Utah State football: A new hope

LOGAN — Everyone here seems to think this is the start of something special at Utah State.

Expectations, with new coach Gary Andersen firing up the locals, are off-the-charts high for a school that has seen only nine wins over the past four seasons.

Heck, even Sports Illustrated predicted USU would be in a bowl game come December.

Compared to a year ago, when even some of the players admitted to having the bar set fairly low, the 2009 fans might suffer from a bit of overconfidence.

Andersen, however, won't be joining them.

"I'm not a big-expectations kind of guy," Andersen said. "Don't get me wrong, I have high hopes for this team. But we've just got to prepare ourselves the best we can for each game.

"To me, expectations are not a football coach's job."

At Utah State, the expectations are higher than in years past for a variety of reasons. For starters, Andersen has energized a fan base that had given up hope on the Brent Guy era. Next, the Aggies actually did show significant progress on the football field — though not in the win column — over the second half of Guy's final season at USU.

And with 19 starters returning. Utah State should have to tools in place to continue the upward progression Guy began.

"It's not like we're starting over at all," Andersen said. "We have some very nice players in place and a good start in recruiting. We just have to get everyone up to speed and we'll be OK."

Though there are plenty of starters back, not all of them will be starting this season — in fact, some might not even be playing the same position.

Yet Andersen is determined to fill the two-deep with the best players possible under the new schemes and watch the team grow.

"We're focusing on reacting and not thinking so much," safety James Brindley said. "If we can get to the point where we trust the system, trust ourselves and use instinct instead of having to think about what to do, we'll be just fine."

Andersen said his focus on getting the best players on the field at all times might leave his squad a little undersized. He intends to make up for that with speed.

"I'll take speed over size any day," Andersen said. "You can make up for a lot of deficiencies with speed."

One reason, perhaps, for Andersen's temperance in creating lofty expectations is USU's schedule.