Report: Aggie players opt-out of Saturday’s game due to USU President’s alleged comments
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include comments from Utah State University.
The Utah State football players have opted to not play its final game which was scheduled for Saturday at Colorado State, stemming from comments that were allegedly made by Utah State president Noelle Cockett.
Brett McMurphy of Stadium sports reported in a story Friday afternoon that Aggie football players have opted out due to comments made by Cockett in a conference call Tuesday where she allegedly voiced concerns about interim head coach Frank Maile’s suitability to be the school’s new head coach due to his “faith and cultural background.”
Maile is Polynesian and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the predominant religion in the state of Utah.
According to McMurphy, players were so “dumbfounded” by Cockett’s comments that they organized a players-only meeting on Friday in which they unanimously agreed to boycott Saturday’s game.
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.”
The players added that it was not the first incident of discrimination within the program, sighting a situation just last season.
“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.
Yesterday, reports surfaced that Utah State would hire Blake Anderson of Arkansas State to replace Gary Andersen — who was fired on November 7 — to be the head coach of Aggie football.
The players mentioned that the situation had “nothing to do with the hiring of Coach Blake Anderson,” and that they, “look forward to meeting him and his staff.”
The university released a statement and series of tweets about an hour after the reports surfaced.
The university will take this time to meet with players and hear their concerns in an open dialogue so it can address them.
— Utah State University (@USUAggies) December 12, 2020
“Throughout my professional career and, especially, as president of USU, I have welcomed the opportunity to meet directly and often with students about their experiences."
— Utah State University (@USUAggies) December 12, 2020
USU also takes issues of racial discrimination seriously, including the incident mentioned in the statement about a USU Athletics employee. USU hired an outside investigator to look into the incident, and took disciplinary action.
— Utah State University (@USUAggies) December 12, 2020
sports@usustatesman.com