition. The caveat to that being, 7–6 has to be the extent of the regression, and improvements should follow.

If Andersen could have followed his lackluster 2019 season with another 11–2 season or a conference championship, there would be no complexities to his legacy. He would likely be considered, or at least be on the path to be considered, the greatest thing to ever happen to Utah State football.

While a defense of Andersen’s 2019 season is justifiable, there is not much to defend in the 2020 season.

The season was ravaged and delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. When the season finally started, it started poorly. The Aggies went 0–3 in three non-competitive games to start the season, but the worst was yet to come. After a disappointing 34–9 loss to Nevada, things began to change. Andersen, the once-lauded coach, was out of a job. After losing their next game to Fresno State, the Aggies were halfway through their scheduled regular season and things kept changing. Now, Utah State needed a new signal caller. Jason Shelley, after following Andersen from the Utes to the Aggies, was kicked off the team.

After that, Andrew Peasley was ruled out for the upcoming Wyoming game, so Cooper Legas was named the starter for a game that would never happen. The game was canceled due to COVID-19 cases within the Utah State program.

By the time the Aggies finally took the field again, they had gone from their first string quarterback, to their second string, to their third string, and back to their second string. Everything was starting to come off the rails.

This chaos was just the start, and it was about to get worse. When Andersen and the university parted ways, it set off a firestorm for the program. Frank Maile, the co-defensive coordinator, was named interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Then, likely feeling pressure from an increasingly messy situation around the football team, athletic director John Hartwell got to work, quickly finding a worthy replacement to lead the team.

He elected not to make Maile the full-time head coach and instead hired Blake Anderson from Arkansas State. Anderson’s strong résumé and electric personality made him an undeniably attractive candidate for the job.

Utah State didn’t officially introduce Anderson until December 12th, but the news had already started to break.

On December 11th, the day before the Aggies were set to play the Rams in the season finale, the players released a statement through Stadium’s Brett McMurphy. McMurphy reported, “Utah State’s players have opted out of Saturday’s game at Colorado State because of comments by university President Noelle Cockett on Tuesday voicing her concerns about interim Head Coach Frank Maile’s religious and cultural background.”

The alleged comments, which supposedly happened during a video conference, were thoroughly investigated and the findings were released.

An external review was initiated by both the USU Board of Trustees and Utah Board of Higher Education. The investigation concluded there was no wrongdoing by Cockett nor Hartwell. The findings that exonerated the university read, in part, “We conclude that the inclusivity concerns raised by Pres. Cockett were designed to promote a discussion with athletes about the degree to which they felt included and welcomed at Utah State”

In terms of on-field results, 2020 is one of the worst seasons Utah State has ever had and is rivaled only by 2006 in recent history. From a comprehensive point of view, the 2020 season is quite possibly rock bottom for Aggie football and one of the darkest times in Utah State athletics history.

The season started with an 0–4 start and ended with the players refusing to take the field for their final game, the program declining into disarray, and Utah State University making headline news for all the wrong reasons.

The Aggies officially ended the season with a 1–5 record, although the conference determined that the refusal to play against the Rams would result in a forfeit for conference standings. The Mountain West website reads, “Colorado State received a forfeit win over Utah State and the Aggies received a forfeit loss. The win and loss are reflected in the 2020 conference-only standings and, per the NCAA, do not count toward either institution’s overall won-loss record.”

So, Utah State ended the season with a mind-boggling overall record of 1–5 and a conference record of 1–6 on a proposed 8-game schedule.

In just two years, the Aggies had gone from a two-loss team to a one-win team. Andersen had transformed the program from a nationally relevant G5 powerhouse into a team on the brink of collapse.

Andersen’s second tenure was reminiscent of the very mediocrity he rescued the team from during his first. Just as his first tenure was necessitated by a desperate need for rescue, his second tenure necessitated the need for a rescue as bold and effective as his own.

The two separate stints at Utah State are best described by the words in the introductory paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Instead of contrasting London and Paris during the French Revolution, Charles Dickens may as well have been commenting on the stark difference between the periods of unfettered success and abject failure overseen by Andersen in his two separate rounds of coaching the Aggies.

Part Two: The Enduring Influence of Coach Andersen

There is perhaps no one that has ever been more influential to the sport of football in the state of Utah, and very few that have been more influential to even the entire western United States, than Gary Andersen.

Andersen was born in 1964 in Salt Lake City. He attended Cottonwood High School in Murray, Utah, and played his entire high school career there, lettering twice. Andersen began college in southeast Idaho and after two years playing for Rick’s College, he returned to his home state to play for the state of Utah’s flagship school, the University of Utah, again lettering twice.

He graduated in 1986 with a degree in political science and began his coaching career. Andersen made two stops in Utah’s neighbor to the north, coaching at Rick’s College and Idaho State, before once again returning to the greater Salt Lake area, this time as a high school coach. He was the head coach for the Park City High School team for one year, then once again left Utah, this time for the neighbor to the south. He spent two seasons at Northern Arizona, then returned to Utah for what would be his longest, and most successful, run in the state.

From 1997–2000 he was involved in various roles at Utah, then when Ron McBride was fired, he took a head coaching job at Southern Utah for just one season. He came back to Utah when Urban Meyer hired him as a defensive line coach in 2004. After a season, he took on additional roles as assistant head coach and defensive coordinator, while maintaining his duties as the defensive line coach, and in 2008 he was a finalist for the Broyles award. During his four seasons as defensive coordinator, the Utes went 37–14, improving their record each year. In that time, the Utah defense gave up 21 points or fewer 28 times and 14 points or fewer 19 times with two shutouts, including the 2006 shutout at Utah State.

Following his successful 2008 season at Utah, Andersen was named head coach of Utah State. When he successfully revitalized the Aggies in just four seasons, he caught the attention of Cal, Colorado, and Kentucky, but turned down those offers in favor of a job at Wisconsin. After two seasons there, he left to take a head coaching job at Oregon State where he would coach from 2015 until he again stepped away, midway through the 2017 season. The next season he was back at Utah, but when Utah State had a vacancy at the head coach position, he was called back. This time he was only with the Aggies for a season and a half until he and the university split up. Now, he works at Weber State as an analyst.

At every level of football in the state of Utah, and in the entire western United States, Andersen has left a deep impact and his contributions to the sport are almost unmatched. The most notable example of his deep influence is his contributions to Utah State University.

Andersen’s first tenure as head coach marked an inflection point for Utah State football. He first deployed a parachute, then ignited a rocket, propelling the team towards, and beyond, the Kármán line and into orbit.

Andersen ended of a long line of coaches with losing records. Each of the eight coaches before Andersen had a career losing record at Utah State. Both of the coaches after Andersen’s arrival have a winning record with the Aggies. Matt Wells left with a record of 44–34 and Blake Anderson currently has a record of 11–3. Even Frank Maile, who was an interim head coach intermittently throughout the period, has a record of 3–3 when acting as head coach.

Phill Krueger, head coach of the Aggies from 1973–1975 was the last head coach with a winning record at Utah State until Andersen changed that. Following Krueger were eight head coaches with losing records, five of which never had a single winning season. Bruce Snyder, Charlie Weatherbie, and John L. Smith were the only coaches to do so. The three coaches before Andersen were Dave Arslanian, Mike Dennehy, and Brent Guy. They combined for a record of 35–90. Those three coaches combined had fewer wins than both Dennehy and Guy had losses individually.

With 26 wins in his first four years at Utah State, Andersen nearly tripled the nine wins in the same number of years before he arrived. In fact, in his first stint, he collected more wins than the 23 that the program had collected in the previous eight seasons under two different head coaches. Andersen’s two predecessors, Guy and Dennehy, in their entire careers at Utah State, combined for nine seasons and had only 28 wins, only two more than Andersen had in his first tenure alone.

Currently, Utah State has an overall winning record of 570–555–31 for an average of .506. But in the years since Andersen was first hired, the team has outpaced the historical average going 90–72 for an average of .556.

Andersen not only set a pace to accelerate Utah State’s all-time winning record, he made it attainable in the first place.

When Andersen arrived on campus, Utah State’s record was underground. Prior to the 2009 season, the Aggies had a record of 480–483–31. With the team sitting just below .500, Andersen was unofficially tasked with getting on the right side of that mark and putting it as far away as he could.

Although the team was improving during his first two seasons, the record slipped. Then in his third year, he turned the team around and finally began to approach his target.

The conclusion of the 2012 season coincided with the conclusion of Andersen’s first round of coaching at Utah State. At the time, the Aggies, falling short of eclipsing .500, were sitting at 506–507–31 all time. The following year, with a 28–24 win at UNLV, the Aggies once again and at long last, finally had more wins than losses. Under coach Wells, they finished the season with an all-time record of 515–512–31.

That is only part of Andersen’s story at Utah State. The good part.

When he returned, propelled by his own contributions during his first tenure, the Aggies had climbed to an all-time record of 551–541–31. When Andersen left this time, Utah State’s all-time record was moving in the wrong direction and getting dangerously close to losing territory. He left with the Aggies at 558–550–31, coming just shy of erasing the progress he and his successor had accomplished.

With a threat of just an 8 game losing streak potentially squandering one of Utah State’s most prized possessions, a winning record, Andersen and the program parted ways, completing one of the strangest cycles Utah State had ever seen.

Successful coaches get better jobs at bigger schools and unsuccessful coaches get fired all the time. Andersen is far from unique in that regard. What makes Andersen astoundingly unique is that he did both of those things for the same team.

In the history of every program is a coach that transformed the program, for better or worse, then left. But not many programs have a coach that arrived and transformed the entire state of the program. Twice.

In his first stint, Gary Andersen kickstarted the greatest rise in Utah State history and one of the best and most unlikely runs the sport has ever seen. But in his second stint, he put the team in retrograde and nearly unraveled everything he accomplished in his first.

Andersen’s two tenures, with their beginnings separated by a decade, could not be more juxtaposed. Yet, despite the stark difference, there was something poetically congruent about his two rounds of coaching the Aggies.

Andersen’s first tenure at the university started when Guy failed to reach four wins in each of his four seasons and ended when Andersen reached 11 wins in his own fourth season. In 2008, Guy was fired and the job was given to Andersen. In 2012, after turning down offers from Cal, Colorado, and Kentucky, Andersen finally gave in and accepted a job at Wisconsin.

In hindsight, parting ways with Guy was an obvious choice, and hiring Andersen an even more obvious one. But, at the time, firing Guy wasn’t necessarily a popular move and Andersen didn’t appear to be on anyone’s radar despite being an assistant head coach and defensive coordinator for a 13–0 Utah team that had just won the Mountain West championship and the Sugar Bowl against no. 4 Alabama. ESPN even reported that former Utah State football head coach Smith was a candidate, foreshadowing what would later happen with Andersen.

For a program so starved of success, Guy’s mediocre seasons were beginning to become almost acceptable. Even Scott Barnes, Utah State’s athletic director at the time, admitted to Guy making moves in the right direction saying, “Brent has undoubtedly made some progress during his four years” Barnes said “but the program has yet to establish any significant or consistent momentum nor has that progress translated into wins. I feel a change in leadership at this critical time in our program’s history will help us create and sustain a new level of success.”

Bleacher Report also commented on the move saying, “It may be that Utah State was a tad rash in firing Guy without recognizing the good that was accomplished and rewarding him with one more year,” and even noted “Utah State may come to regret that move. Brent Guy still has quality coaching left in him.”

Guy did go on to have a pretty long and somewhat successful career, although he never got another head coaching job.

In November of 2008, The Utah Statesman, without the benefit of fortune telling, called firing Guy “another step backward for USU football.” In a scathing article in which the Statesman also referred to Utah State as “one of college football’s coaching graveyards,” and said that the university had “some of the worst facilities in the United States.”

The article concluded with a pseudo-mandate of “Let’s hope by next November the Aggies have six wins. Nothing less should be expected of a coach that is supposed to be better than Guy. If not, we all better get ready for another run through the dreadful hire-and-fire cycle.”

Utah State didn’t get to six wins the following season, although it quickly became clear that Andersen was a better coach than Guy.

Arguably, the most notable part of that mandate, however, isn’t the plea for six wins. It is the acknowledgment of the “dreadful hire-and-fire cycle.”

One of Andersen’s most important and enduring accomplishments at Utah State is the eradication of that “dreadful hire-and-fire cycle” laid out by the Statesman. In just one line, the Statesman highlighted one of the most central pieces of what would become Andersen’s legacy. It is important because the alternative is certain death.

Utah State had indeed become accustomed to hiring and firing coaches. In the same article, the Statesman mentioned “Mick Dennehy, Guy’s predecessor, was let go after his fifth season. Dave Arslanian, Dennehy’s predecessor, was only given two seasons.”

Utah State is no longer in the business of hiring new coaches because the last one was fired for failing to get to six, or even four, wins. Now Utah State has to hire new coaches because the last one was hired away by bigger and richer programs. Acting as a stepping stone to bigger and higher-paying jobs might not be the perfect scenario for a mid-major school, but if it means consistently winning six or more games, it is certainly preferable to the alternative. Because of Andersen, Utah State has proven that hiring, and subsequently losing, successful coaches can actually be a good problem to have.

This would be put on display after the 2018 season when one of the coaches Andersen paved the way for would end up being himself. Wells, following the newly-established pattern of rejecting the “dreadful hire-and-fire cycle,” was hired away by Texas Tech leaving Andersen’s old job open.

Andersen almost wasn’t hired for his second stint. In fact, one of Andersen’s old assistants was reported to have been a candidate.

Dave Aranda was Andersen’s defensive coordinator for the 2012 season and followed Andersen to Wisconsin where the two coaches worked together for two more seasons. Aranda worked as the counterpart to Wells, who was the offensive coordinator in 2012, and oversaw one of the better defensive teams at Utah State. At the time, he was the assistant head coach, defensive coordinator, and linebackers coach at LSU. Aranda is currently the head coach of the Baylor Bears.

Todd Orlando, another former Utah State defensive coordinator, was also rumored to be a candidate. Orlando replaced Aranda in 2013 and worked as the defensive coordinator under Wells for two seasons before departing to Houston. Orlando was the defensive coordinator at Texas when his old boss, Wells, vacated the head coaching position at Utah State, and is now the defensive coordinator of Florida Atlantic.

Others being reported were Jay Hill, Maile, and of course, Andersen himself.

Andersen was never an unlikely candidate, but he did receive outside help. A high-level donor stepped in and interfered with the coaching search, attempting to persuade the administration to bring Andersen back.

This interference didn’t help the process go smoothly and the entire search was described as “really messy,” which matched the mess of the entire program at the time. Eventually, the search resulted in the pressure from boosters successfully leading to Andersen being hired.

For whatever reason, Andersen’s second stint just didn’t work out. He inherited a strong program, and in 2019, the team under-performed but did enough to earn a bowl invitation.

Then, in 2020, the team, and the rest of the world, encountered a global pandemic and economic shutdown that violently disrupted the status quo of nearly every aspect of modern life.

Certainly, COVID-19 had something to do with Andersen’s lack of success in 2020. But, the pandemic can’t be solely to blame. After all, every team in the country was dealing with the same thing.

The fact of the matter is that the 2020 season was a multifactorial catastrophe. Facing opposition from every direction, including internally, the program crumbled.

Perhaps part of the reason for Andersen’s failure to launch during his second run is that Utah State was a completely different team than the one he had left in 2012. Thanks to him, Utah State was now in a much more competitive conference, faced greater expectations, and had higher stakes than ever before.

Halfway through the season, it became clear that it was time to move on.

“More than any other coach that might fill the Aggies’ current vacancy, Andersen would be expected to perform to a near-impossible degree. In an environment where even 10–2 isn’t good enough for some fans, that’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a guy who bounced around three programs in nine years just to settle in back home in Salt Lake,” the Mountain West Wire predicted when Andersen was just a potential candidate. “Even for a man as venerated around Cache Valley as Andersen deservedly is, trying to recapture anything from the past is a one-way ticket to sports hell. Conferences change. Players and coordinators and opponents and schemes change. The idea that a coach who did it once can certainly do it again is baffling.”

Just as hiring Andersen to replace Guy was the right move, letting him go after the second time was absolutely necessary for the survival of the program, but, in true Gary Andersen fashion, nothing about his departure made sense. The more details that emerged about Andersen’s departure, the less clear it all became. To this day, there is still confusion and disagreement about if Andersen was fired or if he resigned. Andersen insists he was fired, but a letter from Hartwell would suggest otherwise.

The circumstances around both the beginning and end of his second stint at Utah State are shrouded in peculiarity, adding to the almost incomprehensible career path he had taken with the Aggies.

Andersen’s first arrival and second departure were serendipitous events that were inarguably good for the program. His first departure and second arrival were embarrassing events that put the program at risk.

Both his first arrival and second departure benefited the university in surprising ways that exceed all expectations. Hiring Andersen for the 2009 season propelled the Aggies to unprecedented levels of success. Getting him out of the way in 2020 did the same.

His first departure was completely out of the control of the Utah State administration. Apparently, his second arrival was too. When he left the first time, Utah State lost its best coach in decades, and disaster was on the horizon. Luckily Andersen left a strong foundation, and under the watchful eye of Wells, disaster was avoided. When he arrived again for the 2019 season, disaster was once again on the horizon, but this time, it wasn’t averted. Utah State went headlong into chaos.

Life is uncertain, predicting the future is impossible, and asking ‘what if?’ is a fool’s errand. Even still, one burning question has been in the mind of nearly every Aggie fan. ‘What if Gary Andersen never left Utah State?’

When Andersen left the first time, Utah State was on a sustained upward trajectory unlike anything else. Andersen rescued Utah State from the worst extended period in program history and walked away at one of the best times the team had ever seen.

Andersen didn’t stay. But he did the next best thing. He came back. This, instead of offering a satisfying answer to the first question, gave way to another one.

‘What if Gary Andersen never returned?’

When Andersen left the second time, Utah State was in free fall. Andersen had come back after Utah State had just completed one of the best seasons ever, and walked away from one of the biggest messes in program history.

The Aggies are the current champions of the Mountain West, so it’s hard for fans to complain too much. But if Utah State could have snatched a title without the letdown of 2019 and the embarrassment of 2020, that would have been preferable.

Could Aranda, Orlando, Hill, or any other candidate have skipped the pain of Andersen’s return and gone straight to a Mountain West Championship? Was there another path to the top of the Mountain West, or is that what it took to get the stars to align for Utah State and get the Aggies back to their winning ways?

It’s unclear and impossible to tell. Such is the nature of the complex legacy of Gary Andersen.

Andersen is one of the biggest, and undoubtedly most polarizing, figures in Utah State history. With the riddle of a career he had, it only makes sense that Utah State would finally win a Mountain West championship only through his failure.

When Wells left, Jaden Johnson wrote in the Utah Statesman, “It’s been a good decade for Utah State football. Once a perennial bottom-feeder in the WAC, living in fear of what may happen to the program while the college football landscape continued to shift, USU has now qualified for seven bowl games in the past eight seasons, and is coming off perhaps its best season ever.”

Johnson also speculated that the upcoming hire would shape the future of the program saying, “The next two weeks, however, will play a big role in determining what the coming decade of Utah State football will look like.”

It hasn’t been a full decade yet, but so far Johnson was prophetically correct.

Only three seasons have passed since Johnson’s prediction, and in that time Utah State has already been all over the place. The Aggies had one of their worst years ever in 2020, then just a year later they won a Mountain West championship with an 11–3 record and a final ranking of no. 24 in the nation. All of that was shaped by Andersen’s return.

It is impossible to investigate the history of Utah State football without recognizing Andersen as a central figure. Andersen could be credited with practically resurrecting the program yet could be accused of nearly murdering it.

Even with incredible competition from titans of the sport such as Merlin Olsen, Bobby Wagner, and E.L “Dick” Romney, Andersen stands apart due to his immense and assorted contributions to the history and future of the team.

It’s not enough to say that Andersen was a good coach or a bad coach. To do so would be a gross understatement. He literally saved the football program. Then, he almost ran it into the ground. Either of his stints individually would be worthy of near-eternal examination, praise, and scrutiny. Both of them together make Andersen a colossal and integral part of Aggie history.

Despite Andersen’s blunder in his return, the more positive notes of his legacy have, so far, stood the test of time. The radio voice of the Aggies, Scott Garrard, using the limited characters allowed by Twitter, perfectly illustrated the enduring influence of Gary Andersen. “Aggie fans should shudder at the thought of where the athletic program would be right now without Gary Andersen. Look at New Mexico State or U of Idaho. That could have been USU had Gary not turned things around a decade ago. His lasting impact should always be acknowledged.”

Much of Utah State’s identity is a direct result of the resurgence of the program that was orchestrated by Andersen. From the jerseys, the stadium, and even Utah State’s home in the Mountain West, Andersen is behind nearly everything.

Utah State debuted a brand new logo and Nike jerseys in 2012, just a year before Andersen was on his way out. The Nike Brand president at the time was Charlie Denson, who played football at Utah State and graduated in 1978. According to the university, “Denson was instrumental in Utah State’s unveiling of its new athletics brand and identity program in the spring of 2012.” Utah State also notes, “The university worked with Nike in collaboration on a 15-month re-branding campaign that was made possible through Denson’s support.”

The new logo arrived just in time to outdate Andersen’s brand-new tattoo of the old Utah State logo that he got just before that offseason, a mere months before the new logo was unveiled. In his first stint, Andersen overlapped with the new Nike jerseys for just one season.

It would be incorrect to attribute the Nike deal to Andersen’s rebuild, but it certainly didn’t hurt as it made Utah State a more profitable and attractive brand.

Andersen never coached the Aggies in the Mountain West during his first tenure. He left after coaching the Aggies to a WAC championship in their final year in that conference. He was at the school, however, When Utah State was invited to the Mountain West. Utah State accepted an invitation to the conference on May 4, 2012, just four months and 17 days after Utah State, led by Andersen, completed its first winning season in 15 seasons and played in a bowl game after a 14-year-long post-season hiatus.

Again, Andersen doesn’t deserve all the credit. On the hardwood, Stew Morrill’s basketball program was doing its part to bolster Utah State’s résumé. Morrill had his teams running at the top of the league, winning the WAC championship four times in the eight years Utah State was there. Andersen’s WAC championship was only one of 26 conference championships the Aggies won while playing in the WAC, and it came after Utah State had already accepted the invitation, but college football rules the NCAA and there is no doubt that the resurgence of the football program helped the Aggies secure the invite from the Mountain West.

On June 23, 2015, Utah State publicized the agreement between Maverik and the university regarding the name rights to the football stadium. The deal is worth 6.3 million dollars to Utah State, lasts from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2037, and was “a catalyst for USU’s stadium renovation initiative.”

Andersen might not be the sole reason for the deal, but would Maverik be willing to pay 6.3 million dollars to a perennial bottom feeder?

In fact, in that statement, the university claimed that the renovations would ensure “the already promising future of Aggie football.”

Already promising? That’s about as direct a reference to Gary Andersen as possible without saying his name. The fact is, there was nothing promising about the future of Aggie football until Andersen arrived. Ten years before that deal, Utah State was about to embark on a 3–8 journey and lose every single game in their home stadium. Now, after four straight winning seasons and a conference title, they had just sold their name rights to that stadium for 6.3 million dollars.

Since Andersen set foot on campus and took the reins of the 2009 team, the Aggies haven’t been shut out once. They have had four 10+ win seasons, five 8+ win seasons, and nine bowl-eligible seasons. The Aggies have also produced 13 NFL draft picks including four third-round picks, a second-round pick, a first-round pick, three Super Bowl champions, and an 8x pro-bowler.

Andersen’s first bowl game in 2011 was Utah State’s first since the 1997 Humanitarian bowl. That bowl game kickstarted a run of five bowl appearances, and Utah State has since been invited to nine bowl games in the 11 seasons starting that year.

His first bowl win in 2012 was the first bowl win since 1993, but since then, the Aggies have won five bowl games.

Utah State has had two conference championships since Andersen arrived. One in each conference the Aggies have played in. In the Mountain West, Utah State has been named division champion twice.

The Aggies have played in two Mountain West championship games and won one of them.

Throughout the history of Aggie football, which started in 1892, Utah State has been to 13 bowl games. Nine of them came after Andersen arrived. Utah State has a total of six bowl wins. Five came after Andersen arrived.

In the 11 seasons since Andersen first got the head coaching job, Utah State has had seven winning seasons. Before Andersen arrived, Utah State took 35 years to have as many winning seasons.

Andersen’s winning tradition is as strong as ever. No one has squandered it. Since Andersen’s first departure, Utah State has only had two regular seasons with a losing record. One was the 2016 season and the other was Andersen’s own 2020 season. His legacy is still young, but so far the only person to fail to live up to his mighty legacy is himself, when he returned and was unable to replicate, match, or even live up to his own past.

Part Three: The Most Unique Man in College Football

Mark Zuckerberg’s motto of “move fast and break things” might not be the best guide for running the world’s leading social media platform, Facebook officially dropped the slogan in 2014, but it’s the perfect blueprint for a college coach looking to avoid being forgotten. Gary Andersen proved that. The phrase works, but the converse could just as easily be true. “Move fast and fix things” is an equally effective way to be remembered. Andersen proved that too.

Andersen’s most monumental acts of breaking and fixing came at Utah State. When he first arrived, he mended a program sorely in need of maintenance. Once the program was running smoothly, he left, only to return a few years later. When he came back, the program was in excellent shape, having been expertly repaired by Andersen before. He then proceeded to nearly destroy his own work.

What he did at Wisconsin and Oregon State might not be considered breaking or fixing, although he certainly saw high highs and low lows throughout his career away from the Aggies. A slogan from a different company might better describe Andersen in his years leading the Badgers and the Beavers, and his entire career at large. Apple’s “think different,” or in Andersen’s case, “be different” is a blunt and unceremonious, yet accurate, description of Andersen’s professional identity. Being different, like moving fast and breaking or fixing things, is a surefire way to be remembered.

Simply, it is just too easy to forget college coaches. To be remembered, a coach really has to do something out of the ordinary.

A personification of this is Tim Duryea, who was the head coach of Utah State basketball from 2015–2018. Despite coaching Jalen Moore and Sam Merrill, two Aggie legends and household names in Cache Valley, Duryea is quickly fading from memory.

Under Duryea, the Aggies weren’t that good. They were new to the Mountain West, an incredibly difficult basketball conference, and struggled to adjust quickly. Fortunately for Duryrea, though, the Aggies weren’t broken.

The Aggies still had a strong brand and talented recruits, such as Moore and Merrill, kept the program afloat. Coached by Duryea, the Aggies coasted along and scored almost identical records three years straight. Duryea was given a shot to live up to the high expectations left in place by Morrill but came up short.

The program wasn’t destroyed under Duryea, but it also wasn’t competitive. There was nothing notable about his time as head coach. He is in the majority in that regard. The coaches that are household names, Tom Izzo, Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Jay Wright, and so on are well-known not for having undistinguished and inconspicuous careers, but for extraordinary and uncommon achievements.

Duryea is possibly the epitome of forgettable mediocrity, and as such, will not receive the harshest punishment history has to offer. By disappearing from public memory, Duryea avoids a fate much worse, being remembered. It sounds harsh, but it can play in the favor of some coaches. Bad coaches have to be really bad to endure history.

Coaches come and go. Even great coaches come and go. But Andersen wasn’t just great. He was transcendent. Andersen’s scorching hot recovery and his screeching halt will indeed guarantee that his legacy will live on forever. Even outside of that, however, Andersen had many memorable moments and unforgettable eccentricities.

During his two incumbencies, he coached household names such as Chuckie Keeton, Bobby Wagner, Robert Turbin, Jordan Love, Savon Scarver, and Deven Thompkins, among others. Tying his name to theirs ensures his memorability.

But Andersen doesn’t need help etching his name into history. Not even from the likes of Wagner, Keeton, or Love.

There is something unforgettable about the complex legacy of Gary Andersen. Everywhere he has gone, he has been followed by inexplicable events and bewildering circumstances Andersen is an enigma, an outlier, a mystery, and, as some have noted, a puzzle.

“The man doesn’t move at the same pace or in the same way as others. He doesn’t think like others. He doesn’t react in expected form. He is a puzzle with a sweatshirt on his back and a whistle around his neck, a sweatshirt and whistle that are now left on the ground.” Gordon Monson wrote of Andersen.

Andersen’s two memorable runs with the Aggies led to a less memorable and very peculiar quirk of Andersen’s legacy. More specifically, the conclusion of each of his head coaching gigs at Utah State, led to an uncommon pattern.

One piece of evidence of his puzzle-like career and legacy is the way he set up the Utah State program for success. Usually, setting a program up for success is the mark of a good coach. The first time Andersen left, this was true. The first post-Andersen era was bliss. Andersen built a winning program with a strong culture. It was a destination for talented players and it was making more money than it ever had before. Success in the wake of Andersen’s contributions was inevitable.

The second time was different. Although the second post-Andersen era was again bliss, starting with one of the best and most decorated seasons in Utah State history, it wasn’t thanks to Andersen. At least not in the same way.

Andersen’s whiplashed departure paved the way for Blake Anderson’s triumphant arrival. Despite the phonetic confusion of replacing coach Andersen with coach Anderson, this has so far shown to be unequivocally the right move by the administration.

Anderson notably had zero ties to the state of Utah, and other than a three-year stop at New Mexico, he had no ties to the Mountain West. In some cases, that could have been concerning but with the unique situation Utah State was in, it could have actually bolstered his chances. The Aggies were in desperate need of a fresh start. The Aggies needed to completely cut ties with the man that gave them everything.

Anderson brought in a stellar coaching staff and an influx of talent from his previous school, Arkansas State, as well as other schools from around the country. He had a strong returning core already in Logan and even convinced some Utah State athletes to withdraw from the transfer portal.

The squad Anderson assembled, coach by himself, defensive coordinator Ephram Banda, formerly at the University of Miami, and offensive coordinator Anthony Tucker, previously at UCF, snapped the program back into shape in a matter of months.

There is something about the way the 2020 season ended in abject failure and embarrassment that enabled Utah state to somehow grow stronger. In a strange twist of fate, Andersen’s unintended scorched earth campaign set the Aggies up for their first ever Mountain West title run.

It’s impossible to prove the counterfactual, but it is not probable that Utah State would be the current champions of the Mountain West conference if Andersen stayed with the team for another year, or even until the end of the season.

Winning a championship in the Mountain West is very difficult and the margin of error is slim. If things hadn’t gone exactly the way they did, the results would not match what they are today. Some call it fate, some call it statistical probability, some call it ‘having to play Boise State every year,’ but whatever it’s called, it finally led to a Mountain West title for the Aggies and it’s unlikely that they could have done it any other way.

In a way, Andersen unintentionally sacrificed his own reputation for the good of the team.

Like a forest fire replenishing the soil with nutrients to create a fertile environment conducive to accelerated future growth, the 2020 football season was scary and dangerous, and nearly burned everything down, but necessary for new life.

Unlike a forest fire, however, on his way out, Andersen was offered 2.7 million dollars.

He declined. This is one of the most unique and well-known recurring oddities of his career. Andersen had an unconventional tendency to leave money behind. When he refused the money, he said it simply, it just “wasn’t his style.”

To state the obvious, 2.7 million dollars is a lot of money. There’s really no other way to put it. Yet, Andersen turned it down because it “wasn’t his style.” On its own, could seem to have been an unprecedented move. It wasn’t.

This wasn’t the first time Andersen turned down an absurd amount of cash. In fact, this paled in comparison to what he had before. When he and Oregon State parted ways in 2017, his buyout was over 12 million dollars. It would have been, anyway. Andersen left it on the table. The meager 2.7 million dollars offered at the end of his failed second term at Utah State was pocket change compared to the 12 million he turned his nose up at just a few years before. Per a legally binding contract, that money was rightfully his. He didn’t care. He didn’t want it.

The amount of money Andersen has left on the table makes him one of the most unique coaches in the county. Even outside of coaching, there aren’t many people willing to leave almost 15 million on the table, especially when the money is contractually obligated to them.

But, It’s not just the amount of money that makes him unique. His reason for neglecting the cash is equally intriguing.

To Andersen, it wasn’t even a tough choice. He told the Athletic, “That’s something I’ve stood for my whole life. If the money’s there and I’m working for it, I’ll take it, if the money’s given to me in a contract (buyout) — I don’t know if that’s something I’m comfortable with.”

Yahoo also reported that Andersen said, “waiving my contract is the correct decision and enables the young men and the program to move forward and concentrate on the rest of this season.”

Andersen continued, “Coaching is not about the mighty dollar. It is about teaching and putting young men in a position to succeed on and off the field. Success comes when all parties involved are moving in the same direction.”

That attitude makes him a very unique figure in his industry. The realm of college sports is increasingly showing its servitude to the “mighty dollar.” The summer of 2021 introduced the world to the new frontier of name, images, and likeness (NIL) rules and regulations and a preliminary round of conference realignment. The dollar was flexing its muscles. Then, the most recent round of realignment came along, showing that money matters more than immutable geographic bearings. So, coaching, and college athletics as a whole, is about the money. Just not to Andersen.

The thing that truly sets him apart, though, is that he truly lives by that mindset. Speaking specifically of the 12 million he refused from Oregon State, Andersen said, “How could I wake up every day and look at myself in the mirror knowing I took money from the kids in that program?” According to Deseret News.

Was Andersen displaying a high level of naivety after a lifetime of coaching? Was he giving a lesson in what economists refer to as the fungibility of currency? Was he seeing into an alternate universe where college players are paid, or even mistaking his Beavers for an unsung NFL expansion team? Perhaps he is just deeply dedicated to the student-athletes and truly believes that college athletics are, and should be, in the best interest of the players.

In a series of text messages to John Canzano of the Oregonian leading up to Andersen’s resignation, he differentiated himself from the field and lamented the current state of coaching saying “Kids are a second thought or third or fourth!!”

In another text, he proclaimed his love for his student-athletes saying “Love my kids just want to see them take a step!! Don’t expect greatness but I do want to see progress!.. I will fight! It’s an interesting battle. However I asked for it and love my kids! We still need to step up around here and stop being small time!! … We played hard as hell…”

After his Oregon State resignation, one staffer added to the sentiment that Andersen really was just dedicated to the student-athletes saying, “Couldn’t be prouder to be his guy but heartbroken that we failed him. Walking away from the money because he is in the business for the kids.”

Perhaps Andersen truly believes that even without directly lining the pockets of the players, that money would go to benefit the student-athletes. That is, after all, why Andersen was in the business. He had said that coaching is not about the “mighty dollar.” It was about the kids. That’s not a unique thing to say, but Andersen didn’t just say it. He backed it up. He put his money, so to speak, where his mouth is.

Walking away from mountains of cash because it wasn’t his “style” isn’t the only way Andersen has talked a big talk only to back it up with remarkable actions.

That was the theme of his Oregon State departure. Part of the reason Andersen left was that he said he would. He had promised that once he no longer believed he could win at Oregon State, and that he was no longer the man to put the program in the best situation, he would leave, because “Beaver Nation deserved better.”

“If he didn’t believe he could win at Oregon State he would pull the unprecedented move of tearing up his contract and letting the Beavers go free,” Canzona warned. That’s exactly what Andersen did.

While coaching the Beavers, Andersen outlined a refusal to fire his assistant coaches, despite the profound struggles of the program. He even went as far as to suggest he would pay them out of his own pocket and claimed he would “take the bullet” for them and “ride off into the sunset.”

In that same series of texts to Canzano, Andersen shouldered the blame saying “Hard place right now… one thing I guarantee you is this: This staff needs to figure it out… It’s on me and I get that and right now… Beaver Nation deserves much better! End of story!!”

In another text, Andersen said, ”I have them by the (expletive) for every penny, no buyout for the next four not counting this year… but that’s not my style!! If it does not improve I will do some crazy (expletive) with my salary so I can pay the right coaches the right money!!”

If by “some crazy (expletive)” he meant he would walk away and leave the entirety of the 12.7 million remaining in his contract, he was certainly right. It doesn’t get much crazier than that.

Just over a week later, he added, “If these (expletives) can’t get it right I will not just say fire them and start over!! That’s not the way to go about it. If I (expletive) it up that bad I will take the bullet and ride off into the sunset! I will stay old school!! I will not die doing this (expletive)!! Stay tuned!”

Andersen then promised that the athletes and fans would get everything he had in the tank, “My plan won’t change. Coach my (expletive) off for these kids seven more times!! They will get all I got!! … I will grind for these fans they deserve that!!!”

A week later, Andersen was gone. His statements of “Coach my (expletive) off for these kids seven more times!!” And “They will get all I got!!” Seem to be in conflict, but the latter trumped the former as Andersen felt he was no longer helping the team. So, instead of coaching the kids seven more times, he coached them once more, then got out of the way.

When Andersen makes a promise, he fully intends on keeping it.

Prior to the 2011 season, Andersen promised his Utah State team that if they made it to a bowl game, he would commemorate the occasion with a tattoo.

But this was bigger than a tattoo. When Andersen promised that if he couldn’t fix the team that he would stop accepting payment, swallowing his pride, and let “the Beavers go free,” he meant it.

Throughout his career, he has demonstrated that, to him, coaching really is “about teaching and putting young men in a position to succeed…” and in this case, he no longer felt he was doing that. So, Andersen kept his promise and parted ways with his team. Keeping this promise was assuredly a bit more painful than a tattoo.

Andersen wasn’t seeing success at Oregon State, but that’s not why he left. To him, it was about his word, it was about principle, and it was about doing right by the players and fans. “Andersen appears to have left on principle,” SB Nation wrote.

That was a defining pattern throughout his career, too. Andersen had a bit of a proclivity to stand on principle and leave jobs when he and his employer didn’t see eye-to-eye or when he felt his moral character or standards were at stake.

In 1994, Andersen was working his second job out of college as a defensive line coach at Idaho State, when his good friend and defensive coordinator, Kyle Whittingham was fired from the program. Andersen was upset, but his future was secure. Deseret News even reported that all Andersen had to do to keep his job was take the head coach’s side. Of course, Andersen refused, and quit in protest.

Whittingham landed at the University of Utah as a defensive line coach, Andersen’s old job at Idaho State. On the other hand, Andersen, whose wife had just given birth to twins, had no job lined up. He ended up moving back in with his parents and taking a job in the Salt Lake City area for $12 an hour.

To him, his values outweighed his salary, so, at 30 years old with young twins, Andersen walked away from a lucrative and promising career in college coaching, not knowing if he’d ever have another chance, just to stand up for a friend. He ended up coaching Park City High School but didn’t know if he would ever get back to coaching at the college level. Then he received a phone call. “That call came from Bronco Mendenhall, who was then at Northern Arizona University,” Andersen recounted to the Murray Journal.

After the shock of nearly losing his career and being forced into his parents’ basement and a $12 an hour job, Andersen could have been more protective of his career. In his position, some would even sacrifice their integrity to ensure job security. He wasn’t and he didn’t.

After following Mendenhall to Northern Arizona, he found his way back to Utah ahead of the 1997 season. He was hired by his former offensive line coach during his playing days, Ron McBride. After four seasons, Andersen had worked his way up to assistant head coach to McBride, who had become a good friend and a mentor to Andersen.

Then in 2002, to the indignation of Andersen, McBride was fired. So, in true Gary Andersen fashion, he left. He took a head coaching job at Southern Utah University for one year before the new coach of the Utes, Urban Meyer, convinced him to come back.

What kind of person happens upon a head coaching job just to prove a point? Andersen was beginning to evolve and gain steam. Even as a young coach in only his first few jobs, Andersen has always understood the worth of his labor and he hasn’t been afraid to use himself as leverage.

In using himself as leverage, as he so often did, Andersen sometimes had to make significant sacrifices to his career. Yet another curiosity that defines Andersen’s career is how much he was able to do while making so many intentional downward career moves.

Putting aside the utter weirdness of his bohemian résumé, it is impossible to deny that he has indeed accomplished a lot. Not everyone gets to coach in a Big Ten championship game. It’s intentionally exclusive. Only two coaches get the opportunity every year, and that’s kind of the whole point. Andersen is one of only 11 individuals that have ever coached in a Big Ten championship game.

Was Andersen a product of dumb luck or does he just have an innate and immutable sense of meta-spatial awareness of the college athletics landscape?

However he did it, his acute understanding of the game allowed him to make career move years before it makes sense to everyone else.

Somewhat lateral moves dot his career path, not unlike any successful college coach with a long career. But downward moves make his path very unique. Since 2003, he has willingly stepped away from three head coaching jobs in pretty clear downward moves. Four, including the much-disputed end of his second tenure at Utah State, although Andersen insists that he was indeed fired. He also stepped away from an assistant head coaching job to become a low-tier assistant at another school. Yet, each time, it works out for the coach. Whenever Andersen took a step back, he seemed to find a way to take two steps forward and end up exactly where he wanted to be.

He wasn’t just stepping down from prestigious job titles. While he made a habit of leaving money behind when switching jobs, one of these downward moves actually cost him cold hard cash, not just potentially profits. When he left Wisconsin, he was responsible for his end of the buyout. Apparently, rejecting buyout money isn’t a two-way street for Andersen, and he was on the hook for three million dollars.

The game of one-step-backward-two-steps-forward started to come apart in the late stages of his career, but even then, he never had trouble finding a coaching job. Even after leaving a mess behind him at Utah State, his talents were too alluring for Weber State to pass on and he now works as an analyst for Jay Hill, who was one of his players and was an assistant on the defensive side when Andersen was the coordinator at Utah.

His accomplishments and ability to land a job really shouldn’t be too hard to believe. All the evidence points to Andersen being a really good football coach. The fact of the matter is, Gary Andersen only had one truly bad year at Utah State.

In his six seasons with Utah State, he had three seasons with losing records, but that is extremely misleading. His first two seasons were a product of the failed dynasty before him, and while four wins during each of those seasons is far from an objectively successful result, it was an invigorating period for a starved program. His team had a losing record, but he was exceeding expectations. The 2019 season, was the exact opposite. His team had a winning record, he was missing expectations.

While the 2019 season fell short of high expectations, mostly in place because of a legacy that he started, the Aggies still won seven games, went to a bowl game, and produced a first-round draft pick.

His other losing season was in 2020. He may have had only one bad year, but it was a really bad year. Of course, the disaster that was the 2020 season was multifactorial. It would be completely ignorant and unfair to suggest otherwise. Andersen was not solely responsible for the way the season went, but he also isn’t blameless. 2020 could have permanently altered the course of the program and had it not been for John Hartwell hiring just the right coach, it would have.

Always somehow setting Utah State up for success in his absence, turning down money, and taking inexplicable downward career moves are still only parts of the story. Small, isolated, and seemingly insignificant irregularities have added up over the years to further obscure the shape of Andersen’s career and add extra layers of idiosyncrasy to an already unusual curriculum vitae.

For example, there’s something undeniably comical about Andersen getting his shoulder inked with the Utah State logo that was literally replaced by the end of that offseason.

Then, with the former logo of his former team tattooed on his back, Andersen became the head coach of the Badgers. While there, Andersen coached the Wisconsin Badgers in a Big Ten championship game against his former boss, the legendary Urban Meyer, and the Ohio State Buckeyes, with a tattoo of the old Utah State logo and a message about the 2011 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.

An absurd addition extension to that story is the fact that Andersen was actually the second Wisconsin coach in a row to have a tattoo of his former team. Bret Bielema, Andersen’s predecessor, had a much-more-visible Iowa Hawkeyes logo on his left calf. At least Andersen’s tattoo wasn’t for an in-conference rival and could be easily hidden with a simple t-shirt. Really, there’s something undeniably comical about the randomness of that entire situation.

That whole set of circumstances has to be one of the strangest and least talked about storylines of all time. Storylines like that followed Andersen like a lost dog.

It wasn’t just tattoo fiascos making his career unique. When he made his decision to leave Wisconsin, he didn’t even tell his son, a linebacker for the Badgers, who found out in a team meeting the rest of the players did.

Then, when he coaching the Beavers, Andersen was instrumental in helping Barnes secure the athletic director job at Oregon State. In an unusual reversal of roles, the football coach was selecting the athletic director, not the other way around. Barnes was Andersen’s athletic director at Utah State. Most coaches just take their assistants and some recruits when they get a new job. Not Andersen. He was bringing university administrators with him.

Andersen didn’t just have borderline comedic events following him. He also found himself adjacent to some singularities that appeared more aberrant and offbeat than just quirky and strange.

The Washington Post acknowledged the prevalence of conspiracy theories surrounding the final weeks of Wisconsin’s season, that began to circulate even before Andersen’s sudden departure. The unsubstantiated claims speculate that Barry Alvarez, Andersen’s athletic director at Wisconsin and former longtime coach of the Badgers, who also happened to be a “member of the selection committee for the first-ever College Football Playoff, had something to do with the fact that Wisconsin got trounced so thoroughly in the Big Ten championship game.”

These theories seek to explain how Wisconsin lost in such brutal fashion and why Andersen left so unexpectedly and abruptly after what was otherwise a successful season. Regardless of the validity of the conspiracy theories, it was widely speculated that Andersen’s relationship with Alvarez was strained and could have played a part in Andersen paying three million dollars to walk away.

Alvarez forcing the Badgers to throw a game for the financial benefit of the conference and, in turn, the Wisconsin program, would certainly mar his relationship with Andersen, a man of principle with, apparently, no regard for monetary value. The conspiracy theories didn’t accuse Andersen, but it’s just another example of the perplexing aura that followed him around.

During his career, Andersen encountered unorthodox phenomena and outlandish circumstances. He routinely faced unlikely challenges but throughout it all, he never changed. He was a man of his word and he cared about the student-athlete more than money. Instead of compromising his standards for a job, he would rather leave. Andersen didn’t just talk the talk. He walked the walk. Doing so has cost him at least around 15 million dollars. That, and the price of a shoulder tattoo.

When Andersen left Utah State the first time he left an unambiguous and tremendous legacy. When he came back, he altered and mangled that legacy in a way that only he could.

He didn’t just create a new legacy, or add an appendix to his existing one like some sort of blockchain technology. He didn’t erase his first tenure, he merely complicated it.

Andersen retroactively changed the perception of his first coaching experience while somehow reinforcing his position as a central figure in the history of the program and preserving the future of his contributions to the team.

After Andersen and the team parted ways for the second time Hartwell said, “His departure should not take away from the body of work that Gary Andersen has done for our program. Just looking back and seeing the way and such a positive way that he flipped our football program, from years of mediocrity at best into being an annual bowl participant…I will forever be indebted to Gary Andersen, as will all of Aggie Nation”

Even after everything that happened during that 2020 season, this was true.

By the time he left Utah State the second time, he had accumulated one of the most bizarre and unlikely résumés a coach could have. A source from Oregon State called him “a strange cat,” and another called him the “most unique man in college football.”

He’s a rare breed. That rarity, at times, has granted him unmeasurable success, and at other times has introduced him to the depths of failure.

He is just different. Different isn’t necessarily bad or good. Different oversaw the incredible rise of Utah State football and different oversaw the near collapse of Utah State football. Different is just different.

On 10th north in Logan, Utah, the likeness of Merlin Olsen stands as a lone sentinel. Alone he will remain, as Andersen is unlikely to join him any time soon. Behind the solitary effigy is the house that Gary Andersen built, Maverik Stadium.

At first glance, there is no trace of Andersen. In the tumultuous aftermath of Andersen’s return, he has become far too controversial a character to receive tribute. He hasn’t been completely erased though. The locker room for the Aggies is dubbed “the Gary Andersen Family Locker Room,” but it is called so because of significant financial donations he made, not because of the on-field contributions to the program.

His two polar opposite rounds of coaching, instead of canceling out like a simple math equation resulting in a sum of zero and negating Andersen entirely, combine to do the opposite and add both chaos and balance to the complex legacy of Gary Andersen. He has the record to show for it too. After the wild journey, Andersen poetically left Utah State with a perfect .500 career record.

Time has not yet contextualized the anomalous Gary Andersen. But it will. Time is relentless. One day, the emotional garnishes and the embellishment will fade and reality will prevail.

The anger and the adoration will both give way to sensible contemplation, and an enduring pragmatic school of thought will emerge on the subject.

No one knows what the future holds for the legacy of Gary Andersen. It is impossible to foresee how history will treat him or what he will be known as.

For now, he is simply “the most unique man in college football.”

Originally published at https://MWWire.com.

Part One was published on August 15, 2022.

Part Two was published on August 17, 2022.

Part Three was published on August 19, 2022.