LOGAN – Utah State could end up following in the footsteps of other college football programs that are heavily considering not holding public spring football scrimmages. Fears are that other schools are essentially spying on spring scrimmages and then poaching players they scout during the public showcase by incentivizing them to enter the transfer portal and join their program through pay-for-play NIL deals. It’s a practice that is theoretically against the rules, but nothing has stopped anyone from doing it. “There are rules that are supposed to be governing tampering, but they’re not enforced,” Utah State football coach Bronco Mendenhall said during his national signing day press conference on Wednesday. “They’re not enforced effectively and they’re having very little impact on the decisions made. So tampering is widespread and it is occurring. And so am I concerned about having an open scrimmage for opponents to show up or the national landscape to send personnel here to watch that and then simply buy our players? Certainly.” The possibility of losing players as a result of putting them on display for poachers to scout is putting spring football showcases at risk of becoming an endangered species. Last Saturday, Nebraska head coach Matt

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez issued a statement Wednesday reiterating the conference’s commitment to remaining viable when five members leave for a rebuilt Pac-12 next year. “A good deal of speculation has recently been offered by various media outlets regarding the current and future status of the Mountain West, and other collegiate athletic conferences,” Nevarez said. “While I cannot and will not comment on other leagues, I can share some facts about the Mountain West.” Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Wyoming and Hawaii have executed a grant of rights agreement that binds the schools together through the conference via television rights from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2032. Those seven schools also are “successfully executing a future membership strategy” that will ensure the stability of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026, and beyond, Nevarez said, and pursuing a media rights agreement that would begin July 1, 2026. Hawaii will become a member in all sports starting in 2026-27 after having been a football-only member. Also in 2026, UTEP joins as a full member and Northern Illinois as a football-only member. UC Davis and Grand Canyon are joining in some

LOGAN — Former Deputy Athletic Director Jerry Bovee recently filed a lawsuit against Utah State University for violating state law and its own university policy when it terminated him in July of 2024. This is the second former athletic department employee to file a civil lawsuit against the university in about a month. Bovee filed the lawsuit on Dec. 27 in First District Court, claiming damages of more than $300,000 and asking for a jury trial. From August to December 2023, Bovee alleges his direct supervisor, USU Athletic Director Diana Sabau, removed a number of job duties and undermined him which led him to believe “she was trying to minimize his role and move him out of his position,” according to the suit. Bovee complained to Human Resources about his supervisor, Sabau, multiple times between December 2023 to July 2024. In one alleged instance, Sabau yelled at former Senior Woman Administrator Amy Crosbie and Bovee for hiring an assistant coach without asking for her approval, according to the complaint. “Sabau’s conduct during this meeting was so abusive that Crosbie began to cry, which Sabau mocked,” the lawsuit states. Later, Sabau threatened, ”there will be an investigation” and that “changes were

Former Utah State football interim head coach Nate Dreiling is expected to take on the defensive coordinator role at Arkansas State, per a report from ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Dreiling served as interim coach following the firing of Blake Anderson in July 2024 and held the position until USU hired Bronco Mendenhall last month. Coincidently enough, Dreiling’s landing spot is the same place Anderson was head coach at prior to coming to Utah State. Dreiling had been hired to be the defensive coordinator of the Aggies in January 2024. Prior to coming to USU, he was the defensive coordinator at New Mexico State and Pittsburgh State. With his hiring, the trio of top former coaches for USU prior to 2024 — head coach Blake Anderson, offensive coordinator Kyle Cefalo and defensive coordinator Dreiling — have all found new landing spots. Anderson will be the offensive coordinator at Southern Miss with Cefalo being the wide receivers coach at California. Source link

Tyler Shough, who rebounded from three straight injury-shortened seasons to throw for more than 3,000 yards in his only year at Louisville, was one of three winners of college football’s Comeback Player of the Year Award announced Tuesday. South Carolina’s Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, who returned from devastating knee and shoulder surgeries to rank among the Southeastern Conference’s top running backs, and Utah State’s Ike Larsen, who overcame a mental health crisis to become one of the top safeties in the Mountain West, were the other comeback players of the year. The Comeback Player of the Year Award is voted on by Associated Press Top 25 voters and sports information directors from around the country. The players will honored at the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31 in Glendale, Arizona. Shough was a seventh-year player this season who began his college career at Oregon and helped lead the Ducks to the 2020 Pac-12 championship before he transferred to Texas Tech. A broken collarbone ended his 2021 season after four games, a shoulder injury in the 2022 opener kept him out of six games. A broken left fibula ended his 2023 season after four games. He transferred to Louisville in the offseason, started