“It’s better than it’s ever been. It’s the best time ever to be a Utah State Aggie.” – Utah State football head coach Matt Wells
LOGAN — Matt Wells wasn’t at Utah State when the Olsen brothers were terrorizing opponents. Nor was he around to see Rick Parros, Rulon Jones, Eric Hipple or Hal Garner in their glory days. Sweet Louie Giammona might have been a pasta dish, as far as that goes.
Still, the USU coach couldn’t have imagined things becoming this good. A new press box is going up at Maverik Stadium. Season ticket sales just reached an all-time high. University president Stan Albrecht thinks Wells is the finest thing since chocolate.
And the football program is still rising, as the Aggies await their Sept. 3 opener.
“It’s better than it’s ever been,” Wells said. “It’s the best time ever to be a Utah State Aggie.”
It is strange to look back as the construction crews buzz around the stadium. Formerly Romney Stadium, the Aggie home was built in 1968. It included a press box that, at the time, was one sweet ride. It wasn’t the biggest, but it was functional, close to the field, and included a luxury most press boxes are missing even today: a storage slot beneath each table station. Originally the slots were for media guides, notebooks and stat sheets. In the electronic era, it became a dandy place to store laptops, leaving the space above for note taking and, of course, lunch.
Way ahead of their time, those Aggies.
The new press box will include seats for several dozen reporters, 20 loge boxes, 24 luxury suites, 700 club seats and a premium club area. That’s a far cry from 1993, when Wells first showed up in Logan. USU wasn’t so much a charmingly small program as a doomed one. But things actually spiked the year he got there. In his freshman season the Aggies won the Las Vegas Bowl, led by future CFL star Anthony Calvillo. It was USU’s first winning season in 13 years.
Small program or not, Wells — raised in Sallisaw, Oklahoma — was awed.
“To me, it was a step up, because I grew up in a town of 7,000 people,” he said. “So Logan was pretty metropolitan to me.”
Then there were the mountains.
“In Eastern Oklahoma they have hills that are named after things. But these are real mountains out here.”
And those are real ticket-buying fans.
Before the optimism goes too far, it should be noted that USU isn’t likely to attain power conference status anytime soon. Its fan base is small, its revenue sources limited. The naming deal only accounts for an average of $286,000 a season. That’s one-third what USU can make for a single road game against a power opponent.
At the same time, the Aggies’ profile is far better than when Wells played.
“It’s a big difference,” Wells said. “I think it’s a program that has taken steps to make ourselves relevant in Division I and the Mountain West Conference.”
When Wells played, the Aggies only hoped to be in the running in the Big West. Now as they await their opener against Southern Utah, there is a growing sentiment they could win the MWC and play in a New Year’s Six bowl. (USU is picked second in the preseason polls.)
“We had a good stretch of success in the mid-‘90s and winning our first bowl game (1993) and then playing in the Humanitarian Bowl (1997),” Wells said. “But there were some lean years, some tough times, for all of us as alumni. I’m just so happy to see the program where it is today.”
In their first 119 years, the Aggies were ranked 21 times; since 2012 they have been ranked six times. Before 2012, they defeated just six nationally ranked opponents. Since then, they have beaten three.
So it seems the Aggies are in as good a spot as Wells says. If Chuckie Keeton stays healthy and they can finally beat Boise State — something they haven’t done since 1997 — they could end up in a major bowl.
“Toughest schedule since I’ve been here,” Wells said.
Which means his team could draw some national attention, right?
“Yeah,” Wells tightly replied.
Maybe he didn’t want to get overconfident. Or maybe all this preseason attention is making him cautious. Big-town expectations can do that.
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