Utah State football head coach Blake Anderson looks on during the Aggies’ game against UNLV, Sept 24, 2023 LOGAN — Utah State held its annual Spring Showcase on Saturday, inviting fans to come and see how the football team looks in the earliest goings of the upcoming 2023 campaign. Only it wasn’t a scrimmage as originally planned. Attrition at certain positions and concern over further potential injuries led to a limited practice. Some of that attrition came by way of injuries, some by way of numerous transfers that have slammed the team this offseason. Those transfers have dominated discourse regarding the team. The Aggies have lost well over 20 players with at least 10 of those being players who started at least one game on defense for USU. Departures on the defensive line (Byron Vaughns, Daniel Grzesiak, Patrick Joyner, Phillip Paea, Tavian Coleman), at linebacker (AJ Vongphachanh, Kaleo Neves) and in the secondary (Ajani Carter, Dominic Tatum) have devastated the defensive side of the ball. USU head coach Blake Anderson was asked after the Showcase about the numerous transfers and gave a response that went well over three minutes. The main cause he cited was NIL (name, image and likeness)

Blake Anderson. Photo by Lorene Hale LOGAN — While Utah State football faces a crisis on defense with numerous transfers gutting the rotation even late into spring practices, its offense appears primed to carry the torch for the team. Though the offense certainly faced its share of attrition, losing seven starters including four offensive linemen, two at wide receiver and the running back, the replacements to those starters appear to be stepping in quite nicely. Wide receiver appears to be a potential strength this season whereas it proved to be something of a weakness a year ago. Junior quarterback Cooper Legas, one of the four returning starters, fully believes in this year’s group of pass-catchers, from wide receivers, tight ends, even the running back catching passes out of the backfield. “This is the best group since I’ve been here,” Legas said. “We have solid two-deep at wideout. Solid three or four at slot. Four really good tight ends. Three, four good running backs. Me and Levi (Williams) can both run the offense really well.” The wide receivers at the top of the depth chart at the moment are Terrell Vaughn, Otto Tia, Micah Davis and Colby Bowman. Vaughn and Tia

Utah State linebacker Kyle Gallagher. Photo courtesy of Utah State University. LOGAN, Utah – Kyle Gallagher, who played linebacker for Utah State from 2007-11, died last week as a result of a car crash. He was 33. Gallagher appeared in 49 games for the Aggies, recording 291 total tackles – 133 of the solo variety. During his junior and senior campaigns in 2010 and 2011, Gallagher finished second only to Bobby Wagner, who has been named All-Pro nine times throughout his illustrious NFL career, in total tackles with 91 and 100, respectively. The native of Woodland, California, helped Utah State end a 14-year bowl drought as the Aggies played Ohio in the 2011 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Gallagher finished with a team-high nine tackles, including 0.5 tackles for loss, against the Bobcats. Gallagher and the Aggies recorded seven wins in 2011, marking the first time since 1979 that Utah State had finished a regular season with that many victories. Source link