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SALT LAKE CITY — Blake Anderson was basking in the aftermath of an incredible turnaround for his Utah State football team and preparing for the upcoming season when one phone call rocked his world.
Coming off a miserable COVID-shortened season, the Aggies shocked the Mountain West by winning the conference championship and then beating the Pac-12's Oregon State in the LA Bowl to finish at 11-3. Anderson was the architect, expertly meshing the holdovers with several transfers after arriving in Logan months earlier following a seven-year run at Arkansas State.
In addition to bringing in a great quarterback and several others, Anderson carried the heartache of working through the death of his wife of 27 years, Wendy, who lost a battle with breast cancer in 2019. Not long after his father also died.
Little did he know that more pain was in his future. This past winter Cason Anderson, the second of his two sons, suffered a tragic death.
Reeling from the unimaginable emotional devastation, Anderson stared into the eyes of 120 impressionable young men on his football team. He had no choice but to mix bereavement with leadership.
Faith and a commitment to his team are helping Anderson cope, acknowledging the extreme difficulty.
"Definitely not a way you want to have to lead, but it's life. Life happens," Anderson said during an interview on The Zone Sports Network. "You probably lead more importantly in times of tragedy and when things don't go well — probably more important when things are going your way.
"It's easy to have a smile on your face and praise the Lord and give thanks when you're lifting trophies and winning games and all that. I think it's way more important that you're just as consistent when things don't go well."
Standing before his team after the horrendous incident, the 53-year-old Anderson was real and raw. It's his style, anyway, but knowing this situation came under much more duress.
Here are his thoughts some three months later:
"Losing Cason the way I did, I shared very open with them that I was hurting and that I would be hurting for a while, but I was going to show up every day and lean on them and lean on Christ and lean on those around me.
"Being willing to be transparent and being vulnerable is the key to being able to heal and also be just kind of able to do life. We find that spot.
"I'm still healing. I'm struggling, to be truthful, at this point. It's something that you can't prepare for, to get a phone call, to lose your child. But I'm grateful that God has put amazing people around me," (including his other two adult children and new wife, Brittany, and her two children).
"I'm privileged to be able to do what I do with the platform that I have and that there's a responsibility to shine as much light on Christ and give thanks to the people that made it possible."
During Anderson's seven years in Jonesboro, Arkansas State amassed a 51-37 record and played in six consecutive bowl games with two Sun Belt championships. Anderson's only losing season came in 2020, when he was dealing with his wife's death.
Somehow, Anderson mustered the strength to find the positive in his wife's death in August 2020. Posting on Twitter a few hours after she died, he wrote: "There's celebration in heaven today (be)cause Wendy is Home." As he deals with the latest struggle, Anderson recalled the words of his older son, Coleton.
The advice then unfortunately is relevant now.
"I remember when my wife passed a few years ago," Anderson said, "my older son was sitting in the car and he reminded me: 'Dad, you've got to get back to what you're doing. You've got a lot of guys counting on you and they need you now just like they do when things are going well.'"
