LOGAN — Utah State's new football coach Gary Andersen has announced his first two members of his coaching staff in adding Bill Busch to be his defensive coordinator and safeties coach while retaining John Rushing as the cornerbacks coach.

Busch's most recent coaching job was at Nebraska from 2005-07, where he was assistant coach for safeties and special teams coordinator.

Busch coached with Andersen at both Northern Arizona and Utah. He and Andersen were at NAU together from 1995 to '96, with Busch serving as secondary coach in 1995 and co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach in 1996, while Andersen was assistant head coach and defensive line as well as special teams coach.

"The excitement for me is two-fold," Busch said. "For one, it's a great opportunity to coach at such as great university like Utah State due to the fact of the tremendous commitment that the administration is making to football.

"Secondly, getting the chance to work with Gary Andersen is very exciting. He's obviously a great friend but also for the opportunity to work with him again are major reasons why I can't wait to get back into coaching."

After Busch's four-year stint as secondary coach at New Mexico State from 1997-2000, Busch and Andersen joined up again at Utah in 2001 when he was safeties coach until taking over the entire secondary in 2003. He then went to Nebraska in 2004 where he coached outside linebackers and was the special teams coordinator, before moving to safeties in 2005 while remaining special teams coordinator until 2007.

Busch is a Pender, Neb., native and earned his bachelor's degree in education from Nebraska Wesleyan in 1988 and added a master's degree from Nebraska-Kearney in 1990.

Rushing just finished his sixth year at Utah State, where he has coached the cornerbacks as well as the punt return squad.

"Coach Rushing has done a great job recruiting at Utah State, he understands the ins and outs of the university," Andersen said. "His experience and knowledge of the Utah State environment and the Logan environment is invaluable to the program. He's a talented coach and recruiter, and I'm excited for the opportunity to coach with him as we continue to build a successful program at Utah State."

"I'm excited and grateful that coach Andersen has given me the opportunity to continue coaching here at Utah State," Rushing said. "It's a privilege that he recognizes my hard work and dedication to the players and to Aggie football."

Andersen will be the third Utah State coach Rushing has coached under. Rushing underwent his second coaching change, after he was retained by Brent Guy in 2004 when Guy replaced Mick Dennehy.

Rushing has spent the past six seasons working with the Aggie secondary. In 2003 he worked closely with Mark Estelle, who was USU's defensive MVP and played in the Rotary Gridiron Classic.