LOGAN, Utah – Utah State Vice President and Director of Athletics John Hartwell held a teleconference with the media on Friday to discuss Matt Wells' departure to Texas Tech and the plans for hiring the Aggies' next head football coach. A complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.
 
Vice President/Director of Athletics John Hartwell
Opening statement:
"It's been a busy last 36 hours and you never know how many new best friends you have and how many channels people reach out to you, until you have a head coaching job available. I want to thank Matt, first and foremost, for what he and his family have meant to Utah State football, throughout the athletic department, for the university and for Cache Valley. It has been nothing but class and doing things the right way, and we certainly appreciate his contributions here and the level he has elevated our program to.
 
"With that being said, Utah State football is bigger than any one person. When Matt made the decision to move onto Texas Tech, we immediately began the process of finding the right coach to be his successor. We had a 10-2 regular season, which included a very close and a hard-fought game last Saturday night in Boise that would've given us the opportunity to play in the Mountain West Championship game, but that did not quite materialize for us. This team has a lot of talent on it and was built not for a one-year or one-hit wonder, but for the success over a period of time. I think that's one of the things that makes this job so attractive.
 
"When you look at returning personnel from a student-athlete perspective, the mixture of our facilities, how we've been able to increase our coaching salaries, both in the head coach position and with the assistant coaches, and with the support and the strength of our university, the ability to live in Cache Valley and the quality of life here, we think all those things are ingredients that make this a highly desirable job. Even 36 hours ago when speculation about Matt being interested in and accepting this job, people started leaking out some names. Over that last 36-hour period, the number of people, coaches who have either directly reached out to me or through their agents, or through other channels, the interest has been tremendous so far from all aspects. Whether it is current college football coaches, coordinators, assistant coaches, guys in the NFL and former coaches, there is a lot of interest in our position.
 
"The here and now is with our current team and the transition with them, making sure that they get what they need through a preparation standpoint to be ready for the bowl game, which we still don't know where that will be. We'll get some clarity on that through tomorrow night and early Sunday morning, and we'll know Sunday what our destination is. 
We had a team meeting last night at 7, which Matt addressed the team. We also let them know that Frank Maile will be our interim coach. He will be in charge through the bowl game. He'll be the bridge through our program right now, from a recruiting standpoint, from an operations standpoint and for bowl preparation, as well, and from an overview perspective of the search process. I recognize their anxiety because when I was a student-athlete many moons ago, I went through a coaching change between my sophomore and junior year. It hits you like a ton of bricks, especially if it's maybe a little unexpected. The anxiety with who is going to be the next guy in, why is this guy leaving me, I feel a sense of abandonment. I assured them that I totally understand their feelings of anxiety and uncertainty, but reassured them that we are going to act as expeditiously and efficiently in the search process, not sacrificing the quality for time or the process.
 
"We want to make sure we get the very best candidate to come in an continue to elevate the levels of success of Utah State football much in the same way we did in the basketball search. I encouraged those guys to reach out to guys like Dwayne Brown Jr. or Sam Merrill, and talk to them about how I included student-athletes somewhat in our selection process and talking about qualities and characteristics they wanted in their next coach. Getting input from a variety of constituents is really important in the process. We are going to utilize an outside search firm to help us in an efficient and timely manner through some of these candidates. DHR International and Glenn Sugiyama is the firm that we are using. We utilized the same firm when we hired Craig Smith and we're really pleased with their professionalism and the confidentiality."
 
On when it became aware that Matt Wells was leaving:
"There was an inclination mid-week. Kirby Hocutt, the athletic director at Texas Tech, I've known Kirby and we have a lot of mutual respect for each other. He was very upfront and he called me on Tuesday morning to say they would like the opportunity to visit with Matt. I respected and appreciated his being upfront with that. I got a call later that day from Craig Thompson, our Mountain West commissioner, and Craig said Kirby had reached out to him, as well. Not being under a rock, there had been some overtures in the last couple of weeks that Matt may become a candidate for several of the jobs that were opened. Trying to be proactive, we put a few of those wheels in motion trying to get ready for this, not knowing anything definite until yesterday afternoon when an actual contract was presented to Matt. By that time the firestorm kind of started in terms of people reaching out to me and talking about this. It was finalized yesterday afternoon."
 
On hiring a coach quickly for the recruiting process:
"It is really important and we've already begun that process. With the naming of Frank (Maile) as our interim head coach, Frank has been in contact with those young men, both the commits to our program and to those that are considering our program. When necessary, as I told Frank, if there is hesitation or doubt, whether on the part of the young men or parents, I will be happy to visit with them. The message is we are going to go through this process, continuity is important and we want to make sure we go through the process as quickly as possible and that we get the person who we think will be successful to lead Utah State football into the future. You often hear recruiting is the life-line of any program. If you look at these last couple of classes, they've been really important and have developed."
 
On if Matt will be a part of the bowl game and the preparation leading up to the game:
"We're still working through this. The communication between Matt, his agent and myself has been really good. I've known Matt's agent longer than I've known Matt and I can't say enough about those guys being up front and professional in the whole process. This is not Matt Wells leaving ABC program, where he doesn't have a vested interest. He Has been the head coach for six years, he was on staff before that and was here for five years as a player. After the team meeting last night, Matt took the time to visit with each player individually. His wife and three kids were there, as well. People say this is a business, and if you could've seen the emotion from our student-athletes, to Matt, to his family last night, if that doesn't choke you up a little bit I'm not sure you have a pulse. He will be gone as our head coach, but he and Frank met this morning and Matt is going to be heavily involved in the practice planning and game plan. He won't be calling the plays, but Matt asked me to allow him to be in the sideline as an Aggie alum and former football player, and allow his family to be in the stands. I told him I wouldn't have it any other way. We're still working on the coordinators. Both Keith Patterson and David Yost are amongst the group that Matt wants to take with him. We are working through what their involvement will be. We want them involved as much as possible in the bowl preparation. The earliest possible bowl game we can play is on Dec. 15. Even before any of this had started, we weren't really going to practice – we were going to do some conditioning – but not practice until next Thursday or Friday. We're still working through the logistics of exactly who will manage what from a bowl preparation standpoint. We will be prepared to play and the unity of those hundred-plus players, we had a team meeting last night after Matt had left the room and the have tremendous senior leadership. They're totally unified and I had met with a couple of the senior leaders of the team individually and those guys, I have no doubt, will all play for each other. The Aggies will go out and be ready to win their 11th game."
 
On other coaches Matt will take with him besides David Yost, Keith Patterson and Dave Scholz:
"We've talked about it and all of that is not nailed down. There are still some that they're talking about. At some point after the bowl game is over, I think Matt's intention is everybody on the offensive side of the ball for sure, with opportunities for most on the defensive side of the ball. Beyond Dave Scholz, maybe another strength and conditioning guy or two, as well as some of our quality control guys. His intention is to offer opportunities to most all of those guys. I'm in conversation with some of those guys, as well, about being the bridge. Frank has clearly committed to doing that and we're visiting with a couple of guys, as well."
 
On if there were discussions of keeping Matt Wells:
"We put together a package about three weeks ago for both Matt and his assistants that were significant raises across the board. Matt was very appreciative of that and that was even before this conversation came up because we knew it was in the realm of possibility. We wanted to be proactive when someone came up, or if Matt came to us and said David Yost has been offered the coordinators position at XYZ institution. We wanted to be proactive and put it out on the table what we felt was a very significant commitment. It was about a $500,000 of salary increases in total between Matt, the assistants and the strength staff. At the end of the day, we knew that was going to be significant as it relates to the Mountain West, knowing in the back of our mind that if one of these Power 5 opportunities came available, we were not going to be able to get in a bidding war, if you will, dollar for dollar."
 
On the importance of hiring a guy with Utah State or Beehive State ties:
"I'm not one of those guys that says you have to have been a previous coach or you have to have been a coordinator. In today's world of being a head football coach at the FBS level, you have to have some CEO skills because there are too many components involved in it, beyond the X's and O's of football recruiting that are required to be successful. The Utah connection is not an absolute prerequisite for the head coach, but it certainly has to somebody, just like with Craig Smith, that has to understand the culture and nature. We have had huge success with our Polynesian student-athletes, with our returned missionary kids and that will continue to be vital in the success of Utah State football. As we interview candidates, the significant part of those conversations are going to not only be about you as the potential CEO or head coach of Utah State football, but when you look at the entire staff, what does that look like? That's a really important drill as we go through this process."
 
On learning from previous head coach hiring processes that you will apply into hiring the next Utah State football coach:
"Credentials on paper are really important. Visiting with people who know those individuals is really important, whether it's for a marketing person, a sports medicine person, or a head coach. When someone submits a resume and they have five reference on there, nobody in their right mind is going to submit references that aren't just going to give them a glowing recommendation. I like to go behind the scenes and say if this individual worked at the University of Florida or at San Diego State, or any other institution, I'm not going to call people on their reference list. I'm going to talk to people behind the scenes and people who in my 20-plus years in this industry that I have gotten to know and trust their opinions, and go to their director and ask them to give me the scoop on these guys. The other component of that is if you really want to know the culture within a football program or how a coach is when the camera is not on, talk to the trainers, talk to the equipment room people, because those are the people who see him behind the scenes.
 
"I'm a firm believer of you have to look at their credentials and what they do on paper, but you have to dig deeper than that. Just like with Craig (Smith), we hit a home run, and I'm not talking about him being 6-1 and getting off to a really good start, I'm talking about from a fit in Cache Valley. There are people who are tremendous coaches, whether it's football, basketball or any other sport that I don't think would be a good fit. We interviewed some of those in basketball and they are tremendous coaches, but I don't think they would be a fit in Cache Valley. That's extremely important for this position, as well. At the end of the day, it has to be about fit. You have to trust your gut and I've been in this business and have been around enough different people. Being in Cache Valley for three-and-a-half years now, I get a really good sense of what works here. That one-on-one meeting, you have to trust your gut. Within 15 minutes of our meeting with Craig Smith, I knew that he was the guy."
 
On Utah State's schedule in the next few days:
"From a day-to-day operations standpoint, Frank Maile will be the point person. They have conditioning, weights and all of those things going on. They are coming down to the last few days of class and going to exams. Frank will keep the pulse on that and we'll know Sunday afternoon at the latest what our bowl destination is. I'm still hopeful and there's a decent scenario where we could still end up in Las Vegas playing a Pac-12 school on Dec. 15, and that would be tremendous for a bunch of reasons.
 
"As soon as I get off of this call, I'm headed south to Salt Lake City and I'm going to visit with Glenn Sugiyama, our search firm guy, and we'll map out our plan. I previously intended and will keep the schedule to some extent to fly out Sunday for the National Football Foundation at their annual event in New York, where you have the who's who of college football with a lot of coaches there. The great thing about being in this business for a long time is having relationships with guys like David Cutcliffe, who I spent some time with at Ole Miss and remains a trusted advisor, as well as Archie Manning. I'm going to get some input from a lot of people on this. The intention is certainly inside the next week to have had the first round of interviews and for those who make their way through that process, the second round of interviews. I would hope for us within 10 days to two weeks at the max, to have that person on board, if not before then.
 
"It's really important to eliminate the uncertainty of who will lead our program going forward as soon as possible and not to lose sight at all of our early-signing day. With the Dec. 19 signing date, the sooner we can get somebody on board and the staff on board to lock in those current commitments. Depending on who we bring in, that person and his staff may have individual relationships with kids who may not have been on our radar screen from a recruiting standpoint, and all of a sudden they become Aggies come Dec. 19."