Utah State Football: Preview, predictions for Aggies’ 2019 season

(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
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Head coach Gary Andersen comes back for his second stint with Utah State football looking to keep the momentum going in 2019.

Utah State is coming off its best season since 2012, which happened to be the Aggies’ last season in the WAC.

Last year may have been their best year in program history as they went 11-2 and were one game away from playing in the Mountain West title game and destroyed North Texas in their bowl game. If they weren’t in the same division as Boise State they would have been playing in the Mountain West Championship Game last year.

Matt Wells was the head coach for the Aggies for the past six seasons. With him as the head coach, the Aggies reached a bowl game in five of his six seasons, won three of the five bowls and had double-digit wins twice (10 wins in 2014, 11 wins in 2018). Wells is off to Texas Tech and the Aggies will welcome back their former head coach, Gary Andersen.

Andersen was the head coach at Utah State between 2009-12. In those four seasons, he accomplished a lot. He led the Aggies to two bowl games in those four seasons, including their first bowl game appearance since 1997.

In 2012, his last year there, they won their first bowl game since 1993. In that 2012 season, they went 11-2 just like the team did this past year.

While Utah State lost its head coach and some talented players from the 2018 team, Andersen has his focus on making sure the Aggies don’t take a step back.