USU football players harassed instructor at sexual misconduct training, per DOJ
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Blake Anderson, former head coach for USU, at an October 2023 game in Logan. Photo: Chris Gardner/Getty Images
Utah State University's embattled football team deployed "offensive sex-based commentary" as they "collectively jeered, snickered, laughed, and repeatedly interrupted" a woman who was leading a sexual misconduct prevention session, according to a newly-released federal investigation.
The big picture: In a notice revealed this week, the U.S. Department of Justice found USU to be noncompliant with the reforms university administrators promised after a 2020 investigation found the school had repeatedly mishandled sexual assault reports.
- Several players have been charged with sex offenses since then.
- The notice confirms the findings that led USU to fire its head football coach Blake Anderson and others in the athletic department this summer.
Driving the news: The DOJ review follows an outside investigation USU commissioned more than a year ago after learning of "irregularities" in the football program. The DOJ found that:
- In 2023, Anderson and the former athletic director conducted their own investigation into a player's arrest on domestic violence allegations before alerting the school's Title IX office, where employees are required under federal law to report sexual misconduct and violence.
- Later that year, a misconduct prevention trainer reported that football players disrupted her session with crude and sexist remarks — with minimal objection from the staff.
What they said: During a discussion on consent at the training, one football player yelled, "When in doubt pull it out," the DOJ report states.
- When the trainer explained that a partner who is coerced or incapacitated cannot consent, a player said, "So we should all just be celibate. No sex for any of us during the season."
- When asked about healthy ways to deal with breakups, a player yelled, "I just go and have sex with more women. Like so many. That is how I get over it."
Inside the room: A USU staffer at the training "failed to set expectations with the student athletes in real time, only offering up remarks like 'Let's just get through this,' or 'Let her move on,'" the DOJ notice states.
- "When the trainer asked the [staffer] how he felt the training went, he responded, 'About how I expected. These guys are just like that.'"
Zoom out: The DOJ repeatedly accuses USU of allowing football players to believe rules forbidding violence and misconduct against women "did not apply to them."
Case in point: The coaching staff didn't suspend the player charged with domestic violence while investigating the allegation, which nearly allowed him to enter the transfer portal without an alert of the unresolved case, per the DOJ.
- At the time, athletic staffers said suspension was the norm for students accused of sexual violence or felonies, but this case wasn't "cut and dried." They said they wanted to "determine if the football player was somehow being 'targeted' before taking any further action."
- Caveat: Since the arrest in spring 2023, the NCAA has backed away from requiring transfer notification in unresolved cases, and federal rules now generally forbid suspensions over pending allegations.
The bottom line: USU's response to misconduct and violence allegations "left a team of football players with the sense that they were special, subject to a different, more favorable set of rules," DOJ investigators wrote.
The other side: "There is much to celebrate about the proud tradition of USU football and the talent and resilience of our student-athletes," school administrators wrote in their response to the DOJ before acknowledging that "culture and climate issues have persisted."
The latest: USU has updated its staff training materials and says it will improve messaging to players that misconduct will not be tolerated, per the school's letter to the DOJ.
What's next: The university is hiring "outside counsel" to create a "protocol" to address the football team's culture, the letter states.
Catch up quick: Nearly three years ago, Anderson was heard on a recorded team meeting, telling players it "has never been more glamorized to be a victim" of sexual assault.
- The recording led to the resignation of the university police chief Earl Morris, who told players at the meeting to be careful with having sex with Latter-day Saint women, because they may regret it and say it was nonconsensual.
Flashback: Before that, USU and law enforcement in Cache County came under fire for failing to file charges against football player Torrey Green after multiple women accused him of assault.
- Prosecutors reexamined their cases after The Salt Lake Tribune published an investigative report about their claims. Green was convicted of assaulting six women, though prosecutors said 19 women came forward with similar allegations.