Attorney Tom Mars releases excerpt of 70-page response to Utah State's firing of Blake Anderson

Utah State fired Blake Anderson on Thursday night, citing “significant violations of his contractual obligations” two weeks after announcing its intent to terminate. According to the university, an external review found he failed to comply with Title IX policies regarding the reporting of sexual misconduct cases.

In a statement to On3 on Friday afternoon, Anderson’s attorney Tom Mars described the situation as a judge telling a jury a defendant is guilty before trial.

“In truth, this dispute is just about four good people being scapegoated so USU could further its goal of portraying itself as a Title IX champion while also stiffing its head football coach,” Mars said. “That’s all there is to it. What USU did was no different than a judge seating a jury and telling them the defendant has already been found guilty, but they need to go through the motions of having a trial before he’s sentenced.”

Utah State defensive coordinator Nate Dreiling has been named interim coach for the 2024 season. He attended Mountain West media days last week and was previously the defensive coordinator at New Mexico State.

Anderson would be due a $4.5 million buyout. Instead, Utah State is firing him with cause.

Deputy athletic director for external affairs Jerry Bovee and director of player development Austin Albrecht were also fired “for violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence and failures of professional responsibilities.”

Amy Crosbie, Utah State’s executive associate athletics director for internal affairs/senior woman administrator, was dismissed on July 9. In a 70-page written response to Utah State earlier this week, Mars wrote that Utah State’s General Counsel sent a text to Crosbie about her own termination letter, which was intended for athletic director Diana Sabau.

“USU’s General Counsel mistakenly sending a text to Amy Crosbie (Ms. Crosbie) that was intended for Athletic Director Diana Sabau (AD Sabau) telling Ms. Crosbie to sign her own termination letter (with no prior notice that she was about to be fired),” according to the response, released Friday on social media by Mars.

Referencing the response in a release on Thursday, Utah State said it “failed to acknowledge [Anderson’s] responsibilities as a USU employee and as a head coach and instead sought to make excuses and unsuccessfully recast the clear language of USU’s policies.”

In an excerpt of the response shared by Mars on Friday, the attorney argued Anderson did not conduct his own Title IX investigation.

“Coach Anderson did not conduct his own ‘Title IX investigation’ before a report was made to the Equity Office,” the response states. “Instead, Coach Anderson had no knowledge that an arrest had occurred for several days, then spent just over a day attempting to find out what his player was arrested for and why to determine whether any report was required. The evidence shows beyond question that Coach Anderson satisfied the requirements of all USU policies – including the inapplicable ones which USU mistakenly relied on in terminating his employment.”

In a statement last week, Bovee announced he planned to file a grievance. He also stated he reported an incident in April 2023 to Utah State’s Office of Equity.

Blake Anderson has a 23-17 record in three seasons at Utah State. He won the Mountain West Conference in his first season in 2021. The 55-year-old coach was previously at Arkansas State, where the Red Wolves went 51-37 in six seasons.

Utah State opens the season on Aug. 31, against Robert Morris.