Utah State football signs four locals amid coaching change and program turmoil

Amid a transition period that’s seen a coaching change, several players transferring and a dismal win-loss record, the Utah State football team added to its 2021 roster Wednesday morning.

Four players, all with Utah ties, signed national letters of intent to play with the Aggies next season. Those players are: linebacker Siona Moa of Weber High School, Isaac Larsen of Sky View High school, and Johnson Hansen and Seni Tuiaki of East High School.

Hansen, Moa and Tuiaki are return missionaries and will enroll at USU in January.

The initial class is quite small, but that likely has more to do with what’s been going on off the field.

The university hired coach Blake Anderson last week to replace Gary Andersen, who left the program after the team started 0-3 on the season. The players wanted interim coach Frank Maile to get the permanent job, but he was allegedly passed over due to concerns university president Noelle Cockett raised about his cultural and religious background.

The university’s board of trustees said an independent investigation will be conducted.

Meanwhile, Anderson takes over a team that lost several starters to the transfer portal throughout the season. He takes over a team that he knows might not trust him right now.

But in the next few months, Anderson will try to make his mark on the recruiting side of college football.

“I talk about fast, physical and fun all the time. We need to recruit speed,” Anderson said during his introductory press conference. “We’ve got to be fast. We’ve got to train fast. But we’re also going to run a faster pace of offense. We’ve done that over the last 20 years. We’ve been good at that everywhere we’ve been. We’re going to continue that tradition here.”

With a new coach at the helm, changes can be expected in various aspects of how the Aggies play football. But Anderson said one of the biggest changes he will make is with recruiting, namely by visiting previously untapped states.

Tribune reporter Julie Jag contributed to this story.