USU football: Coaching search becomes official

With the Brent Guy era at Utah State officially over, the focus on finding his replacement shifts into high gear — officially — and a new coach could be named within a week.

Former USU quarterback Michael Chico Canales interviewed with USU administration Saturday morning, according to several sources close to the situation, before flying back to Florida where he is an assistant coach at South Florida.

The source said Canales had a great interview but that no job offer had been made.

Canales, according to the source, is said to be one of three finalists, including former Aggie linebacker and current SJSU assistant coach Kent Baer and current Utah defensive coordinator Gary Andersen, for the position.

We've wound up the first round (of interviews). We're going to huddle up and review the first round, USU athletic director Scott Barnes said late Saturday night, and make decisions on our next steps.

Barnes said there may be no further interviews but did not rule out meeting with a candidate a second or third time to firm up the decision to be made. No official job offers have been made at this point, Barnes said.

We want to keep this moving forward swiftly, USU athletic director Scott Barnes said. But, obviously, we want to be thorough.

Barnes said he's likely to have a new coach in place within the next week or two so that person can get out on the recruiting trail and assemble his coaching staff.

—Jared Eborn