Utah State football: Andersen brings in old friend to take over Aggies defense

LOGAN — When Gary Andersen was named Utah State's newest head football coach, it didn't take long for an old friend to come calling.

Bill Busch, who had been out of football for a year following the firing of Bill Callahan at Nebraska, knew where he wanted to be.

"No matter what job he got," Busch said, "I knew I would love to coach with him again."

And so, as Andersen filled his staff, Busch — a veteran secondary and special teams coach — found his way to Logan and Utah State, where he is the Aggies' defensive coordinator with a special emphasis on the safeties.

That Busch and Andersen had worked together at two previous schools made the decision to work together a not-too-difficult one for Andersen.

"We share a lot of the same goals and ideas about the kids," Andersen said. "My number one emphasis is to think about what will make the kids better football players, and we both work towards that every day."

Of course, the work to do at Utah State is a process. With a new coaching staff, a new playbook and all sorts of new players and position changes, the 2009 season, Andersen warns, is going to be a lot about base building on the defensive side of the field.

Busch, likewise, is steadily trying to create a level of competency on defense that will make the Aggies competitive when they open the season Sept. 3 at Utah.

"We're light years ahead of where we were in the spring," Busch said. "But we still have light years to go."

The Aggies moved more than a dozen players to different positions during the offseason, including several from offense to defense. Part of that was to address depth issues; other factors behind the player movement was simply getting a better athlete at a certain position than who was already there.

"My first priority is to get the best 11 players on the field," Andersen said. "So that means some players had to move. Second, I considered our ability to fly to the ball and move reactively instead of thinking. … I'll take speed over size any day."

The Aggie defense, more than the offense, looked for some quick-fix type players from junior colleges. Rajric Coleman, Jamaine Olsen and Sean Enesi are each junior college newcomers and fighting for starting positions right away. True freshman corner Quinten Byrd is also impressing the coaching staff and could see plenty of playing time.