Utah State boosters say they’ll withhold donations after football coach, administrators fired

Diana Sabau placed her hands on her hips and gazed at a painting mounted in Utah State’s downtown Salt Lake City office.

The Aggies’ athletic director paused momentarily on the tricolored bands of red, white and blue before studying the mountains in the illustration of Utah’s state flag. Finally, Sabau gathered her thoughts and posed a question to two reporters in the room with her.

“What do you guys think of this picture?” Sabau asked, curiously pointing her finger in the direction of the piece.

The trio shared varying opinions before arriving at the centerpiece of the flag’s design, the outline of a golden hive, the symbol of the “Beehive State.”

“I don’t know how I feel about the beehive,” Sabau said, adding that it looked like a road sign. “You have to remember I’m new here, so I try to pay attention to that kind of stuff.”

Sabau moved to Logan and took over Utah State’s athletics department less than a year ago. But already she has waded through a tidal wave of tough decisions — including firing the school’s head football coach just before the season’s start — which have created tensions within the tightly-knit Logan community and some of the university’s donors.

Tom Grimmett, an 81-year-old Utah State alum and donor based in northern Utah, has given about $500,000 to the athletic department overall, with a $25,000 annual allocation. He said he would not be donating to the university anymore due to his lack of comfort surrounding Sabau’s leadership.

“I’m not going to do that again until I feel more comfortable with who’s in charge up there,” Grimmett told The Salt Lake Tribune. “I think ultimately it’s going to damage the reputation of the university, and it’ll take a long time for it to work itself through it.”

The frustrations within the USU community stem from Sabau’s July 3 terminations of employees for violating the school’s Title IX reporting policies. Sabau fired head coach Blake Anderson, director of player personnel and community engagement Austin Albrecht and associate athletic director Jerry Bovee, a beloved Aggie alum who left the program to become Weber State‘s athletic director for 10 years before rejoining USU in 2019.

On July 8, Sabau took another step by firing former volleyball player and longtime associate athletic director Amy Crosbie for unspecified reasons.

The moves came after Kansas City-based law firm Husch Blackwell conducted a 12-month investigation centered on a former Utah State football player’s domestic violence case in April 2023.

After finding out about the allegations, according to the report, Anderson conducted his own investigation — talking to the player and his alleged victim, according to the investigation — instead of immediately reporting it to USU’s Equity Office, thereby violating the university’s Title IX reporting policies.

Anderson and Bovee have denied wrongdoing.

Some members of the Logan community have specifically been upset by the firings of Crosbie and Bovee, who had deep connections to the university.

Sabau, in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune over a week ago, stood by the findings of the investigation and the terminations of Bovee and Crosbie.

“Sometimes good people make bad mistakes,” Sabau said. “And it’s not popular, but you have to do what’s right. You have to do what’s right when no one’s watching. And you have to make decisions that are hard, and that are challenging.

“There was no agenda. But because of the conduct of the individuals involved, and because of the findings in this investigation, actions had to take place.”

Still, some members of the Logan community have swarmed to support the former athletic administrators.

Last week, more than 100 former and current student athletes wrote a letter to the Utah State Board of Trustees and Utah Board of Higher Education on behalf of the pair, calling for an independent investigation into their firings.

On the heels of Bovee and Crosbie’s terminations, the owners of Murdock Hyundai of Logan and Murdock Chevrolet of Woods Cross, ended an agreement with Utah State that provided courtesy vehicles to school head coaches.

“It’s their business and their decision,” Sabau said. “Yeah, it hurts our coaches because now we don’t have cars for them. … But, I’m hoping that over time maybe we’ll get them back involved, and maybe they’ll like the direction we’re going.”

A key part of that direction: Sabau said she is trying to fix the university’s long history of mishandling sexual misconduct and violence.

That history dates back to at least 2016 when former Utah State football player Torrey Green was charged with multiple counts of rape. In all 19 women came forward with allegations against Green, who was ultimately convicted of sexually assaulting six women.

More recently, USU’s troubled history includes a 2023 settlement involving former Utah State football player Patrick Maddox. Maddox filed a lawsuit against the school after he shared recordings of Anderson and ex-university police chief Earl Morris making derogatory comments about female victims of sexual assault. Maddox faced threatening comments from teammates and was forced to apologize by Anderson.

‘Clean this mess up and do it now’

Tom Grimmett, the donor who has halted giving to Utah State, said he became suspicious changes would be coming as soon as Sabau took over.

The donor said when he met the school’s new AD months ago, he told her that he suspected there would be pressure from a new administration to clean house and that he believed would end up firing Anderson and possibly others.

“I just wanted to make a comment to kind of tell her that what was going on was pretty transparent,” Grimmett said. “... She’s been given walking and marching orders, and she’s going to do it.”

Grimmett’s feelings are shared by other members of the community. Craig Hislop, a broadcaster for the Cache Valley Radio Group and a former sports information director at Utah State, has known Bovee for 30 years, dating back to when he was a student assistant in the ′90s. He’s also gotten to know Crosbie over the years.

“I can’t even fathom them, either one of them, doing anything so egregious that it warrants removing them from the department,” Hislop told The Tribune.

According to the independent investigation, Anderson approached Bovee about the player’s alleged domestic violence incident and the interim AD “agreed” with the former head coach that they should do a further investigation to see if the player was being targeted by the victim.

Bovee has denied wrongdoing and said he filed a report within 24 hours of learning about the allegations.

Since Sabau took the job 12 months ago, Hislop said an unnamed USU athletics employee texted him about Bovee’s ongoing friction with the new athletic director.

In an interview with KSL, Bovee confirmed there was tension with Sabau and submitted a grievance with the Utah State Human Resources Department on June 28 due to his internal friction with the first-year athletic director.

“I believe that that was the kind of atmosphere that these people were dealing with,” Hislop said.

“Everybody around here knows that USU isn’t proud of the way this culture of sexual violence has been handled. I’ll bet you, when President [Elizabeth] Cantwell came in, I’m sure the Board of Trustees or somebody made it clear to her that you gotta clean this mess up and do it now.”

Chris Seibert, another Utah State athletics donor, is supportive of Sabau and USU’s decision to reset the culture amid Anderson’s investigation despite the backlash she’s faced from other donors.

“I think there’s a lot of layers to this,” Seibert told The Salt Lake Tribune. “But ... I don’t think you can sweep this sort of thing under the rug.

“They made a really difficult decision to do it when they did. I want to give them credit there.”

Another donor, who asked to keep his contributions anonymous, said he was “disappointed” with the way Sabau handled the situation and is rethinking future donations to the athletic department.

He said he has donated $100,000 to a scholarship fund for track and field athletes and another $50,000 for general athletic funds in the past. He said he previously gave another $100,000 to the university for another six scholarships.

“I shy away from donating, because I’m not a rich person, but I’ve always believed in giving back,” the donor said. “I don’t see that continuing with the way it looks like they’re doing things now.”

Still, Sabau said she believes that most donors and fans have been supportive of the move to fire Anderson, Bovee, Albrecht and Crosbie.

Jim Laub, one of the school’s biggest donors and the man who funded $5 million of Utah State’s football facilities expansion, is supportive of the direction of USU’s athletic program.

“I feel very positive about the direction Utah State University is headed and particularly the athletic department,” Laub told The Tribune in a text message. “There are ongoing situations that the present administration inherited but under the direction of President Cantwell and our AD Diana Sabau, we have the right leadership in position to correct these issues.”

Sabau believes the donors who have withdrawn support represent only a small portion of the USU community.

“I really have not heard that a large population of donors are upset,” Sabau said. “I believe in the findings of this investigation, and I believe in the leadership of our institution.

“Sometimes leadership and change is hard for people.”

‘I want us to learn from our mistakes’

Sabau paused for a few seconds, reflecting on the past year and the investigation she’s watched unfold.

Under Anderson, Utah State went 23-17 over three seasons, winning the Mountain West Championship in 2021 and reaching three bowl games. The Aggies are also amidst a $125 million donation campaign and plan to have a full commitment to revenue-sharing in the 2025 fiscal year.

Sabau and Cantwell will need every donation they can get at Utah State, which brought in $51 million in athletic revenue in 2023, amid the ever-growing changes occurring to conference realignment.

Under the proposed revenue sharing rules, payment for players is expected to take up 22% of almost every athletic department’s budget in the coming seasons, as three antitrust cases are being settled. The Mountain West is also in a precarious position, as it looks to court Oregon State and Washington State into a merger with the Pac-12.

The timing of the firings brings a lot of questions to the table, particularly in the case of Utah State’s funding campaign. But Sabau said she wasn’t informed of the investigation into Anderson and others until her first day on the job.

“I haven’t really actually thought about that,” Sabau said in response to being asked if she would’ve rethought her choice to take the Utah State job if made aware of the investigation beforehand.

“I don’t want to look back, I want to move forward. … Without that fan support, that community support, it’s harder to grow. It’s harder to be really good at your sport. So, I want us to keep moving forward. I want us to learn from our mistakes.”

Seibert, the donor, knows that Utah State needs to continue to remain relevant in football as the competitive gap widens.

With select donors backing out of funding the program the Aggies might be in a tough position to compete as it begins a cultural rebuild. Since Anderson’s firing, the Aggies have promoted Nate Dreiling as interim head coach this season, and only one player has entered the transfer portal.

“This is a tough decision to make at this point in the season,” Seibert said. “I am sad for Utah State because this is a university that deserves better recognition. It’s not as big as the University of Utah in terms of donor support.

“This may sound like a strange word to use, but I give the president and (Sabau) some (credit for their courage) here. Because they had to know this would be unpopular. They had to know this would sting, coming this close before a season starts. "

Sabau said there was no other outcome.

“It’s terrible timing for our young men, for the community and for the coaching staff,” she said. “There is no athletic director in the country that wants to terminate a football coach in July.”

But Sabau’s roadmap into the future now includes plans for fundraising and improved plans for handling Title IX, sexual misconduct and domestic violence cases in the future.

Whether that’s setting up additional Title IX signage in athletic offices or requiring more training, she said she’s determined to find the right formula for success. The findings of the Husch-Blackwell investigation described Anderson’s disregard for his previous Title IX training as “troubling.”

Former Utah State vice president for advancement and current history professor Ross Peterson thinks the firings could have consequences for the Aggies’ fundraising efforts.

“To come on the heels within a month of the $125 million announcement, I think totally puts that in jeopardy,” said Peterson, who has known Bovee since he was in high school. “I just think that they’d have to suspend it until everything is clarified.

“The timing on this one is going to be really difficult to address due to the personnel involved.”

It’s clear Sabau has a tough road ahead, especially as an outsider entering her second year on the job.

If Utah State has a losing season under Dreiling and can’t obtain considerable funding for its $125 million campaign, the future success of the athletic department could be in jeopardy.

“I don’t think Utah State now has a chance of rising above mediocrity for a good long time,” Grimmett said. “It may take so long that I might not be alive anymore.”

A path forward

Farrukh Malik works behind the counter of The White Owl, a popular bar in Logan, dishing out beers and burgers to customers.

A Utah State alum, who once roomed with Aggie football player Bill Wilson, Malik said his work gives him a feel of the community’s pulse. He often interacts with Utah State football staff members who frequent the bar following games in the fall.

“I think she literally overlooked the community’s ties,” Malik said on a recent afternoon, while filling up a beer and handing it to a customer. “It’s not just a program up there. It’s all the alumni who live below that hill and how strongly they feel about their athletic programs. And, the people who run the program have very, very strong ties in Logan.”

Malik, though, still sees a path forward. In his eyes, Logan is built on empathy, trust and togetherness. In time, he thinks Sabau can win over her doubters, especialy if she successfully rebuilds USU’s values from the inside out.

That same hope exists for Sabau.

The athletic director wants to establish a winning program. She also needs to ensure Utah State is no longer shrouded by its history of sexual misconduct.

That starts, in her mind, with sustainable values, a respectable culture and accountability for everyone in the community — even if it means making an unpopular decision.

“No university deserves to be in this cycle,” she said. “It’s been a part of USU for far too long.”

Tribune reporter Kevin Reynolds contributed to this story.

Update: This story has been edited to reflect a change in how Craig Hislop said he first learned of the tensions in USU’s athletic department.

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