This upcoming season is toast before it even started.
We need to start looking for a new head coach ASAP because BA is done after this upcoming season.

Should have gone after Bronco after last year and I stand by that.

A few names that come to mind
Idaho's head coach Jason Eck
Seattle Seahawks Offensive Assistant Chuckie Keeton
Former Utah State Head Coach Matt Wells

Will USU win a game this year?

Yossarian wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 11:56 am

Will USU win a game this year?

We have Robert Morris, Temple, and etc. on the schedule.

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 11:52 am

A few names that come to mind
Idaho's head coach Jason Eck
Seattle Seahawks Offensive Assistant Chuckie Keeton
Former Utah State Head Coach Matt Wells

The same Chuckie Keeton that was fired not long ago is going to come back into a promotion?

BA's remaining contract:

Year 4 (2024) – $1,425,000
Year 5 (2025) – $1,475,000
Year 6 (2026) – $1,525,000
Year 7 (2027) – $1,575,000

The buyout is 75% of remaining salary. He's not getting fired any time soon.

We don't need a new coach. College football/baskeball is going through some tough times.
Players are transferring for 2 reasons. 1. More playing time (with the unlimited transfer rule, we can't control it). 2. NIL money, most schools are struggling to compete in that arena. Even the mighty Alabama can't compete with some of their counterparts.
Even coach prime has had a record number of players leave town (all for the same reasons)

If you really want to see players leave Utah State, firing the coach is a good way to do it.

Unless you’re personally funding our collective to P5 levels, please stop calling for a coach’s head every time a good player takes the cash. It’s ridiculous. Sometimes you can’t compete and there’s absolutely nothing a coach can do about it. This is happening EVERYWHERE.

It’s fine if you don’t like the coach but at least make your argument based upon something he can actually control.

bluegrouse wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 12:53 pm

Unless you’re personally funding our collective to P5 levels, please stop calling for a coach’s head every time a good player takes the cash. It’s ridiculous. Sometimes you can’t compete and there’s absolutely nothing a coach can do. This is happening EVERYWHERE.

It’s fine if you don’t like the coach but at least make your argument based upon something he can actually control.

Last season, we had one of the worst teams in the Utah State's MWC era.
We have most of the top players from the team via portal.
Our schedule is going to get tougher not weaker.

Actually, we could afford to do the coaching change because of Sprinkle.

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 11:38 am

This upcoming season is toast before it even started.
We need to start looking for a new head coach ASAP because BA is done after this upcoming season.

Unfortunately for a school like USU that has been known to find diamonds in the rough, we will always see people transfer and leave. It is not BA's fault, just the new landscape of collegiate sports.

Don’t you love when you can tell it’s an SLB thread just by the title?

I think our NIL agreements need to have more teeth. They should act like free-agency contracts with buy-out clauses. We should also only pay per-game-played.

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

CaptainChaos wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

I do agree with this, and there is also the upcoming Winter Olympics.
USU hockey played teams that are D1 hockey and did well against them. I could see potential success with our hockey (I swear that it is 3rd most popular sport here (there are always a good number of fans watching the games).

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:08 pm

CaptainChaos wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

I do agree with this, and there is also the upcoming Winter Olympics.
USU hockey played teams that are D1 hockey and did well against them. I could see potential success with our hockey (I swear that it is 3rd most popular sport here (there are always a good number of fans watching the games).

Which women's sport are we going to add (or men's sport are we going to drop)?

I'm a have a lot of friends and family who are utah fans. A couple of years back I heard dozens of them saying things like "We'll never win the Pac-12 as long as Kyle Whittingham is head coach. We need to move on." Fast forward a couple of years, they are eating serious crow.

USU fans who are wanting Blake gone are sounding a lot like those utah fans. Wanting to fire their coach for every knee jerk reaction with no real substance to their arguments.

CacheAggie wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:23 pm

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 11:38 am

This upcoming season is toast before it even started.
We need to start looking for a new head coach ASAP because BA is done after this upcoming season.

Unfortunately for a school like USU that has been known to find diamonds in the rough, we will always see people transfer and leave. It is not BA's fault, just the new landscape of collegiate sports.

It is his fault. He has to convince his best players to stay just like he has to recruit good players to come. It's literally the most important part of his job and he's failing hard!

You can coach sh*t talent till you're blue in the face, but they'll still be sh*t.

Donman wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:10 pm

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:08 pm

CaptainChaos wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

I do agree with this, and there is also the upcoming Winter Olympics.
USU hockey played teams that are D1 hockey and did well against them. I could see potential success with our hockey (I swear that it is 3rd most popular sport here (there are always a good number of fans watching the games).

Which women's sport are we going to add (or men's sport are we going to drop)?

We have a surplus on women's sports, so we are fine.

AggieUprising50 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:19 pm

I'm a have a lot of friends and family who are utah fans. A couple of years back I heard dozens of them saying things like "We'll never win the Pac-12 as long as Kyle Whittingham is head coach. We need to move on." Fast forward a couple of years, they are eating serious crow.

USU fans who are wanting Blake gone are sounding a lot like those utah fans. Wanting to fire their coach for every knee jerk reaction with no real substance to their arguments.

Yeah but Kyle had beaten Bama in the Sugar Bowl. Blake didn’t try against Bama then got blown out by a mid tier FCS school and most recently lost to a Georgia state team on a 5 game losing streak whose players were already hitting the portal giving us back to back losing seasons against a much lower level of competition that Whittingham faced in the PAC…

OrangeCountyAggie wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:28 pm

CacheAggie wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:23 pm

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 11:38 am

This upcoming season is toast before it even started.
We need to start looking for a new head coach ASAP because BA is done after this upcoming season.

Unfortunately for a school like USU that has been known to find diamonds in the rough, we will always see people transfer and leave. It is not BA's fault, just the new landscape of collegiate sports.

It is his fault. He has to convince his best players to stay just like he has to recruit good players to come. It's literally the most important part of his job and he's failing hard!

You can coach sh*t talent till you're blue in the face, but they'll still be sh*t.

Except he has brought in extremely talented players to the program. Switz, Booth, Faison, and Royals could all start on P5 level teams. Finding talented players hasn't been the issue with Blake.

We can't blame him for losing a player that takes off for an NIL deal that doubles or even triples what we're offering them. If keeping those players is your standard, you'll never find a coach that's good enough in the new landscape of college football.

Intermeddler wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 12:01 pm

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 11:52 am

A few names that come to mind
Idaho's head coach Jason Eck
Seattle Seahawks Offensive Assistant Chuckie Keeton
Former Utah State Head Coach Matt Wells

The same Chuckie Keeton that was fired not long ago is going to come back into a promotion?

Hoot wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:35 pm

AggieUprising50 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:19 pm

I'm a have a lot of friends and family who are utah fans. A couple of years back I heard dozens of them saying things like "We'll never win the Pac-12 as long as Kyle Whittingham is head coach. We need to move on." Fast forward a couple of years, they are eating serious crow.

USU fans who are wanting Blake gone are sounding a lot like those utah fans. Wanting to fire their coach for every knee jerk reaction with no real substance to their arguments.

Yeah but Kyle had beaten Bama in the Sugar Bowl. Blake didn’t try against Bama then got blown out by a mid tier FCS school and most recently lost to a Georgia state team on a 5 game losing streak whose players were already hitting the portal giving us back to back losing seasons against a much lower level of competition that Whittingham faced in the PAC…

Kyle winning the Sugar Bowl didn't matter to them just like how Blake winning a MWC championship after only winning one game the previous year doesn't matter to you.

They also pointed to some bad losses that Kyle had and would say "he always chokes and loses to teams he shouldn't."

Even with those first two losses you mentioned, Blake still got us bowl eligible. It takes a good coach to turn around a season after those types of losses.

Georgia State took advantage of a defense that had no concept of basic gap control. I doubt that will be an issue this year.
 
I truly believe that if our new DC can put together a credible defense, we have a real shot at winning 9-10 games this year... barring injuries.

Blake's the right coach for the job. Go ahead and screenshot this post and we'll continue the conversation in December.

Aggie702 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 12:41 pm

BA's remaining contract:

Year 4 (2024) – $1,425,000
Year 5 (2025) – $1,475,000
Year 6 (2026) – $1,525,000
Year 7 (2027) – $1,575,000

The buyout is 75% of remaining salary. He's not getting fired any time soon.

This. He is going to be around for a few more years

Hoot wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:26 pm

Don’t you love when you can tell it’s an SLB thread just by the title?

I can read the post before even seeing who wrote it and know its SLB. Gamefaqs too.

Donman wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:10 pm

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:08 pm

CaptainChaos wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

I do agree with this, and there is also the upcoming Winter Olympics.
USU hockey played teams that are D1 hockey and did well against them. I could see potential success with our hockey (I swear that it is 3rd most popular sport here (there are always a good number of fans watching the games).

Which women's sport are we going to add (or men's sport are we going to drop)?

I would drop men’s golf. does not cost a lot to have, but also does not seem like it would generate money either. Weather does not allow for a lot of practice time.

AggieUprising50 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:48 pm

Hoot wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:35 pm

AggieUprising50 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:19 pm

I'm a have a lot of friends and family who are utah fans. A couple of years back I heard dozens of them saying things like "We'll never win the Pac-12 as long as Kyle Whittingham is head coach. We need to move on." Fast forward a couple of years, they are eating serious crow.

USU fans who are wanting Blake gone are sounding a lot like those utah fans. Wanting to fire their coach for every knee jerk reaction with no real substance to their arguments.

Yeah but Kyle had beaten Bama in the Sugar Bowl. Blake didn’t try against Bama then got blown out by a mid tier FCS school and most recently lost to a Georgia state team on a 5 game losing streak whose players were already hitting the portal giving us back to back losing seasons against a much lower level of competition that Whittingham faced in the PAC…

Kyle winning the Sugar Bowl didn't matter to them just like how Blake winning a MWC championship after only winning one game the previous year doesn't matter to you.

They also pointed to some bad losses that Kyle had and would say "he always chokes and loses to teams he shouldn't."

Even with those first two losses you mentioned, Blake still got us bowl eligible. It takes a good coach to turn around a season after those types of losses.

Georgia State took advantage of a defense that had no concept of basic gap control. I doubt that will be an issue this year.
 
I truly believe that if our new DC can put together a credible defense, we have a real shot at winning 9-10 games this year... barring injuries.

Blake's the right coach for the job. Go ahead and screenshot this post and we'll continue the conversation in December.

MW championship vs Sugar Bowl win over Bama is not a good comparison. He also finished top 25 twice after that before they went to the PAC.

Blake is a below average coach who has spent the past two years struggling to beat bad teams.

Georgia state was able to do that because Blake made a bad hire. I do think the DC will be better this year but I’m less confident than you.

I won’t take a screenshot of this post because I’m not a weirdo who keeps a log of people he disagrees with. I do hope to be eating some deep fried crow come December though!

aggieinthesouth wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 5:15 pm

Donman wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:10 pm

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:08 pm

CaptainChaos wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

I do agree with this, and there is also the upcoming Winter Olympics.
USU hockey played teams that are D1 hockey and did well against them. I could see potential success with our hockey (I swear that it is 3rd most popular sport here (there are always a good number of fans watching the games).

Which women's sport are we going to add (or men's sport are we going to drop)?

I would drop men’s golf. does not cost a lot to have, but also does not seem like it would generate money either. Weather does not allow for a lot of practice time.

The amount of ignorance in this thread is astounding.

I'll just highlight a few of the major points, without even getting into more of the details:

The costs to run a D1Hockey program are about $3M PER YEAR more than running a D1 golf team. You guys got the money to pay for that? Should we pull $3M/year away from the basketball program to play hockey?

2nd. Title 9 exists. Hockey has 13 more scholarships per team than Golf. That means you need another 13 scholarships for women to match even if you drop men's golf. So not only are we adding the costs of a hockey program, now we have to fund another women's sport as well.

Golf would be one of the last programs USU would EVER drop. This is a common talking point from people who have no idea what they're talking about.

To be a D1 school you have to have a minimum of 14 sports, 7 women & 7 men teams, or 6 men teams and 8 women teams (football takes up so many scholarships that the scholarship number about matches at 6 & 8 total sports teams). Like I've said before, there is essentially a finite budget for sports outside of football and basketball, because they aren't really generating any revenue.

Golf is by far the cheapest athletic program to run and the last amount of scholarships. That's why you will always see a golf team. It counts as one of the 6 men's sports needed but is the cheapest one to have pulling from finite dollars.

Those are just a few of the reasons.

Aggie702 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 12:41 pm

BA's remaining contract:

Year 4 (2024) – $1,425,000
Year 5 (2025) – $1,475,000
Year 6 (2026) – $1,525,000
Year 7 (2027) – $1,575,000

The buyout is 75% of remaining salary. He's not getting fired any time soon.

SLB is the king of talking about ways to spend other people’s money.

Blake Anderson isn’t getting fired. We can’t pay that buyout.

Here’s a fun fact about his contract too. His buyout from another team hiring him is only 1/2 those amounts.

Roy McAvoy wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 6:31 pm

Aggie702 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 12:41 pm

BA's remaining contract:

Year 4 (2024) – $1,425,000
Year 5 (2025) – $1,475,000
Year 6 (2026) – $1,525,000
Year 7 (2027) – $1,575,000

The buyout is 75% of remaining salary. He's not getting fired any time soon.

SLB is the king of talking about ways to spend other people’s money.

Blake Anderson isn’t getting fired. We can’t pay that buyout.

Here’s a fun fact about his contract too. His buyout from another team hiring him is only 1/2 those amounts.

Yep. He parlayed that MWC championship season into a very favorable (to him) extension.

Roy McAvoy wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 6:31 pm

Aggie702 wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 12:41 pm

BA's remaining contract:

Year 4 (2024) – $1,425,000
Year 5 (2025) – $1,475,000
Year 6 (2026) – $1,525,000
Year 7 (2027) – $1,575,000

The buyout is 75% of remaining salary. He's not getting fired any time soon.

SLB is the king of talking about ways to spend other people’s money.

Blake Anderson isn’t getting fired. We can’t pay that buyout.

Here’s a fun fact about his contract too. His buyout from another team hiring him is only 1/2 those amounts.

So what you’re saying is we need to convince someone else to hire him?

SLB wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 2:08 pm

CaptainChaos wrote: ↑

April 25th, 2024, 1:53 pm

Start investing in the hockey program at USU. I will still need a hockey team to cheer for if they name the team in salt lake the yeti... I cant believe people like that name- it is so horrible.

I do agree with this, and there is also the upcoming Winter Olympics.
USU hockey played teams that are D1 hockey and did well against them. I could see potential success with our hockey (I swear that it is 3rd most popular sport here (there are always a good number of fans watching the games).

Okay SLB. Who has USU played that's D1. They have played D1 ACHA teams but not NCAA teams. My last year, I think we could have had some decent games with lower teams. We don't play NCAA teams though.