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Matt Wells has announced the fourth member of his new coaching staff, and like the others announced so far, it's a familiar face.

Linebackers coach Kevin Clune has agreed to remain with the Aggies for the next season the school announced Wednesday afternoon, bringing some more stability to the defense. The Aggies have retained much of Gary Andersen's defensive staff which led the program to be one of the best defenses in the nation last season.

"I'm very happy to be able to continue to work with the players in the program and build on the successes we have had," Clune said in a school news release. "I'm looking forward to the opportunity to keep building the program, and with the move into a new conference, I think this is going to be an exceptional place to be."

One intriguing factor about Clune staying on is that Utah State has yet to explicitly announce what coaching capacity he'll return in. Wells has yet to introduce a defensive coordinator on his staff.

Clune is so far the most experienced hand coming back on defense. He's been the team's linebacker coach for the last four years, mentoring such talent as Bobby Wagner, Jake Doughty, Zach Vigil and Kyle Gallagher. Before his days in Logan, Clune was a defensive coordinator at Weber State.

Wells has also retained defensive coaches Frank Maile and Kendrick Shaver, the line and cornerbacks coaches respectively, in an effort to keep the leadership that helped Utah State rank No. 7 in scoring defense in 2012. Although coordinator Dave Aranda is off to Wisconsin with Andersen, several of the position coaches who were a part of the Aggies' 11-2 season are staying in town.

Utah State still must populate most of its coaching positions, including offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator. With most of the team's other assistants either in Madison or inhabiting other jobs, it's likely the Aggies will now begin hiring more outside candidates.

Kyle Goon

Twitter: @kylegoon