State of the USU football program: A conversation with John Hartwell
Growing up, John Hartwell was often reminded by his father of a simple life lesson: Adversity builds character.
Following the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 presented to NCAA athletic programs during the 2020-21 season, it’s a phrase the Utah State athletic director takes to heart. “I think all of us have enough character stored up from the last 14-15 months to last a lifetime,” he said.
Possibly more so than any other team on campus, this statement rings true for the Aggie football team. Beyond the Covid-19 issues every program dealt with, they faced a myriad of additional challenges on and off the field.
But despite seeing the football team go from an 11-win season in 2018 to a single victory in the abridged 2020 season, which forced Hartwell to fire Gary Anderson mid season and – to the dismay of the players – not promote interim head coach Frank Maile, there is optimism surrounding the current state of the team. And much of it is due to the hiring of Blake Anderson as the new football coach.
“The outlook for our football program is really strong,” Hartwell said.
But this wasn’t the sentiment just months ago.
Finishing with a 1-5 record, the 2020 season was in disarray from start to finish. Things began with what Hartwell described as an emotional yo-yo, with the summer spent speculating whether the season would happen because of COVID-19 concerns. On August 10, the Mountain West conference announced they would be postponing the 2020 fall sports season. Six weeks later, on September 24, they declared the season was back on.
After a month of preparation, USU traveled to Idaho on October 24 to open the abbreviated season against Boise St. USU immediately proved they lacked the preparation and physicality to compete, falling 28-0 in the first half. They’d lose the game 41-13. It’d be a sign of things to come. Three games into the year, having gone 0-3 and being outscored 114 to 29, head coach Gary Andersen was fired.
With interim head coach Frank Maile now at the helm, the chaos continued. On November 15, starting quarterback Jason Shelley was dismissed from the team. Then, a swath of Aggies would begin to transfer, with three starters, linebacker Cash Gilliam, safety Troy Lefeged Jr. and wide receiver Devin Thompkins all leaving the same week.
USU’s game at Wyoming on November 21 was cancelled due to an increase of COVID-19 cases within the program. Aggie players chose to forfeit their final game of the season against Colorado State in protest of alleged racially and religiously bigoted comments about Maile from USU president Noelle Cockett — a claim that would be thoroughly investigated by the university board and deemed misinterpreted. The board unanimously supported Cockett.
But ever since Anderson stepped onto campus on December 13, the impression from Hartwell and others is that the program has moved in a forward direction.
“I can’t give enough praise to Blake Anderson and his staff – he’s assembled an outstanding staff – for how they have taken a team chemistry and a team attitude that – it’s well documented – was not great during the transition and they’ve got total buy-in now from all of our student athletes,” Hartwell said.
Following the Utah State annual Blue and White spring game on April 17, senior safety and captain Shaq Bond shared his thoughts on how things have improved.
“I feel like our coaches came in and did a really good job of getting us back pumped up and getting us back to the old Aggie way of believing in ourselves, getting that toughness back,” he said.
A major part of facilitating the transition has been the staff’s success in the transfer market. The Aggies have picked up 14 players from the portal, nine of which come from power five programs. Anderson also convinced Thompkins and Gilliam to return to USU.
On national signing day on February 3, Anderson admitted adding – what at that point was 11 new transfers – may not lead to championships in year one, but it is a rapid way to make the Aggies a competitive team in the fall.
And following spring camp, it has become clear that the new transfers have elevated the team by improving the talent level and increasing the competitiveness between position groups.
“We had a couple of holes to fill,” Bond said. “I feel like (the new transfers) came in and stepped up and really brought the intensity back.”
And if things go as planned for the Hartwell, the upcoming season is just the beginning.
He has to desire not only to win the Mountain West championship at some point – a goal Anderson expressed in his opening press conference – but for Utah State to become a relevant college football brand on the national level.
Mentioning current NFL players Jordan Love and Bobby Wagner, as well as former players Merlin and Phil Olsen, Hartwell claims that there is a rich Aggie history already in place. But the key is to be constantly building upon it.
“You can’t be a one hit wonder and expect there to be national brand recognition,” he said. “You’ve got to build that brand over sustained success.”
Hartwell believes he has hired the man that gives the Aggies the best opportunity to become a consistent winner.
“We want to make sure that we hire somebody who provides our student athletes the opportunity to be successful, who is a good fit for our university, and ultimately helps us all to get better. And I feel very confident that we’ve done that with Blake Anderson.
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