After some controversial comments were made by Utah State president Noelle Cockett regarding the religion of the team's interim head coach Frank Maile earlier this week, Aggies players have decided that they will not take the field for the final game of the season.
This surfaced earlier today.
Bret McMurphy and Stadium were later provided a statement from the team to explain their decision.
According McMurphy, some comments regarding Maile's religion were said by Cockett during a team Zoom call with Cockett and athletic director John Hartwell while discussing Maile's candidacy for the team's head coaching job. Maile is a member of The Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints.
After the call, the team's leadership council raised concerns about the comments made about their interim head coach.
Today, following an anonymous survey done by the players, the team held a players-only meeting and decided unanimously that they would not play the season finale.
The statement provided to Stadium reads:
The team issued the following statement to Stadium:
“The Utah State football players have decided to opt out of our game against Colorado State due to ongoing inequality and prejudicial issues between the players, coaches, and the USU administration.
“On Tuesday, December 8th, the Utah State University Football Leadership Council held a zoom meeting with Noelle Cockett, President of USU, and John Hartwell, the Athletic Director. The purpose of the meeting was to have a say in the search for our new head coach. During the meeting, we voiced our support for Interim Head Coach Frank Maile. In response to our comments, their primary concern was his religious and cultural background. Players, stating their diverse faiths and backgrounds, then jumped to Coach Frank Maile’s defense in treating everyone with love, equality, and fairness.
“It is not the first time issues of repeated discrimination have happened. In December 2019, our head equipment manager used a racial slur against one of our African-American teammates. After disregarding the incident, pressure resurfaced to investigate in the summer of 2020. After the investigation, the administration concluded he would continue to be employed.
“We want our message to be clear that this has nothing to do with the hiring of Coach Blake Anderson, the recently-named head coach of the program. We are sure he is an excellent coach; we look forward to meeting him and his staff. We are highlighting the ongoing problems of inequality and want to create a better future for the community of Logan and Utah State University.”
The Aggies were supposed to kick off tomorrow night at 9:30pm EST against Colorado State. They end their season 1-5, with their lone win coming over New Mexico.
Maile is a Utah State graduate and is loved and respected by the players. He previously served as an assistant from 2009-13 and then returned to his alma mater as assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator in 2016 after a few seasons at Vanderbilt. He's been with the Aggies the past five seasons and helped recruit the majority of their current roster.
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