LOGAN — Former Utah State deputy athletics director Jerry Bovee released a statement in the wake of the publication of a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Justice to Utah State University. The communication from the DOJ contained a report regarding alleged failures to report the arrest of an Aggie football player in 2023 over an incident of domestic violence. The report condemned Bovee — who was fired by USU in July, along with former football head coach Blake Anderson, senior woman administrator Amy Crosbie and director of player development Austin Albrecht — saying he failed to properly report the 2023 incident and adhere to USU policy in disciplining the player who was arrested. Cache Valley Daily received a copy of this statement from Bovee Wednesday evening, which reads: “I continue to remain steadfast in defending not only my name and reputation, but most importantly, in revealing the truth. Therefore, I wish to respond to the Utah Department of Justice (DOJ) notice to Utah State University (USU) of noncompliance that was posted yesterday on Utah State’s website. “First, it is my assessment that the DOJ did not put forth any effort to conduct its own independent investigation regarding the allegations

The Mountain West recently boasted its total of 53 former football players from member schools that are part of NFL opening week rosters for 2024. That’s rather conveniently the exact number of players for an NFL roster. And it brings up the inevitable question of what would an NFL team comprised of only the active former Mountain West players look like? Well, technically, the answer to that is it would kind of suck. Mainly because of a lack of balance, unless you think having four punters and two long-snappers but only two defensive tackles and one center is good. But we’re going to have fun with this anyway. The magic of the perfect 53 is ruined slightly by the fact that at least one of the players sort of/maybe doesn’t count for what is considered a former Mountain West player, and it also brings up a bit of a key point in how things are getting counted. NFL roster pages and most websites that track players by college go by the last one attended. So when the Mountain West list of players includes Daiyan Henley, it’s a little awkward since he spent his final year of college at Washington State. Since

Utah State was in the same stadium and on the same field as USC late Saturday evening. But for all intents and purposes, the Aggies and Trojans were not playing the same game. USU was simply not up to the task of competing with the now No. 11 team in the country according to the AP Top 25 Poll. The Aggies’ offense had two drives that even entered USC territory (one of the pair being in garbage time) and the defense didn’t force a punt until the Trojans had long since pulled their starters off the field. It’s not encouraging then, that Utah State’s next opponent is the No. 12 team in the country, the University of Utah. Worse yet is that many of the same traits USC showed that caused significant problems — suffocating defense, great QB play, size in the trenches — are traits that largely define the Utes. The Aggies are going to welcome an opponent to Merlin Olsen Field that will be quite similar to the one that just routed them by 48 points and pitched a shutout. Probably the most concerning thing about the team is Dreiling’s insistence after the game that the Aggies’ offense