Utah State formally fired soccer coach Blake Anderson after an investigation turned up noncompliance with college insurance policies regarding Title IX, the college introduced on Thursday. The faculty positioned Anderson on administrative go away and notified the previous Aggies coach of its intent to fireside him on July 2.
“This motion relies on important violations of his contractual obligations associated to US’s worker reporting necessities,” the college mentioned in an announcement. “These reporting necessities embrace a prohibition on staff outdoors the USU Workplace of Fairness from investigating problems with sexual misconduct, together with home violence. Moreover, Anderson did not handle the group in a fashion that mirror’s USU’s tutorial values.”
Anderson’s legal professional, Tom Mars, says his shopper plans to contest the termination.
“We have been disillusioned to be taught this night that Utah State College has terminated the employment of head soccer coach Blake Anderson,” Mars wrote in a social media publish. “Coach Anderson’s authorized group believes this resolution — in addition to USU’s intentionally inflammatory July 2nd press launch — violate the phrases of Coach Anderson’s Employment Settlement and the implied covenant of fine religion.”
Although the incident that led to Utah State’s discover to Anderson occurred in Spring 2023, former participant Patrick Maddox filed a lawsuit in opposition to Anderson and Utah State alleging that Anderson retaliated in opposition to Maddox after Maddox recorded Anderson making disparaging remarks about sexual assault victims in a group assembly. Within the recording, Anderson may be heard saying that it “has by no means been extra glamorized to be the sufferer” of sexual assault.
The swimsuit, which was filed in Oct. 2022, claims that Anderson held a gathering with Maddox wherein he inspired Maddox to apologize to the group for recording Anderson’s feedback. Anderson additionally warned Maddox that teammates may “attempt to get solutions out of him” by no matter means potential if he didn’t apologize to the group. In response to the swimsuit, Maddox issued an apology in a later group assembly. Anderson additionally publicly apologized in Dec. 2021 for the feedback he made relating to sexual assault victims.
Utah State paid Maddox $150,000 in a settlement of the case, in keeping with The Salt Lake Tribune.
The 55-year previous Anderson was set to return for his fourth season with the Aggies, who open their 2024 slate on Aug. 31 in opposition to Robert Morris. Anderson was employed to switch Gary Andersen at Utah State in 2021 after seven years at Arkansas State.
Anderson instantly led the Aggies to an 11-3 file with a Mountain West title and a win over Oregon State within the Los Angeles Bowl. The Aggies additionally positioned twenty fourth within the remaining AP High 25, the primary time they completed the yr ranked since 2018 and simply their third ranked end of the century.
Utah State hasn’t loved as a lot success over the previous two years, nevertheless. The Aggies have gone 6-7 in every of the final two seasons with a 9-7 mark in MWC play throughout that span. They’ve additionally misplaced two consecutive bowl video games and have completed no higher than tied for third within the Mountain West’s Mountain division.
Defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling will function Utah State interim coach for the 2024 season.
