Utah State Football: How quickly can Blake Anderson turn Aggies around?

Nine Starters return to lead bounce-back effort on offense

Utah State has become known to have good offenses and recently produced a first-round pick in quarterback Jordan Love. Blake Anderson was a good offensive coach at Arkansas State and that should help them be better than they were last season.

Andrew Peasley is going to be the presumed starter at quarterback unless someone knocks him off and there were plenty of ups and downs with him after he took over the starting job. Peasley threw for nearly 400 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions. Anderson is known for good quarterback development and I think that it is reasonable to assume that Peasley will have moderate improvement and it also helps that he is a solid dual-threat at the position.

Devonta’e Henry-Cole will likely take over the starting running back duties and he was average last season. He finished as the third leading rusher on the team and only had 180 yards on 41 carries. Henry-Cole should get the full workload this season and I think he could be in for a breakout year.

The top two receivers on the team in 2020 are back and Justin McGriff should be a really good option in 2021. His running mate on the other side is Deven Thompkins and he brings plenty of experience to the offense, as does tight end Carson Terrell, There is plenty of experience at the skill positions and that is a good starting point for a new head coach.

The offensive line only returns three starters and it is probably the weakest link on the offense. Fixing the line should be priority No. 1 for the new staff.

Having experience at almost every position is a good starting point, but they still lack talent and it will show in some of their tougher games this season.