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Utah State’s Matt Wells is Mountain West Wire’s Coach of the Year
The Aggies came on strong in 2018 and made Wells our choice for Mountain West football’s coach of the year.
Contact/Follow @MattK_FS & @MWCwire
What comes next?
– Offensive player of the year | Defensive player of the year
– Freshman of the year | Special teams player of the year
– Newcomer of the year | Coordinator of the year
The Utah State Aggies entered 2018 as a dark horse contender in the Mountain West Conference. After a close loss against Michigan State to open the season, however, USU turned on the jets and seized the spotlight, emerging as a bonafide top-25 team.
That emergence is what made Matt Wells, Utah State’s sixth-year head coach, our choice as the conference’s coach of the year.
Wells helped the Aggies play like gangbusters for much of 2018, building a ten-game winning streak in which Utah State, by Bill Connelly’s S&P+ measures, developed a top-40 defense to complement a top-25 offense. He also improved the Aggies’ recent fortunes in close games, rare as they were, as the team finished 2-1 in games decided by eight points or fewer.
Understandably, he’s generating a lot of interest on the coaching carousel as the offseason approaches, but the Aggies faithful will hope Wells decided to stay and take another crack or two at the Mountain West crown.
Others receiving votes: Bryan Harsin, Boise State; Nick Rolovich, Hawaii
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