Since arriving in Logan in the summer of 2015, John Hartwell has been nothing if not successful as Utah State’s athletic director, culminating in him being named by Stadium Network as the 18th-best athletic director in the nation in 2020, not to mentioned the fourth-best non-Power 5 AD.
This past 2021-22 sports season, three Utah State team’s won conference championships, including football, women’s volleyball and women’s gymnastics. All three teams were led by coaches hired by Hartwell.
The Aggies’ success during Hartwell’s tenure at Utah State hasn’t gone unnoticed.
According to a report Friday night by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Hartwell is considered a possible candidate to replace former Auburn AD Allen Greene, who resigned as the Tigers’ AD earlier on Friday.
Other athletic director’s who reportedly could be candidates for the open Auburn job, per Thamel, include:
- UConn AD David Benedict
- Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock
- FIU AD Scott Carr
- Troy AD Brent Jones
- Georgia Southern AD Jared Benko
- Louisiana AD Bryan Maggard
“It is very early right now,” Thamel said. “Auburn is a notoriously dysfunctional place. ... My hunch is Auburn will go with someone with Auburn ties. Someone who understands the fraught political nature of that job.”
Thamel singled out Benedict, Bacock and Carr in particular, but Hartwell has extensive ties to the South.
Prior to his time at Utah State, Hartwell spent three years as the AD at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, and before that he spent nine years at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi.
Hartwell also went to school at The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina and is a native of Mobile, Alabama.
Auburn CEO Marcy Girton is expected to serve as the school’s interim athletic director while a permanent successor to Greene can be identified, per CBS Sports.