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Show StatesmanSports Page 10 Monday, Oct. 2, 2009 Nelson: Former Aggie content at Brigham Young -continued from page 3 and brings up the question of how exactly Nelson got involved with the Cougars to begin with. For others, the transfer confirms what many already acknowledge – that to recruit and retain good players, you have to have a program which offers something more than the perennial “wait until next year” line. Yet when it comes to his decision, Nelson remains firm and undaunted in defending himself and said that the reasons for his decision were personal and will remain personal despite lingering – albeit subsiding – questions over the still-vague details of his May 2008 announcement. “I was 14 months into my mission when I decided to transfer, and I transferred because I felt strongly that I should go to school at BYU,” Nelson said. “My reasons for doing that are very personal, and a lot of my family members don’t even know or quite understand my reasons for doing that, but that’s because of the personal nature of them.” Nelson announced his decision to leave the USU football program following the school’s 2-10 season in 2007, the penultimate year of former head coach Brent Guy’s tenure in Logan. At the time, Nelson was on his mission in Spain and was apparently informed that a scholarship was available for him at BYU – should he decide to take it. The exact details of the BYU coaching staff’s decision to offer the scholarship have never been fully divulged, but the school has been cleared of any recruiting impropriety as far as the NCAA is concerned. That a player of Nelson’s caliber should transfer came as no shock to many, who viewed the Utah State football program as having stalled under Guy. Yet within a year of his decision to transfer, USU named a new head coach, Gary Andersen, prompting some to wonder if Nelson wouldn’t have reconsidered his decision had he known Andersen was to be the new coach before transferring. On Wednesday, Nelson dismissed those ideas as “speculation” and declined to comment when asked if he would have stayed an Aggie had the decision to fire Guy and hire Andersen been made sooner. As for his current situation, Nelson said he is still shaking off the rust since coming back from his mission but that he is happy with his situation in Provo. The sophomore quarterback currently serves as the backup to Max Hall but saw action against Florida State in week three. Nelson went 3-for-3 for 59 yards and a touchdown through the air against the Seminoles. “I feel really comfortable down here with the football and school and the little social life that I do have,” Nelson said. “But I really, really like it and everything has gone well. I feel good about the progress I’ve made coming off of my mission. There is still a lot more progress to make, but overall the feeling is positive.” In regard to tonight’s game, Nelson said he plans to approach it no differently than the other 11 regular season contests on the Cougars’ schedule and reiterated that he hasn’t felt any anxiety about playing his former team. “From my approach it has been no different,” Nelson said. “I feel good, and I approach (Utah State) like I do every other opponent. From my approach – and I know it becomes hard to believe – but there really haven’t been any added emotions I guess you could say.” Nelson remains firm in defending himself and said the reasons for his decision were personal, and will stay personal Perfect Partner Let us help plan your big day You Best Choice for Wedding Invitations & paper goods 630 West 200 North 753-8875 While he maintains that tonight’s game is just like every other he will play in this season, Nelson is adamant in setting the record straight about his time in Logan, saying that he thinks he benefited from both the experiences he had on and off the field at USU. “I absolutely loved it,” Nelson said. “Obviously I would have liked to have seen more wins, but I think like a lot of positives came out of that year. As we’re preparing for the defense I see names like James Brindley and Paul Igboeli and Kejon Murphy. All those guys, along with me and on the offensive side of the ball – guys like Omar Sawyer and Xavier Bowman – all of us were freshmen back in 2006, and we got some valuable experience.” Added Nelson, “Obviously it didn’t amount in a lot of W’s, but I think it was good for the program and I really enjoyed my time there and I made a lot of friends.” Above all, Nelson is reflective about his time in Logan. He knows that his decision to transfer from USU hasn’t endeared him to everyone at the university, and he’s OK with that. Hard as it is for those people to believe, Nelson has moved on but said he has no regrets about playing for, and eventually transferring from, USU. “There have been negative things said, but there will be negative things said about me for the rest of my life,” Nelson said. “I think everyone has to deal with a certain amount of negative energy coming at them in their life. I deal with it like any other person. You don’t pay any attention to it and focus on what you can do to become a better person or in my case a better football player, and you move on.” – adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu Coach’sCorner Ask and ye shall receive Question 1: What are some benefits and pitfalls of Logan and Utah State when recruiting new players? – Scott Ficklin, Senior, English Question 2: I hear you are an amazing motivational speaker. What do you do to keep people motivated? – Hannah Baird, Junior, Math Ed. Coach Andersen: “Really, and I truly, truly believe this, I don’t think there is negatives. If there’s a negative right now, it’s the wins and losses, other than that there is not a negative to recruiting here. The positives are first of all the city and the community that we live in, (it’s an) unbelievable place for a parent to want their young man to come to school. (It’s an) unbelievable place for a student-athlete to be able to come and go to school and really get a true college campus environment life. Academically, I’ve never been to an institution where the teachers are so accessible. Where you have the ability to be able to – a young man or a young lady has an opportunity to go in and sit down and truly go to a professor when the say they have office hours. Many places I’ve been those office hours are all pretend. These teachers here want you to succeed and they want to take care of you – now, they’re going to make sure you do it the right way, they’re going to make sure you get the work done – but, they’re out there willing to help you.” Coach Andersen: “I don’t know about that. The biggest thing I do when I talk to the kids, is I just speak from my heart. I very rarely write things down, and I speak from the way I feel. They know when I talk to them that it’s truly coming from the heart, and the only things I write down to tell them is stuff I might forget that they need to know. Other than that, I guess the best way to explain what I believe in is I just always tell them what I’m thinking, I don’t want to pull any punches. Sometimes that’s not really what they want to hear and sometimes that’s what they want to hear, but I don’t have any magic potion for that.” Question 3: What strengths did you see at the Homecoming game, and how do you plan on incorporating those into the BYU game? – Vicki Laursen, Junior, History Coach Andersen: “The biggest strength I saw I can’t incorporate into the BYU game unfortunately, and that’s the crowd. It was a great, great start to what I think can be a very intimidating environment to play college football in, the crowd was astounding. Other things we can grow on, I thought our effort was excellent. I thought that the offense again came and made a bunch of big plays and we continued to play very well on the offensive side of the football. Defensively, we got our back put against the wall with three turnovers and it made us not look very good on defense for a period of that football game, but when you really sat down and evaluated the tape, we really did make strides from the week before on the defensive side of the football and we need to grow from that as a defense.” If you would like to ask USU head football coach Gary Andersen a question about the Aggies’ previous game or upcoming matchup, please e-mail your questions along with your year and major to statesmansports@ aggiemail.usu. edu each week by Wednesday at 5 p.m. Answers To Today’s Crossword Puzzle! Monday, Aug. 24, 2009 Page 14 ClassifiedAds Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com Apts. for rent Apartments for Rent Room for Rent Room available for female renter. Nice house with cable, wireless internet, and laundry services. Close to campus and bus stop. Pets welcome (I have little weenie puppy.) 300 per month approximate asking price. 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