USU football: Coach Gary Andersen ready to turn things around

Though he's been on the job for several months, Gary Andersen admits he's still not quite sure how to prepare his Utah State football team for the upcoming Western Athletic Conference season.

After years in the Mountain West and the past few months immersing himself at Utah State, Andersen said he simply hasn't had a lot of time to scout the teams he'll be battling for conference wins.

"The league is still very foreign to me," Andersen said. "The last time I played Boise (State), I got my fanny kicked."

That was in 2006 when the Broncos came to Rice-Eccles Stadium and delivered a 36-3 thumping on the Utes.

Now, Andersen has no choice but to dwell on WAC opponents and how he can turn the Aggies from conference also-rans into a bowl-contending squad other teams have to spend extra time worrying about.

But turning Utah State's football fortunes around is not something Andersen can do by himself. Winning games has as much to do, he said, with the attitude in the locker room and practice field as it does with play calling and execution during games.

"The biggest difference I would say with taking over here compared to Utah is they are very established," Andersen said of his former employer. "They have had facilities and a winning tradition."

Establishing a winning tradition is something more than a few coaches have tried to do at Utah State. With the exception of brief flashes of potential followed by coaches high-tailing it to a bigger job, there hasn't been much winning to go with USU's tradition.

That, Andersen said, is going to change.

"We have a lot of things at Utah State that we haven't had before. We have the ability to pay good coaches. We have a brand new facility," he said. "We can sell Logan for what it truly is. In today's environment, Logan and Cache Valley is a great place for a young man to go. So we have some unique opportunities there. I think the timing is very good."

In addition to selling Utah State to potential recruits, he had to sell himself to the Aggies already on the team.

"They've brought so much energy and excitement," Aggie senior safety James Brindley said. "It's about breaking old habits. He's got to break us out of our old habits and get us thinking right."

The new Aggie coach is trying to instill more discipline in offseason conditioning and accountability.

So far, USU quarterback Diondre Borel said, it's working.