Chuckie Keeton Named Running Backs Coach at Utah State

Chuckie Keeton, one of the most recognizable names in Aggie football history, is returning to his alma mater as Utah State's running backs coach, it was announced Monday by Aggie head football coach Blake Anderson. In all, Keeton has five years of collegiate coaching experience working with quarterbacks, tight ends and wide receivers.

"You couldn't ask for a better ambassador of Aggie Football than Chuckie Keeton," said Anderson. "He understands our culture as well as anyone and has invested a great deal into this program as both a player and coach. Chuckie will bring great energy and knowledge to the offensive side of the football and his familiarity with the state of Texas, from a recruiting standpoint, is an added bonus to the future success of our program."

Most recently, Keeton spent the previous two seasons (2019-2020) as an offensive graduate assistant at Texas Tech. He also spent one year as an offensive graduate assistant at USU (2018), and two more years at Oregon State as an offensive quality control assistant (2016) and offensive graduate assistant (2017).

"I'm extremely grateful to be able to return to my alma mater and help lead Aggie football back to national prominence," said Keeton. "I'm even more privileged to be able to coach a position group with such tremendous historical success. I'm excited to get to work with the players and other coaches!"

During the 2018 season at Utah State, Keeton helped the Aggies to a school-record-tying 11 wins and a 52-13 win against North Texas in the New Mexico Bowl. USU finished the season with an 11-2 record, including a 7-1 mark in the Mountain West, and was ranked 22nd in the final Associated Press poll. That season, USU set 36 school records and tied six others.

Keeton enjoyed a record-setting career at Utah State, which spanned a total of five seasons from 2011-15. He finished his illustrious career with more than 10 school records, including ranking first with 62 career touchdown passes.

Keeton also helped the Aggies to a school-record run of five straight bowl game appearances from 2011-15, including a school-best three straight bowl wins from 2012-14. USU also won the 2012 Western Athletic Conference title, its first outright league championship since 1936, with Keeton at quarterback.

As a sophomore in 2012, Keeton set then-single-season school records for touchdown passes (27), passing yards (3,373), total offensive yards (3,992), completions (275) and completion percentage (.676). One year later, he completed 69.4 percent of his passes to break his own completion percentage record.

Keeton earned first-team all-Western Athletic Conference honors in 2012 after helping lead the Aggies to a conference championship. Utah State capped its season with a 41-15 win against Toledo in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl to finish the year with a school-record 11 wins. USU was ranked 16th in the final Associated Press poll, 17th in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll and 22nd in the final BCS standings.

A season-ending knee injury suffered against BYU cut short Keeton's junior season. Through the first five games, though, he ranked second in the nation with 17 touchdown passes, 11th in completion percentage (71.0), 18th in total offense (317.2 yards per game), 22nd in passing efficiency (161.6) and 25th in passing yards per game (272.4).

After graduating from Utah State in the fall of 2015 with a business administration degree, Keeton, who was a member of the 2014 AFCA All-State Good Works Team, attended a rookie minicamp with the Houston Texans.