LOGAN, Utah – Utah State first-year head coach Blake Anderson has been named the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region 5 Coach of the Year, it was announced Monday.
 
The AFCA recognizes five regional Coach of the Year winners and Region 5 covers the Mountain West and Pac-12 Conferences, along with two independents in BYU and New Mexico State. Cincinnati's Luke Fickell was the AFCA Region 1 Coach of the Year, while Arkansas' Sam Pittman was the Region 2 winner, Michigan State's Mel Tucker was the Region 3 winner and UTSA's Jeff Traylor was named the Region 4 Coach of the Year.
 
Each regional winner is now a finalist for the AFCA National Coach of the Year Award, which will be announced on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, at the AFCA Convention in San Antonio, Texas.
 
After posting a 1-5 record in a COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Utah State had one of the best turnarounds in the nation in 2021 under Anderson as it won its first-ever Mountain West Championship and recorded 10 wins for just the fourth time in school history after being picked to finish fifth in the Mountain Division of the conference in the preseason polls.
 
Utah State's nine-game improvement this year is tied with Baylor (2-7 in '20 to 11-2 in '21) and Northern Illinois (0-6 in '20 to 9-4 in '21), and trailing Michigan (2-4 in '20 to 12-1 in '21) for the second-best turnaround in the nation.
 
Utah State is also the first Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) team to post a 7-0 road record since the 2013 season.
 
Furthermore, Anderson is the only first-year head coach – out of 19 at the FBS level – to win 10 games this season.
 
Utah State (10-3, 6-2 MW) will face Oregon State (7-5, 5-4 Pac-12) in the inaugural Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 18, at 5:30 p.m. (MT), at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The game will be televised live on ABC.
 
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