Blake Anderson Putting New Staff Together

Blake Anderson arrived at Utah State on December 12th and is now starting to form his staff. Kyle Cefalo and Nick Paremski are going to be joining Utah State’s coaching staff in the upcoming season.

Cefalo comes from Arkansas State where he spent four years as the wide receivers coach and served as Arkansas State’s co-special teams coordinator for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Cefalo coached the Sun Belt offensive player of the year, Jonathan Adams Jr., and coached Brandon Bowling, who received an all-Sun Belt honorable mention. The Red Wolves completed the 2019 season ranked 10th in passing offense (312.1 yards per game), 14th in passing efficiency (157.55), 26th in scoring offense (33.7 points per game), 33rd in total offense (439.3 yard per game) and 33rd in red zone offense (88.9%). In 2020 the Red Wolves ranked second in passing offense (364.4 yards per game), 11th in yard per completion (14.57 yards), 14th in total offense (498.7 yards), 17th in passing efficiency (156.02), and 35th in scoring offense (32.9 points per game). Cefalo started his coaching career in 2017 at Arkansas State after serving as a recruiting intern at Boise State in 2013, a graduate assistant at Arkansas State from 2013-2015, and a graduate assistant for Maryland in 2016.

Nick Paremski will serve as the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach for Utah State. Paremski brings 17 years of coaching experience to Utah State. He spent two seasons as the co-special teams coordinator and safeties coach, one season as the outside linebackers coach, and two seasons as a quality control assistant. In 2020, Arkansas State ranked 12th in the nation in kickoff return defense (17.03 yards per return), registered one block punt, and Red wolf Roshauud Paul ranked 31st in the nation in kickoff returns (23.7 yards per return). Serving as outside linebackers coach in 2018, Paremski was an important part of the defensive staff that helped the Red Wolves four of the final five opponents on their schedule to less than 300 yards of total offense. In their final five games of 2018, Arkansas State gave up no more than 17 points.

These coaches have experience behind them and will be able to help a struggling receivers group and a linebackers group that is searching for continued improvement. In addition to the coaches, Utah State also added another transfer in Texas linebacker Bryon Hobbs-Vaughns. He played in 10 games for the Longhorns 14 tackles (10 solo) coming to Texas as a three star recruit out of Fort Worth, Texas.