LOGAN — Is there a more glaring and/or gaping hole on Utah State’s roster heading into spring camp than that left by kicker Dominik Eberle? Probably not. Eberle was, quite simply, a superstar for the Aggies and will go down as the best kicker in school and Mountain West Conference history.
Go to his player page on UtahStateAggies.com and his list of accolades is nearly as long the description of his entire playing career. Eberle was a Lou Groza Award finalist (2017) and then a semifinalist (2018). He set eight career school records at Utah State, not to mention six single-season school records. Then there are seven Mountain West records he holds and a couple of NCAA marks too.
“We lost a really good player,” Utah State head coach Gary Andersen said.
How do you go about replacing that kind of a player? You don’t really, but the unenviable task of trying is expected to land on Connor Coles.
“The specialists are a big part of this. We need some immediate help in that position. We lost some really good players and we need to create competition in that area.” — Utah State coach Gary Andersen
Coles, a junior from Bozeman, Montana, had a standout high school career at Bozeman High, where he earned Montana Class AA first-team all-state honors as a placekicker. He made 6 of 8 field goals and was 36 of 39 on extra points his senior season. Since arriving at Utah State, Coles has appeared in four games, most recently in 2019 against Stony Brook, when he kicked off three times for 145 yards (48.3 ypk) with one touchback.
While Coles will have his hands full replacing Eberle at placekicker, things are a little less unknown at punter.
That is in large part due to the return of Christopher Bartolic, who was USU’s primary punter last season (he shared duties with Pierce Callister, who is no longer with the team).
A senior from Newport Beach, California, Bartolic punted in nine games in 2019, averaging 40.9 yards on 44 punts. He had 10 punts of at least 50 yards, including a 64-yarder at New Mexico and a career-long 71-yarder at Air Force. Of Bartolic’s punts, 11 were fair caught and only two went for touchbacks.
Bartolic is not guaranteed the starting punting job, though.
Andersen proved that last season when he rotated punters at times. Add to that a trio of freshmen specialists added to the roster, namely punter Stephen Kotsanlee, kicker/punter Ryan Marks and long snapper Jacob Garcia, and nothing is guaranteed.
Marks will not be with the team this season — he is leaving for a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — but both Kotsanlee, a product of ProKick Australia, and Garcia, the 10th ranked recruit at his position nationwide, according to 247Sports, have a chance to earn immediate playing time.
“The specialists need to play,” Andersen said. “They need to come in and expect to contribute and try to work their way into a starting spot. They control that, we don’t. The specialists are a big part of this. We need some immediate help in that position. We lost some really good players and we need to create competition in that area. We are excited about that.”
Expect that competition to begin in earnest at the start of spring camp.