Utah State officially fired football coach Blake Anderson after an investigation turned up noncompliance with university policies concerning Title IX, the university announced on Thursday. The school placed Anderson on administrative leave and notified the former Aggies coach of its intent to fire him on July 2.
“This action is based on significant violations of his contractual obligations related to US’s employee reporting requirements,” the school said in a statement. “These reporting requirements include a prohibition on employees outside the USU Office of Equity from investigating issues of sexual misconduct, including domestic violence. Additionally, Anderson failed to manage the team in a manner that reflect’s USU’s academic values.”
At issue is the fact that Anderson contacted the girlfriend and roommate of a Utah State football player that was arrested for alleged domestic violence in April 2023, according to ESPN. Anderson claimed that he was on a “fact-finding mission” to determine what punitive measures, if any, Utah State should take in response to the incident.
A letter laying out the reasons for Anderson’s firing cited his personal investigation and accused him of looking into the player’s behavior rather than immediately reporting the issue to the university’s Office of Equity
Anderson’s attorney, Tom Mars, says his client plans to contest the termination.
“We were disappointed to learn this evening that Utah State University has terminated the employment of head football coach Blake Anderson,” Mars wrote in a social media post. “Coach Anderson’s legal team believes this decision — as well as USU’s deliberately inflammatory July 2nd press release — violate the terms of Coach Anderson’s Employment Agreement and…
..
