Dec. 4, 2008

LOGAN, Utah -

Quotes from Thursday's press conference announcing Gary Andersen as Utah State's new head football coach by Utah State University President Stan Albrecht, Athletics Director Scott Barnes, head coach Gary Andersen, quarterback Diondre Borel and linebacker Jake Hutton.

UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT STAN ALBRECHT

"Most of what we do at Universities is really collectively ignored by the media and the larger public. That is probably a good thing. But as you get in this business you learn very quickly that blissful ignorance does not apply when it comes to choosing a football coach. So my e-mail box and certainly that of Scott Barnes has been crammed during the past few weeks. So I made a list of types: applications, nominations, suggestions, recommendations, assessments, evaluations, advice and even a few threats along the way. Most of these messages have been very much appreciated. There has been lots of good advice. When one deals with the many challenges of managing an institution the size of Utah State University the attention that is paid to athletics can sometimes become a distraction. But at the same time we understand that athletics provides a wonderful opportunity and it is clear from the level of interest it gets it provides a respite from the daily challenges and pressures of individual lives. In the eyes of many athletics is the most visible and even the most important part of our university. Now I say that just because that makes a selection for leadership so very important."

"It is obvious today as we announce the selection of a new football coach we have moved quickly. As was the case when we selected Scott as the new Athletics Director we have been single-minded and working very hard to select the best possible person to lead Utah State to the next level. We have also been doing whatever we had to do to bring that person here."

"In the end of what has been an exhausting review we have identified someone that brought to our process an innovative, thoughtful, exciting, forward looking and feasible plan to bring Utah State football to the next level of football excellence. As important as anything, he brought the vision of why not us and why not now. We are prepared to compete with the very best and Aggie pride can return at its finest form."

UTAH STATE ATHLETICS DIRECTOR SCOTT BARNES

"In the end there are certain attributes we were looking for. It always starts with leadership and integrity. Somebody with a tireless work ethic. We found that in space. Beyond that, Coach Andersen's success in Utah and beyond from a recruiting perspective and his ability to motivate and develop young men has been proven. As you will soon find his ability to represent this University in a very significant and positive way will prove why we chose him to be the lead the program at Utah State University to the next level."

Gary Andersen

"I woke up this morning and learned something real quick. To take this job and wake up real quick the first thing I learned as the head football coach here is I think I look pretty dang good in blue."

On First Priorities:

"My priorities are number one, the young men in this program. They have gone a few weeks without a leader and direction. I need to reach out to them. I have been able to talk to six or seven of them but I will talk to each one of them in the next week. If not for student-athletes there is no football. Then, next thing is to go out and recruit. We will focus on the state of Utah number one. That is a promise. We will go against whoever we have to go against. Whether it's the other blue team or the red team I don't care. We are going to go head to head with them and fight them. From there, we will go outside the state and bring young men that fit in Cache Valley."

On Importance Of Getting The Coaching Staff In Place:

"Next thing is to get a staff in place. I think you will be very impressed with the staff that is going to come here. They are from all over the country. Many have ties to the state of Utah and are excited to get back. They are excited because they understand what the city of Logan is, what Cache Valley is and what Utah State University is. The commitment to football and the commitment to athletics is greater than I've ever seen for as long as I've been around."

"I am extremely excited to get started. No one will out-work us, no one will out-tough us and no one will out-prepare us. I promise you that. That will go from every student-athlete on this team through the staff."

"There are a lot of young men on Utah's staff that I would like to look at. That will be part of my discussion with (Utah head coach) Kyle (Whittingham) tomorrow. There are a lot of staff members there and young men that have been with me for a long time. We will communicate with them but I have to go through Kyle first."

"I think it is important to be patient. When I find someone that is a good fit, it is important to get them hired. I think we have an opportunity to hire a great staff. I would say for sure by the team the young men are back from Christmas break we will be back full steam."

"This is an opportunity that the coaches I bring in here will have to leave this place for a very, very good job. There is not going to be a WAC school that is going to walk in here and say I want that guy at Utah State. That is not going to happen. I might take my shot at stealing away from the WAC in the next four or five days, we will see what happens. I am looking forward to that challenge."

On Leaving Utah:

"Kyle knows that I want to be a head football coach. There is are no hidden agendas. I love Kyle Whittingham and he has given me opportunities all my life. He knows this is what I want to do and he knows that this is a job that I wanted. It is tough to leave but we all know it is a great opportunity."

On Scheduling:

"Mr. Barnes and I are definitely going to communicate on every single scheduling issue that comes through. We want to play good teams. I think it is important to go out there and play good teams. Next year it is Texas A&M. I am excited about that game. We are excited about Utah and BYU next year. At the end of the day we are going to come out there and play whoever is out there on the schedule."

On Logan and Utah State University:

"I think the environment that you have in Logan, Utah is awesome. It is a true college campus. It is a true college town. I have an 18-year old son who is going to be a senior. If you don't want your kid to come to a town like this to go to college I think you have real issues. It has everything that you'd ever need. Those are things that are key when I go out and recruit a young man."

"I think you have a niche. USU has a niche for Gary Andersen and I believe I can bring a lot to the table from a recruiting standpoint, from a social standpoint with the young men I can bring into the area and from an athletic standpoint. That is key to me."

On University's Commitment To Football:

"There is a major commitment here to win football games. It is my job here to win football games and we will win football games. Our goal from the very beginning is to take out the cream of the crop in the WAC. Who is that, Boise State. So here we come."

"As I go through this I ask the question, is there a real commitment to get you to the top third in the league in a lot of ways. It is not money, it is people. It is not just buildings. The new building is wonderful, it is a big commitment without a doubt. It is not just the money it is the people. That is what sold me when I walked in here and had my interview. You could see the true commitment when you looked in people's eyes."

"There is a major commitment here to not be a good football program but to be a great football program. That is why I want to be a part of it here. My beliefs and everything I stand for in college football, you have here. Utah State is the place I want to be able to be."

On The Challenge Of Building A Program:

"I am not going to tell you I don't like challenges. I love challenges, but you have to pick your challenges. You have to understand what your niche may be. The belief that I have is I can walk in and if I have the support around me including great players, academic support and administrative support we can go out and win. Is it a challenge? Absolutely. I am excited about the challenge and I think it is a challenge that is very attainable."

"I think it goes back to the fact that everything is here. I am not big into looking at what I need to have and what the players need to have. I will tell you right now these young men feel very comfortable with what they have as far as direction and the future that they see out there. We have what we need to be able to go out and recruit."

"Players, schemes and toughness is what it comes down to. We have to put good players on the field and we have the ability to put those players on the field through recruiting. If you can't recruit you are done, it is over with. We have to have toughness on the football team. Then the scheme is assistant coaches. They will be on the cutting edge. The schemes will not always be perfect but they will be aggressive and on the cutting edge."

On Recruiting:

"In the state we will fight right from the beginning for the best kids that are out there. We will not be afraid to knock on a door and go in there and show what we have. Once we get in with their parents, this place will sell itself. We can break down that barrier and get those kids to say I am going there, I am not going to Utah and I am not going to BYU. When will that happen? I can't tell you that. I can tell you we are going to go in there right now and fight till the end. We will take them on to the end and see where it goes."

"My beliefs are the reason I chose Utah State. I walk into another school, it is a very foreign environment. I walk into here I am very comfortable. When I say that I really mean in three different areas. To me the way you succeed is to recruit in state. Second, recruit the missionary program to Utah State University. It brings you maturity, it brings you toughness and it adds the ability to have instincts on your football team. The other thing is Polynesian kids. They have been important to my coaching career. What do they bring to the table? They are big suckers."

On Goals:

"As far as wins and losses I can't put a number on that. I am not a believer in that. I am interested in putting a team out there that competes for four quarters. I am interested in putting a team out there that represents the University well. A team that has a very solid scheme on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. We will be aggressive on the defensive side of the football and extremely aggressive in special teams."

"I believe in college football you can out-prepare people. I think it is a four quarter process. The first quarter starts in January with winter condition. Second quarter starts with spring ball. Our third quarter starts is summer conditioning. Then the fourth quarter, we wrap it up with preparing to play a football game. My expectation is to get a quality team on the field that plays hard and competes for four quarters, then the wins will come."

On Current Roster:

"I sat back with the one or two game films I could find in the Utah film office and went back and watched the Utah game. What I saw was a tough group of kids. I didn't get to see the last four or five games but I know there is a lot of progress. They were scoring points, playing defense and doing a lot of good things on the football field. The wins just didn't come for them at times. I see hard, tough workers and the athleticism of the football team has gotten better over the last few years."

"We got to see a lot of young guys play. You can practice all you want and scrimmage but there is nothing like being out there on Saturday nights and afternoons and being involved in a football game to get you better. There are a lot of young men on this football team that got that opportunity."

"I watched the second half of the BYU game. I saw a tough group of kids. I saw a group of kids that battled and battled. I saw a group of kids that got momentum in that football game. You could see them taking it to the Cougars in that football game."

On Offensive Philosophy:

"It will be a very aggressive offensive. The first thing with any offense or defense is to get your best players on the field. Especially on the offensive side of the ball. We will be a spread offense. We will have four or five wide receivers on the field. If one of our best wide receivers happens to be a tight end then we will put him. Offensive football is about creating mismatches on the football field. We will try to cause some confusion. We will include some option. We will do whatever we can to get the ball in the hands of our playmakers."

"With the quality of running backs we have here, you are going to see the ball in their hands a lot. They are young guys and obviously their best days are way ahead of them."

On Lessons Learned In Previous Coaching Experiences:

"I am a lot different. I learned a lot at Southern Utah. When I walked away from there I learned what it would take for me to be involved in another position. It was great leadership, the ability to have the people and buildings that would give us a chance to win a championship, the ability to recruit and have your niche. Utah State University has that for me."

"Coordinating for the last four years I learned a lot. I had never truly coordinated before. I remember one day Dr. Hill told me I always liked to hire coordinators. Having never been a coordinator I thought, 'no you don't, that doesn't matter.' But it does make a difference. Being a coordinator, I feel like you learn something every single game. I am much more prepared to be a head coach then I was before."

On The Difference Between The WAC And Mountain West Conference:

"The WAC has been one team that has been above everybody else for quite a while. The Mountain West Conference this year had three very equal and very good teams and then another four or five teams that were very good and could beat anybody. I know it is good football. I have watched it this year off and on. It is hard to say one is above the other. I know the WAC has six bowl eligible teams this year and that speaks for itself."

On Defense:

"If I give up defensive coordinator, it will be to somebody I have a whole bunch of faith in and has the same beliefs that I do. We are going to be a heavy pressure defense. I will be heavily involved in defense and may call it. It depends on how the whole staff breaks out."

On Fan Support:

"The atmosphere here for the basketball games must be off the charts. I haven't been there but I can't wait to go. It is a great environment. A huge part of that is the students. It is very important for myself, the student athletes and my assistants to get out and involve those kids. We will do everything we can to get them in the stands. It is a huge home field advantage and anything we can do to get them involved in that area we will get done."

On Family:

"My wife Stacy is the greatest coach's wife in the world. We have been fortunate to live where we grew up. We continue to have that opportunity. I have three boys. Keegan is a junior in high school, at Juan Diego. I have 14 year-old twin boys in ninth grade. I brought them up here with me yesterday. They ran around and saw the stadium and I had to drag them out of here. They are great kids and will be Aggies through and through right now."

On Interview Process At USU:

"'Why not us and why not now' is big to me. It is a statement I am going to carry with us and I truly believe. But other than that I prepared for this for many years. I have a program plan from A to Z, complete with an academic plan and a calender that I think fits very, very well. Overall I think that it was an easy interview because it was such a fit. I think our beliefs match up."

QUARTERBACK Diondre Borel

On His First Impression Of Coach Andersen:

"The players met with him and everyone just got excited. He told us a lot of good things, and everyone was just excited. He's a good guy. He says a lot of good things; he has good intentions for this team to work harder and to do a lot of things better."

His Reaction To How The Offense Will Be Run:

"My reaction is good. A lot of things that we ran this year were kind of like the spread offense. Its just not four wide receivers or five. We didn't really do five wide receivers this year that much. Four wide receivers and still run the option game; that is still a good offense for me and my team. The offensive players will like that."

On Whether Or Not Coach Andersen Addressed A Position Change: "He told me, 'You are a very athletic quarterback. I see a lot of good things when you played against us (Utah), running the ball and stuff like that. You are pretty good and we want to keep you in the same spot.'"

On Seeing Utah QB Brian Johnson Play Knowing It Could Be The New USU System:

"I have seen him play, and its pretty good. He is a pretty good quarterback. I have seen him make a lot of big plays make a lot of big throws. That is why his team is out there winning often and being very productive."

LINEBACKER Jake Hutton

On Getting An Extra Season Of Eligibility:

"I am excited. I plan on having surgery on my foot to fix my foot problems in the next week. So my whole plan is that I want to get healthy, and if I do get healthy, and then I am going to definitely be a different player than I have been. I have had to deal with my foot the last few years, so hopefully we will fix it, and hopefully it works. And if it does, you're going to see a different player on the field."

On Hiring Of Coach Andersen:

"It's exciting. About five players got to meet with him a couple days ago and get to sit down with him for about an hour. He had a lot of great things to say. Like he was saying, he was talking about players first. He asked questions like, 'what do we want changed here.' He was talking about how he wanted to get things changed like the food during camp, which hasn't been the best here. As a defensive guy, I know he plays a lot of man and is really aggressive which you haven't seen much of around here, but I am excited for the challenge and to change it up a little bit.It will be fun."

On His First Impression Of Coach Andersen:

"I had a great first impression. He definitely seems like the type of guy I want to play for, a hard-working, disciplined guy. I think he is definitely going to bring a lot of discipline to the team. He seems like the type of guy that is his way or the highway, which I like a lot. If you don't do it right you can get out of here. We need that around here."

On Whether Or Not Players Will Leave The Program:

"I don't think anyone is going to leave. We have been talking about it, and I don't see many guys leaving. Guys are wondering 'where we are going around here.' We have had a lot of close games and I think with our young offensive line they are starting to get better and better and I think they are going to be really good next year. Our offense is going to be something to worry about by other teams next year. Defensively, if we just pick it up a little bit and feed off of our offense; I think we are going to be really good. I think the guys see that and won't want to leave."

On Coach Andersen Saying "Boise State Here We Come":

"We were asking him about the possibility of him coming here and he said, 'if I think we can beat Boise State then I'll come.' Obviously he does think that, and I am excited because I think you should shoot for the top. You shouldn't shoot for 6-6. If he would have said something like that, that is not something I would want to hear. He said, 'Boise State here we come,' and I like that.

-USU-