LOGAN — Negotiations are in progress and Utah State may have its next football coach as early as today.

Sources close to the search have told the Deseret News that Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen is USU's first choice to replace Brent Guy. That source said Tuesday night that negotiations have begun to hammer out details of a contract offer.

Andersen spent part of the day in Logan meeting with Utah State athletic director Scott Barnes and university president Stan Albrecht in order to discuss football budgetary issues.

"As I've said before," Barnes said Tuesday night when asked after the Aggies' basketball game if an offer had been made, "I'm not going to comment on that while the process is still going on."

Andersen — if he and Utah State are able to come to terms — will be the Aggies' 26th football coach and will inherit a team mired in a losing tradition, but with a solid foundation built by four seasons of steady high school recruiting.

The Aggies, finishing up the 2008 season last weekend with a 47-2 win over New Mexico State, have won only nine games in the last four seasons. But, according to Barnes, a change in philosophy regarding the football program has been adopted.

Barnes said USU will stop scheduling more than one 'money' game each year and also increase the team's operating budget — including salaries for the head coach and assistant coaches — significantly.

"We're doing that with salaries, primarily, but also in other areas," Barnes said Tuesday night. "We'll increase the recruiting and facilities budgets and we're doing that through fundraising. We'd had tremendous success with that."

Andersen emerged as the leading candidate to replace Guy after a round of interviews with several prominent names in the area and nationally. Former USU coach John L. Smith has been mentioned as a replacement for Guy for more than a year. UCLA defensive coordinator and former USU and BYU assistant coach DeWayne Walker also interviewed for the job as did former Aggie player Kent Baer — a longtime defensive coordinator at schools like Notre Dame, Stanford, Washington and Arizona State.

Reached by phone Tuesday night, former Aggie quarterback and South Florida assistant coach Michael 'Chico' Canales told the Deseret News he had not had further contact with Utah State since he flew to Salt Lake City and interviewed on Saturday.

"I'm just waiting to hear something from them," he said. "Right now, I haven't heard anything since I was out there."

The reason for that, apparently, is Utah State had turned its attention toward Andersen.

Andersen has helped lead the Utes to a pair of BCS bowl games in the last four years and this season the Utah defense is among the best in the country and has shut down several high-powered offenses this season.

An agreement with Andersen is not a sure thing, however. A source close to Andersen said search committees at New Mexico and San Diego State have contacted the longtime Ute assistant and also that his current employer is expected to make an offer to keep him at Utah if he is officially offered a different coaching job.

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E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com