Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
It’s Halloween morning. And while sitting on the couch in his office in the Wayne Estes Center, Jerrod Calhoun is predictably not wearing a costume as he focuses on getting his team ready for the start of the 2025-26 basketball season. But that doesn’t mean that Utah State’s head coach hasn’t been constantly thinking about new and better ways to present himself during his second year at the helm of the Aggies. “Any time you go into a new league, there’s some uncertainty,” said Calhoun, who spent seven seasons as the head coach at Youngstown State before being hired by former USU athletic director Diana Sabau in March 2024. “I think now after going through the Mountain West for a full season, I gained just a ton of experience. Some small things like the hotels you’re going to stay at, to the coaching styles, and each team’s roster and coaching philosophy. “… But I think you have to continue to adapt in this landscape. I think you have to continue to grow as a coach, a person and as one of the leaders of the team. And I think I’ll obviously be better going into year two.” Calhoun’s inaugural season in Cache Valley was superb and won’t be easy to match. The Aggies finished third in the Mountain West, went 26-8 overall and secured a No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to UCLA in the first round. And while Utah State lost some key contributors from the team that started 16-1 last season, Calhoun managed to retain the services of junior guard Mason Falslev (15.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.7 apg), who was named to the Mountain West’s Preseason All-Conference team two weeks ago. The Aggies also return senior guard Drake Allen (7.0 ppg, 3.8 apg), junior forward Karson Templin (7.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg), junior wing Tucker Anderson (5.8 ppg) and sophomore guard Jordy Barnes (1.6 ppg, 2.1 apg), while adding five transfers and five freshmen to the roster. But in the age of NIL, a college coach has to spend nearly as much time worried about dollars and cents as Xs and Os. And Calhoun, who has said he spends time on his phone practically every day trying to secure funds for his program, has tried his best to “adapt in this landscape,” which includes Utah State making the jump from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 in July 2026. Most notably, he and his staff hosted a “Night with the Pros” event Sept. 10, that provided USU fans with an opportunity to rub shoulders with two former Aggies now playing in the NBA — guard Sam Merrill (Cleveland Cavaliers) and center Neemias Queta (Boston Celtics) — as well as Miami Heat executive Michael McCullough and Boston Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, a longtime friend of Calhoun’s since Mazzulla’s playing days at West Virginia. “To be honest with you, making the NCAA Tournament was obviously the highlight of my time being here, but that night was probably the second-biggest highlight for me,” Calhoun said of “Night with the Pros,” which included a meet-and-greet gathering, dinner, auction and a question-and-answer panel. “I love seeing former players come back. I love seeing managers, and obviously all those head coaches. “That’s what makes our place pretty unique, in my opinion, is we’ve got great tradition. So, to be able to honor those guys, to watch them on stage, interacting with their former teammates, it was just very gratifying to get them all under one roof. I thought it was an incredible, incredible night.” In addition to bringing in revenue for the basketball program’s NIL coffers — 32 tables were sold at $5,000 each, along with thousands more dollars from the live auction — the event provided an opportunity for the current crop of Aggies to rub shoulders with Merrill and Queta, who were both elevated to starters early in the 2025-26 NBA season. Attendees also included former USU head coach Craig Smith, who coached both Merrill and Queta during his three-year stint in Logan from 2018-21 before leaving for Utah, where he spent four seasons before being fired last February. “Their messages were awesome,” Calhoun said. “Sam spent a lot of time just connecting, talking to the guys. And Sam and Joe had a sit-down with the entire team, and they got a chance to ask questions about what the NBA is like. I thought both Coach Mazzulla and Sam gave some great insight. Neemie was running a little late coming from playing for Portugal (in the FIBA EuroBasket), but he spent a lot of time with our guys, too. “… And I watch every game that I can of those guys now because I feel that connection. And I think, as far as I know, that it’s the first time ever we’ve had two starters in the NBA from our university.” Go time After a memorable offseason that included Utah State hiring a new athletic director (Cameron Walker) and a new president (Brad Mortensen), Calhoun can now turn his focus toward his team’s performance on the court. The Aggies open the 2025-26 season with a home game against Westminster Monday night, then travel to Texas to face VCU in a neutral-site contest Friday in Frisco. In preparation for the regular season, Utah State hosted Seattle for an exhibition game on Oct. 18, winning 88-76 with all 15 players on the roster seeing action. A week later, the Aggies played San Francisco in the Bay Area, prevailing 79-74. Neither school provided official stats from that exhibition contest, but Vanderbilt transfer guard MJ Collins Jr. apparently led Utah State with 17 points, while Butler transfer guard Kolby King added 10 points. By all accounts, the Aggies committed too many turnovers and shot poorly from the free-throw line, but Calhoun did love his team’s “grittiness” against the Dons. “We have better athletes this year, and we have better depth. What that equates to, we’ll find out here over the next month,” Calhoun said. “But I like where we are defensively. Offensively, we’ve got to quit turning the ball over. It’s going to hurt our defense. So, we’ve got to value the ball.” Calhoun says he plans to redshirt three players this season, but he refuses to say which ones. That will likely become clear on Monday against the Griffins, who suffered a 117-53 defeat in the Spectrum last season, but neither freshman forward Kingston Tosi nor freshman guard Brayden Boe got on the floor in San Francisco. “You know, 15 players is entirely way too many to have active,” Calhoun explained. “It’s great to have in your program as you go into the Pac-12 and develop guys, but you can’t have 15 active players. There’s no team in America that’s going to be able to juggle that. I think the first game we’ll play all 12 active players, hopefully, and they’ll be ready to go.” Calhoun was very pleased with the play of Allen, who was granted an additional year of eligibility due to the NCAA’s one-time waiver for former junior college athletes, during USU’s two exhibition games, while Collins, who put up 15 points against Seattle, has been doing what they anticipated the former Vandy and Virginia Tech guard would do when they recruited him. “He’s been tremendous,” Calhoun said of Collins. “He’s taking good shots and he’s getting good passes. And when you play with Drake Allen, life is pretty good, because he’s got something like 15 assists and one turnover in two games. He’s been our best player, if you ask me, and MJ Collins is a very close second, depending on how you’re evaluating the game. “I think Drake’s our best defender. MJ certainly scored the ball better than Drake, but Drake’s done everything right, and he’s been a catalyst so far for us.” High expectations Picked to finish second in the Mountain West behind San Diego State in the preseason poll, expectations are certainly high for the Aggies to make a fourth-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament this March. Utah State fans, who were stunned by Danny Sprinkle’s departure for Washington after one magical season in 2023-24, are thrilled to have Calhoun back for a second-straight year, and tickets for many of the major conference clashes at the Spectrum have already sold out. But that’s why Calhoun was willing to make the move to Utah from eastern Ohio with his wife, Sarah, and their three young children. And it’s also why he signed a restructured contract with Utah State after reportedly interviewing for the job at West Virginia. “There’s a real appreciation for Aggie basketball here,” he said. “I was kind of shocked by the outpouring and support from people who I would run into at the store or one of my kids’ games who would come up to me and say, ‘Thanks for staying.’ “I think the community wants to rally around the coach and the team. We are Logan’s team, and to me, that is the neatest thing in the world, how much it means to so many people. And there’s a sense of responsibility with that, right? “There’s a sense of pressure, you know, to be sitting in that chair every day where so many great coaches have sat, especially when you’re in a small town, where the outcome of a game affects so many people’s mood the next morning. “There’s a real sense of pride when Aggie basketball wins, so you’re not only doing this for yourself and your family and your players and your assistant coaches and their families, but you’re really doing it for a bigger cause. “And that, to me, is why you work the hours you work, and that’s why this is a great job,” Calhoun declared.
