Blake Anderson Wants To Establish Utah State’s Culture, Standard During Spring Football

LOGAN, Utah – Utah State football will begin spring practice under new head coach Blake Anderson and his staff on Monday, March 15 with a couple of goals to accomplish.

Blake Anderson took over the Utah State program on December 12, 2020 and has seen the progress of his new program as they have been working with the strength and conditioning coach in winter workouts.

As spring ball approaches, Anderson talked about what he hopes to accomplish during this time period.

“My goals for spring ball are very simple,” Anderson said. “I want to come out of spring ball with this group of guys understanding the effort level and the intensity level that we want to play. I want to create a work ethic, a standard that we expect to play at. I don’t know that we’re going to be more talented than anybody and you really don’t know how we compare to other teams until you get out and you start playing them. But I know that we can control how hard we play. That’s something that takes no talent.”

Monday's will be good again‼️

Utah State Football to Begin Spring Practice on Monday.

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— USU Football (@USUFootball) March 10, 2021

Anderson is also looking for a high energy level in spring ball from his players.

“To play with unbelievable energy, unbelievable work ethic on a daily basis,” Anderson added. “That’s really where it starts is to develop a standard and a culture for playing harder than the opponent. That’s where we’re gonna focus on and then really find some leadership. Finding guys that will step up and lead when things don’t go real well. There’ll be days that are tougher than others, there’ll be days that they don’t want to be out there, there’ll be days that are a grind. That’s when leaders emerge. Want to find out who we have and who will step up probably more than anything and find out just what level of sacrifice and an effort and intensity they’re willing to play with.”

The new Utah State head coach touched on how his team has adjusted to the coaching staff and the strength and conditioning program during winter workouts.

“I think they’ve done a great job of getting acclimated to the new staff and kind of figuring out what we want on a daily basis,” Anderson mentioned. “Transition is hard on everybody. But they’ve really done a phenomenal job. I think Paul Jackson and his crew have stepped in and just created some energy in the room, guys been excited. I think they look at his background, his track record and the people he’s worked with, and the success they’ve had and just kind of fired him up. So they’ve jumped into the offseason program both feet and really hit it hard.

“It’s been a challenge for them,” Anderson added. “It’s different format, and some of the things we’re asking them to do. Some of the accountability and discipline measures that we’ve kind of put in place on purpose to try to really find out just what kind of level of detail these guys are willing to buy into. I’ve been really pleased. With all that they had going on before we got here. Then how they’ve responded to us, the new staff, both on and off the field, in the weight room, the new culture we’re trying to develop. I’ve been really, really pleased. I think it’s going to put us in a position to to move into spring ball with a lot of momentum.”

Utah State will open the 2021 season on Saturday, September 4 at Washington State.