Former Oregon State coach Gary Andersen is heading back to Utah State to be the Aggies’ head football coach. The university announced the hiring Sunday, and a press conference to formally introduce Andersen will take place Tuesday.

Andersen, 54, spent 21⁄2 seasons with the Beavers before he and the university mutually and unexpectedly parted ways on Oct. 9, 2017, following a 1-5 start to the season.

Andersen spent four seasons (2009-2012) as the Aggies’ coach and was named the Western Athletic Conference coach of the year in 2012. He went 26-24 in those four years but was 7-6 in 2011 and 11-2 in 2012.

He served as an assistant coach at Utah this past season and would have made a return to Corvallis with the Utes on Oct. 12, 2019.

“Stacey (wife) and I are thrilled to be back at Utah State University,” Andersen said in a release. “This is a special place and we are excited to meet these young men and play a part in seeing them succeed off and on the field academically, socially and athletically.”

Andersen left Utah State for Wisconsin, where he spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons before taking over the Oregon State job on Dec. 10, 2014, following Mike Riley’s departure to Nebraska.

In his two-plus seasons at OSU, Andersen compiled a 7-23 record but did end the Beavers’ eight-game losing streak to Oregon in the Civil War with a 34-24 win in 2016 at Reser Stadium.

Andersen was paid through Dec. 31, 2017, but he agreed to release the university from all future contract obligations and salary. His guaranteed contract ran through 2021 and would have paid him a total of about $11.6 million.

— Corvallis Gazette-Times