When Gary Andersen left Utah State back in 2013 to become the new head coach at Wisconsin following an 11-2 season in 2012, Utah State wasted little time in promoting offensive coordinator Matt Wells to the head coaching position.
Wells inherited a team coming off a year where they finished in the Top 25 and finished his first two seasons in charge with no doubt that he was the right guy for the Aggies job. The 2013 season, they finished 9-5 with a win in the Poinsettia Bowl and the 2014 season was even better at 10-4 with a win in the New Mexico Bowl.
Going 19-9 your first two seasons as an FBS head coach will bring some attention during coaches change season, and Wells fielded a interest from a number of programs those off seasons. But when the 2015 season rolled around, Wells was still in Logan. The next three seasons brought some struggles, going 6-7 with a loss in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in 2015, a 3-9 mark in 2016, and another 6-7 mark and Arizona Bowl loss in 2017.
2018 proved to be a different story than the previous three, and that was evident right off the bat in the Aggies season opening trip to Michigan State, where they came in and gave the Spartans all they could handle, putting an efficient and explosive offense on display that was rattling plays off at a breakneck speed. Utah State came to East Lansing and hung 31 points on what has proven to be one of the better defenses in college football. Ten games later and the Spartans haven't given up that many points to anyone else, including Ohio State (26 points), Michigan (21 points) and Northwestern (29 points).
The biggest discernible change of late on the offensive side of the ball for the Aggies has been the addition of former Missouri, Oregon, and Washington State assistant David Yost who took over play calling duties in February of 2017. Now in year two under his watch, Yost has the offense rolling averaging nearly 50 points per game. To fully put that in perspective, that figure ranks second to only Oklahoma by .2 points per game and is .5 more points per game than Alabama is averaging.
Their defense has also been solid as well under first year defensive coordinator Keith Patterson, ranking 33rd nationally in points per game giving up just over 22 per contest. A strong defense was present those first few years under Wells; but it got away from him in years 3 & 4. Back in 2013 they finished the season #12 in total defense and 7th nationally in scoring defense, and had similar numbers in 2014.
Wells took over a program in really good shape, kept it going for a few years while putting his own stamp on things, had to weather the storm of a few challenging seasons, and now has the Aggies at 10-1 and playing as well as they ever have with a big game against Boise State on tap Saturday where they can make a statement.
If the right job comes open, the 45 year old Wells could again find his name near the top of an athletic director or search firm's interview list. His coaching journey has been an interesting one, starting off in 1997 at Navy with the quarterbacks before moving to Tulsa as tight ends coach. He spent two seasons at New Mexico coaching the receivers in 2007-08 before getting his first coordinator job at Louisville in 2009 (pass game coordinator) and from then he's been a mainstay out west with a season at New Mexico in 2010 before finding a home at Utah State since 2011.
Back in 2015, Wells signed a contract extension keeping him at Utah State through December 31, 2019. According to the USA Today Salary Database, Wells currently makes $900k annually - which ranks 85th among all FBS coaches with reported salaries.
In six seasons, Wells has the unique perspective of being a hot commodity, and being on the hot seat, to back to being a hot commodity again. Could this year's coaching carousel open the right opportunity for him these next few weeks?
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest coaching job information.