Utah State football coach Blake Anderson moved fast to replace the vacant defensive coordinator position on his staff.
Just three days after ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Ephraim Banda would leave after two years as the Aggies’ defensive coordinator to take a position coaching safeties with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, Utah State announced Friday that Joe Cauthen will replace Banda as the Aggies’ DC.
Cauthen is familiar with Anderson — he was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach under Anderson at Arkansas State from 2014-18.
Cauthen has a wealth of experience under his belt, having coached for 33 years, 27 at the collegiate level, and is entering his 22nd year as a defensive coordinator.
Here are just a few of the highlights of his five seasons as Arkansas State’s defensive coordinator, when the Red Wolves routinely found themselves ranked in the Top 25 nationally in a variety of defensive categories:
- Arkansas State led the nation in interceptions with 26 in 2015, and 79 during his tenure. During that 2015 season, the Red Wolves were second nationally in turnovers gained (34).
- Over his final four seasons with the program, the Red Wolves scored 22 defensive touchdowns (eight in 2015).
- Arkansas State led the country with 9.6 tackles for loss per game and averaged 3.31 sacks in the 2016 season. The next year, the Red Wolves were sixth nationally in tackles for loss (8.3).
- In his final season with the Red Wolves, he ranked No. 11 in the country in pass defense, allowing just 177.8 yards per game.
Following his time at Arkansas State, Cauthen was Houston’s defensive coordinator and linebackers coach for two seasons, spent four months as a defensive analyst on Arkansas’ staff, then was the defensive coordinator at Buffalo during the 2021 season.
Last year, he was a defensive coordinator at the FCS level with Stephen F. Austin, where the Lumberjacks won the WAC title.
Prior to his time at Arkansas State, Cauthen also coached at Middle Tennessee and Valdosta State, among other schools.
Other Utah State coaching changes
On Thursday, Utah State announced that Cooper Bassett is the program’s new offensive line coach, replacing Micah James.
Bassett was most recently the offensive line coach at Sam Houston State and brings 10 years of collegiate coaching experience to Logan.
In addition, Kyle Cefalo has been promoted to co-offensive coordinator for the Aggies, per the team’s website. He spent his first two seasons with the Aggies as the team’s passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach, and will continue to coach the team’s receivers.
This comes in the wake of ESPN’s Adam Rittenburg reporting that Utah State’s offensive coordinator the past two seasons, Anthony Tucker, is leaving to become a co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Indiana.