This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Matt Wells couldn't keep his coordinators, now the big question is, can he keep his recruits? That task is the priority for the USU coach with just a few weeks until signing day arrives on Feb. 4.
Losing offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven to Oregon State hurt, but Monday's announcement that defensive coordinator Todd Orlando was hired away by Houston is a huge blow.
Orlando not only guided a defense that was highly ranked nationally in several categories, but also gave the Aggies some great selling points to recruits with the way he has been able to develop talent in a short amount of time.
Now, the Aggies have to hang onto recruits such as safety Treston Decoud, a safety from Northwest Mississippi who committed to the Aggies but is still receiving offers, including one from Western Kentucky on Monday, and Mason Tobeck, a linebacker out of Puyallup, WA.
In addition, the Aggies are still looking for a safety and a few more athletes to round out their 2015 class.
Recruits naturally want to hear who they are playing for so Wells needs to move fast to hire a replacement and ease any of their concerns.
As we all know, recruiting is vital to a team's success and the Aggies need to have a good class to replace such talent as Brian Suite, B.J. Larsen and Zach Vigil. Wells definitely has his hands full in the coming weeks to keep the talent headed to Logan.
After hearing Orlando was leaving Monday, Tobeck said he was remaining committed to the Aggies.
"I love the school and that's a huge reason I am going there," he said.
Certainly Wells, and USU fans everywhere, hope other recruits share his sentiment.