On Tuesday, University President Noel expressed concern about Cockett Kate’s interim head coach Frank Mail’s religious and cultural background, with Utah players opting for Saturday’s game in Colorado State, the stadium learned.
After calling Zoom on Tuesday to discuss Mail’s candidacy for the Utah state job with C-Cat and Athletic Director John Hartwell, the team’s leadership council raised issues about Cockett’s comments about Miles, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The players were so “confused” by Cockett Kate’s comment that one player only surveyed anonymous players who asked if they were on a zoom call and whether they cared about anything they heard in the meeting.
About three-quarters of the team that responded Thursday said they were concerned about religious prejudice against mail by cocktails. The players said they did not believe the zoom call was recorded.
Neither player was aware of each other’s answers and responded individually.
On Friday morning, at the only players’ meeting that lasted more than an hour, the players unanimously voted not to play the season final because of these issues. The coaching staff did not know until the end of the players’ meeting. AGS Year 2011 1-1. Done.
The team issued the following statements to the stadium:
“Utah State football players have decided to withdraw from our game against Colorado State due to ongoing inequality and biased issues between players, coaches and the USU administration.
On Tuesday, December, the Utah State University Football Leadership Council held a zoom meeting with USU President Noel Cockett Kate and Athletic Director John Hartwell. The purpose of the meeting was to say in search of our new head coach. During the meeting, we voiced our support for interim head coach Frank Mail. In response to our comments, their primary concern was their religious and cultural background. The players, stating their different beliefs and backgrounds, then jumped to the defense of Coach Frank Mail to treat everyone with love, equality and justice.
“This is not the first time that discrimination has become an issue. In December 2019, our head equipment manager used racial harassment against a fellow member of our African-American team. After ignoring the incident, the pressure to investigate returned in the summer of 2020. After investigation, the administration concluded that he would get employment.
“We want to make our message clear that this has nothing to do with the recruitment of the program’s most recent head coach, Black Anderson. We’re sure he’s an excellent coach; We look forward to meeting him and his staff. We highlight the ongoing problems of inequality and seek to build a better future for the community of Logan and Utah State University. ”
On Thursday, Arkansas State announced that Anderson had resigned and accepted another position of head coaching. Multiple sources said Anderson was taken over by the state of Utah, although Aggies has not officially announced he will take the job.
Mail is a graduate of the state of Utah and has been an assistant at Aegis since 2009-15 before coaching at Wonderbilt. In 2016, he returned to Utah State as assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator, a position he has held for the past five seasons.
Hartwell and Cockett did not immediately respond to interview requests.
The team was scheduled to depart from Logan, Utah for MT Fort Collins at 4 p.m.
