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 fireplace 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 embody a prohibition on workers exterior the USU Workplace of Fairness from investigating problems with sexual misconduct, together with home violence. Moreover, Anderson didn’t handle the crew in a fashion that replicate’s USU’s tutorial values.”
At concern is the truth that Anderson contacted the girlfriend and roommate of a Utah State soccer participant that was arrested for alleged home violence in April 2023, in line with ESPN. Anderson claimed that he was on a “fact-finding mission” to find out what punitive measures, if any, Utah State ought to soak up response to the incident.
A letter laying out the explanations for Anderson’s firing cited his private investigation and accused him of wanting into the participant’s habits reasonably than instantly reporting the difficulty to the college’s Workplace of Fairness
Anderson’s lawyer, Tom Mars, says his consumer plans to contest the termination.
“We had been disenchanted to study this night that Utah State College has terminated the employment of head soccer coach Blake Anderson,” Mars wrote in a social media submit. “Coach Anderson’s authorized crew 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 excellent religion.”
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 interchange Gary Andersen at Utah State in 2021 after seven years at Arkansas State.
Anderson instantly led the Aggies to an 11-3 document with a Mountain West title and a win over Oregon State within the Los Angeles Bowl. The Aggies additionally positioned twenty fourth within the ultimate AP Prime 25, the primary time they completed the 12 months 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.
