Wells picking coaches left and right now

We're almost there... At this point it looks like we just need a defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, and a running backs coach. Not many ideas about who those might be at this point, so stay tuned on those.

As for the coaches we know about, let's run each one down...

KEVIN CLUNE - Linebackers
This was one of the big ones! Obviously retention from the old staff was a priority on several fronts, and maybe none bigger than Clune. All you need to do is look at his body of work and they guys he's coached up to stardom! And even above that, the depth that the Aggies have had at the linebacker position appears pretty excellent as well. In the 3-4 defense, the team needs the linebackers to be stellar, and they have been under Clune.

It's been speculated that Clune could also end up as the pick for defensive coordinator, so we might still be hearing more about him this offseason. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Having him on staff still is huge!

KEVIN MCGIVEN - Offensive coordinator, quarterbacks
The first handful of staff additions were guys retained. This one is a guy re-hired to the Utah State staff. There had been rumors that Matt Wells was struggling to find an offensive coordinator, what with him being an offensive guy himself and undoubtedly wanting a say n things offensively. With that in mind, McGiven looks like a pretty good hire in this spot.

He was a member of Gary Andersen's original staff at USU as the quarterbacks coach, helping coach Diondre Borel to a breakout season in 2009. One has got to think that he and Wells will be working together quite a bit on both offensive scheming and coaching quarterbacks, but if the defensive duo of Andersen and Dave Aranda taught us anything this past season, that can be a tremendous benefit to the program.

With the success McGiven has had as an offensive coordinator on previous coaching stops, as well as having worked under former OC Dave Baldwin during some of Baldwin's better days. Hopefully he took plenty of notes on the things Baldwin did well and was able to be critical of the shortcomings, much like the hope was with Wells a year ago when he stepped into the OC role.

LUKE WELLS - Co-offensive coordinator, tight ends, recruiting coordinator
Matt's bringing little bro to the staff, and little bro is bringing with him a little bit of big time coaching experience. Luke started his coaching career under Bob Stoops at Oklahoma, also sharing the sidelines with the likes of Mike Leach and Mark Mangino. From the looks of things, this could be a pretty big hire for USU.

Looking at the numbers from Luke's time as the tight ends and wide receivers coach at Iowa State, they generally had pretty balanced receiving unit much like Utah State has had the past few years. And while it obviously would be great to have an unstoppable go-to wideout, being able to always put out a consistent unit can be a huge asset.

As for recruiting, it'll be interesting to see what he and the rest of the staff are able to do with the rest of this recruiting season. There aren't a ton of scholarships to go around right now, so you'd have to hope that they're going to aim pretty high with some of these guys.

MARK WEBER - Offensive line
This one hasn't been officially announced yet, but rumor has it that it's a done deal. On a staff of quite a few young coaches, Weber brings a ton of experience to USU. He's coached all over the country at a handful of quality programs (and even some not so quality ones like BYU).

Really don't know a ton about him other than he's got a ton of experience in a bunch of different conferences, so you've got to think he's adaptable to changing styles. We'll probably learn more about him in the coming days when his announcement is officially made.

OTHER COACHING NOTES
USU's official website has listed a few other members of the coaching staff. Among them are Steve Mathis and Mark Andersen. Mathis was essentially the right-hand man of Gary Andersen for the bulk of his time at USU, and it's a bit intriguing that he's sticking around. Mark Andersen is Gary's brother, listed on the roster as the Director of Football Operations/Business Management.

David Fiefia and Kite Afeaki are also listed on the coaching staff too. Fiefia as an offensive graduate assistant and Afeaki as defensive administrative assistant.

Late run seals Aggies' 11th-straight win

Hey, another ugly victory! Sound familiar???

I don't know if this has ever once been the case during the Stew Morrill era, but I honestly believe this team is a better road team than they are at home. Not that many of the wins this year have been at all pretty, and it's nice to actually be winning, but the whole winning ugly thing is bound to backfire at some point.

Maybe it's the tension of playing in front of opposing fans gives them the mental push they need to get fired up, or maybe they get a little too comfortable playing on home turf. Whatever it is, it sure would be nice if this team could get a little more fire when playing in The Spectrum. The tough part about that is that the thing which has traditionally fueled teams of the past has been basically non-existent this year. More on that tomorrow though.

As for this basketball game, Seattle was a bigger, more athletic team than I had imagined would be rolling into town. I'll own up that I didn't do any homework on them, so it's really nothing more than me being guilty of typecasting them of what I envision a WAC underdog to be. That size and athleticism worked pretty well for them though, especially when it came to tossing double-teams on Preston Medlin and throwing a guy with a major height advantage up in Spencer Butterfield's grill.

Headlines from around AggieLand

With all kinds of holiday cheer going around, time to write hasn't exactly been abundant. But hey! The holidays are over now, so we can finally get caught up on everything!

Let's talk some of the recent headlines...

BASKETBALL BEATS TEXAS STATE 81-57
Welp... They really stuck it to me as far as that whole "cohesion" thing is concerned. The team got some chemistry going for them to the tune of 21 assists on Monday night. Spencer Butterfield was responsible for nine of those, going nicely with his 18 points and six rebounds. There's your player of the game right there.

Preston Medlin was dynamite once again too though, scoring 21 points, including five 3-pointers. he also had six rebounds in the game. Medlin is now fully dominating offensively like most people expected him to do. He's averaging 21 points per game over the last four contests and has hit on 15-of-31 attempts from behind the 3-point line.

Refreshing to see the team with 10 steals too when they haven't been forcing tons of turnovers just yet. Free throws are apparently still a big concern though.

Regardless, the team is now 2-0 in WAC play, which is a solid start to have. Now they've got two weeks and three home games to come together a bit more before the next road tests at New Mexico State and at Denver.

Oh, and they've won 10 in a row now... Maybe come out and see this team?

SHAVER AND BOUKNIGHT STAYING ON FOOTBALL STAFF
One would think that we'll really start hearing more about coaching hires now that the holidays are over and bowl games are wrapping up. Still, we got a little bit of news late last week with the announcements that coaches Jovon Bouknight and Kendrick Shaver will be staying on staff at Utah State under new head coach Matt Wells.

Another ugly one, but Aggies win again

There's that old saying that says, "You've gotta slay a few dragons before you can finally rescue the princess." Put plainly, it's referring to hooking up with girls you wouldn't brag to anyone about before eventually finding that one gem to settle down with.

That's how I'm hoping things are going for this Aggie basketball team right now. They just keep knocking out these ugly victories, but eventually things are going to get a whole lot prettier.

In their defense, last year the team was losing a handful of these ugly games. To be 10-1, even if you haven't really tackled any titans, is still a very good record to be sitting on. Much like my feeling was prior to the Gossner's tournament, this team still looks like a group of very talented basketball players who have yet to really come together as a cohesive unit.

They've shown flashes, and I don't think I was alone in hoping that the win against Southern Illinois would be a sign of better things to come. That very well could be the case still and they just had another struggle on the road. Again though, 3-0 on the road now. That's something to be happy about, especially since one of those was against a Santa Clara team who hung around against the No. 1 team in the country over at Cameron Indoor on Saturday morning.

Bair decides to hang up the gym shoes...

Things just got a little bit more complicated for this year's USU basketball team with another player stepping away from the program. Freshman wing Quincy Bair has left the team according to numerous reports Wednesday night.

While not wanting to comment specifically on reasons, Bair at least told Kyle Goon that it had nothing to do with the team. Another report from a credible source stated that Bair has simply lost the passion for playing basketball. If that's indeed the case, tough to really fault the dude for not wanting to go through the rigors of practicing and playing when you're not enjoying it.

Speculation is that Bair won't be transferring to play elsewhere, but feels content with calling it a career in competitive basketball. It's a situation not too unlike running back recruit Tavarreon Dickerson from last year's football signing class. He was a highly-touted running back who decided to walk away from football because he had lost his passion to play.

THIN ON THE WINGS
Bair's departure, along with the injury to Danny Berger and previous departure of Riley Bradshaw gives USU a somewhat stressful situation in the back court for the rest of this season. Marcel Davis and Tenale Roland will hold down the point guard position, but it leaves only the trio of Preston Medlin, Spencer Butterfield and Marvin Jean to hold down the wings.

In other words, foul trouble could seriously complicate things for the team in some games. If either one of Kyisean Reed or Ben Clifford could make ample contributions at the small forward spot in an emergency situation, things will be fine. Still, it's more of a headache than any coach would want.

TOO MUCH OF A PATTERN...
It's been pointed out before that every year, at least one freshman on the roster calls it quits. It's seen the departure of a handful of a guys who turned out to be good players, and more recently guys with the potential to be very good. The circumstances are often unknown, and it's usually safe to assume that much more goes into these decisions than the masses will ever know...

Still, the pattern is officially a tiny bit disturbing at this point.

Maile staying on as part of Wells' staff

Matt Wells has officially begun assembling his coaching staff, starting with the retention of defensive line coach Frank Maile.

Maile has been on the staff for four years now, working the past two seasons as the team's defensive line coach. From the looks of thigns, he'll stay in that role, giving the team much needed continuity on the defensive side of the ball. One has got to think that Maile has learned quite a bit from the likes of Gary Andersen and Dave Aranda over the last few seasons, making him a valuable asset to keep on staff.

And that's without even mentioning that two of his players earned all-WAC honors this year with Al Lapuaho landing on the first team and freshman Jordan Nielsen on the second team. Connor Williams was an honorable mention selection as well.

Maile also has some experience in the areas of strength and conditioning, which could be some welcomed continuity should Evan Simon indeed be leaving the Aggies.

While one position is filled, there are plenty more spots to sort out moving forward. A lot of that will likely have to do with which of USU's assistants from this past season are indeed headed elsewhere and which can be retained. Rumors have been flying around indicating all sorts of different things, so it's probably safer just to let things play out.

Stay tuned to this moving forward.

Marvin Jean answering the call

Marvin Jean never saw more than 10 minutes in a game through the first five contests this season. Spencer Butterfield was the ace off the bench early on in the year while Preston Medlin and Danny Berger held down starting roles.

Jean hadn't played poorly by any means. He hit on 3-of-8 total attempts from the field in the first five games. But he only racked up two total rebounds and two assists, leaving at least a little to still be desired.

When Berger went down, it was inevitable that Jean would see his minutes increase, and with that, the pressure would be on for him to really perform.

And perform he has!

In four games since Berger's injury (is that even the right thing to call it?), Jean has scored eight points three different times. He's also made solid contributions in rebounds and assists during his increase in minutes, which has been 18 or more in each of the last four games.