New faces, upsets and NCAA tourney invites — here are the 10 most compelling Utah State stories of 2023

Another year has come and gone and 2023 was as eventful as any other for Utah State athletics.

Conference titles were won, accompanied by postseason berths. There were fast starts and a few dismal ones, plus game-changing hires and historic victories.

Here are 10 of the most notable stories at Utah State in 2023.

Levi Williams to the rescue

Down both Cooper Legas and McCae Hillstead due to injury, Utah State football turned to third string quarterback Levi Williams for its regular season finale against New Mexico.

With a win, the Aggies would become bowl eligible for the third consecutive season and the 11th time in 13 seasons. With a loss, the 2023 season would be over and a Blake Anderson coached team would miss the postseason for the first time since the pandemic-marred 2020 season.

Williams proved more than up to the task.

In his first real game play of the season — outside of special teams contributions — Williams accounted for 351 yards of offense and five touchdowns in the Aggies’ 44-41 double overtime win against the Lobos.

Williams’ final touchdown was the game-winner, almost unbelievably so, too. After fumbling the snap, Williams picked up the ball, rolled to his left and ran into the end zone from 13 yards out to end the game.

“I don’t even know what to say about that,” Anderson said after the game. “Ball on the ground and the big guy out-runs everybody and finds a way to rumble into the end zone.”

Williams preferred to credit his teammates afterward, saying, “I’m so proud of our team. Without them, those numbers (in reference to his career-outing) don’t mean anything. I play for them. I’d run through a wall for those guys.”

Williams, notably, is ending his college football career early in an attempt to become a Navy SEAL.

“I just want to be in a spot where I can protect this great country where we get to play football with the freedom to do that,” he said. “I think this is the best country in the world. So I’d like to keep it that way and protect it as long as I can. ... The timeline with training and stuff, it just kind of works out perfectly to get in this year. My mom was Army. My grandparents were Navy and Army. So it kind of runs in the family.”

Down go the top-ranked Cougars

It was early in the season, nine games in, in fact, and Utah State’s soccer team was off to a slow start with a 2-5-1 record and losses to Saint Louis, Utah, Texas Tech, Arizona State and Arizona.

Up next was a meeting with the BYU Cougars, who at the time were a perfect 10-0 and boasted the No. 1 ranking in the sport.

All signs pointed to another loss for the Aggies, even though they were hosting the Cougars.

Only that isn’t what happened.

In front of a record-setting crowd of 2,013 at Chuck and Gloria Bell field, USU soccer pulled off the most significant win in program history and arguably the biggest upset ever for Utah State athletics.

A goal in the 51st minute by freshman midfielder Summer Diamond, coupled with six saves by keeper Diera Walton, gave USU 1-0 victory over BYU, the highest-ranked win in team history and just the second win over a No. 1 ranked team for any program in Utah State history.

“What can I say? I’m proud of the girls, proud of the staff,” Utah State head coach Manny Martins said following the win. “It’s a collective effort. I’m proud of Diera (Walton) for getting another shutout and for us winning with another freshman scoring like we did two years ago. They’re an incredible team.

“For us, it’s an honor to be able to measure up to them and to be able to come out with such a positive score. It’s exciting and I’m proud, but I’m also humbled by it. We want to win championships, we want to get to the highest level and we want to be able to compete with teams like this on a regular basis, and today we did.”

USU soccer wins its first ever Mountain West title

The Aggies parlayed the upset over the Cougars into one of the more remarkable in-season turnarounds.

After starting the season 2-5-1, USU rallied to finish with the regular season with a 12-7-1 record.

That was good enough for the Aggies to secure the No. 2 seed in the MWC tournament, and USU made good work of that position.

First, the Aggies defeated No. 3 seed Boise State Broncos 1-0 in overtime in the semifinals of the tourney.

Said Martins: “This is the stuff that we dream of, ever since I got here three years ago. We’re not a team that sets outcome goals, we set performance goals and process goals, but the dream is to get to this place. So we couldn’t be more excited.”

Then, in their first ever appearance in the MWC title game, the Aggies defeated the Colorado State Rams 1-0 to win the program’s first ever MW title.

The victory over the Rams secured Utah State only its third-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.

The Aggies’ season came to an end there, with a rematch against the rival Cougars in the opening round, but it was nonetheless one of the best seasons in USU soccer history.

Danny Sprinkle hired

For all the successes of many different Aggie programs of late, all anyone has to do is attend a men’s basketball game at Dee Glen Smith Spectrum to understand that USU is still very much a basketball school.

And after Ryan Odom elected to take the head coaching job at VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) after leading the Aggies back to the NCAA Tournament, the Aggies needed to find a new head coach.

Enter Danny Sprinkle.

In early April, Sprinkle was named the 21st head coach of Utah State basketball, following a successful four-year run as the head coach at Montana State, his alma mater. And successful doesn’t do Sprinkle justice.

He led the Bobcats to back-to-back Big Sky Championships and three-straight conference championship game appearances, a first in school history, plus consecutive 25-win seasons for the first time since 1927-29.

“We are thrilled to announce Danny Sprinkle as Utah State’s new men’s basketball head coach,” then interim athletic director Jerry Bovee said at the time of Sprinkle’s hire. “Danny checked all the boxes we were looking for as he is driven, energetic and motivated. He is also an excellent coach and proven recruiter.

“His skill set aligns perfectly with our mission of developing outstanding student-athletes on and off the basketball court, competing for conference championships and advancing to postseason play.”

A completely remade team, same results

Sprinkle inherited something of a mess when he took over the Aggies, as every contributing player from the 2022-23 NCAA tourney team transferred out.

Literally every single one.

Sprinkle wasted little time with the rebuild, though, bringing in transfers from Montana State, USC, Maryland, Coastal Carolina, Idaho, Southern Nazarene and well you get the picture.

Throw in returners like Issac Johnson and Mason Falslev, who redshirted last season, and Sprinkle quickly put together a roster that media voted the 10th best in the Mountain West Conference in the men’s basketball preseason poll.

A month and a half into the season, those projections seem woefully ignorant now, as Utah State is 11-1 overall and ranked No. 29 in NET and No. 57 overall by KenPom.

As of Dec. 18, the Aggies boast a 3-1 record against Quad 2 opponents, a 4-0 record against Quad 3 opponents and a 2-0 record against Quad 4 opponents, all with a team that hadn’t played basketball together at any point before this season.

Forward/wings Great Osobor, Ian Martinez and Max Agbonkpolo, plus guards Nigel Burris and Darius Brown II have proven to be key contributors acquired through the transfer portal and with one more game before the start of Mountain West Conference play, the Aggies are one of four MW teams with only one loss.

Diana Sabau hired

Arguably the biggest story for Utah State athletics in 2023 was the abrupt mid-football season departure of former athletic director John Hartwell, who resigned while citing a need to be closer to family.

It took awhile, but Utah State found Hartwell’s successor in Diana Sabau.

Introduced on Aug. 7, more than eight months after Hartwell’s departure, the former Big Ten deputy commissioner came aboard at a critical time considering the conference realignment that eventually dismantled the Pac-12 Conference, sending teams to the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC (with Oregon State and Washington State left behind).

USU president Elizabeth Cantwell said, though, that Sabau was hired because she was the right leader for Aggie athletics during such an uncertain and changing time.

“(The search committee) carefully considered all candidates,” Cantwell said. “They looked at experience, track record, appreciation for who we are at USU and what we are as a community and in particular what it is going to take to elevate USU athletics into the next realm.

“... In my mind, she (Sabau) is the leader for this moment. There are many challenges that await her and await us. All you have to do is look at what is happening in conference realignment to know that we are at a very historic moment. It is not just us, it is everyone. She has the skills, she has the experience.”

Volleyball team has become NCAA Tournament regulars

Of all the program’s at Utah State, none has been more consistently successful as of late than the women’s volleyball team.

That continued in 2023 as the Aggies won their third consecutive Mountain West championship, this time outright winning the title in the regular season, after sharing the title in 2022 and winning the conference tourney crown in 2021.

All of those titles have come under head coach Rob Neilson and mark the most successful run for the Aggies since the late ’70s and early ’80s, when the program won five consecutive titles in the Intermountain Athletic Conference from 1977 through 1981.

Utah State has now won 20-plus games for three straight seasons, again the best run since the late’70s and early ’80s, and the 24 wins tallied in 2023 were tied for the seventh-most in a season in school history.

The No. 1 seed in the MW conference tournament, Utah State advanced as far as the semifinals. The Aggies then earned their sixth ever berth in the NCAA tournament, their first at-large bid ever.

Seeded sixth, the Aggies’ season came to an end in the first round against Minnesota, though that didn’t stop accolades from rolling in as Neilson was named both the 2023 Mountain West Coach of the Year and the Pacific North Region Coach of the Year.

Football exodus

Throughout the winter and into the spring Utah State football experienced what can best be described as an exodus of players.

All told, 36 players transferred away from Utah State following the conclusion of the 2022 college football season, meaning the Aggies were down 40-plus player in total with others exhausting any remaining eligibility or retiring from the sport altogether.

A good chunk of the out-going players transferred to Power Five programs, including many of the Aggies’ defensive line starters.

USU also lost a significant number of coaches, including both its offensive and defensive coordinators.

All of it left the football program reeling a bit, and though the team countered by adding 40-plus new players, many from the junior college ranks, the effects of so many losses were felt.

Anderson noted multiple times during the season that this year was more like Year 1 of a rebuild than Year 3 of an established program, given all the roster upheaval. And the Aggies looked to be in a rebuild early in the season, starting the year 1-3 overall with the lone win coming over an FCS opponent.

Slowly, though, Utah State came together enough to win six games and become bowl eligible and the team appears to be on a good trajectory after retaining several key players in December, plus adding six key additions from the Power Five ranks through Dec. 18, many of whom are former Utah high school football prep standouts returned home.

Battle of the Brothers is back

On Dec. 14, Utah and Utah State announced that their football series — dormant since 2015 — was being renewed with three scheduled games, the first in 2024.

One of the oldest rivalries between state universities in all of college football, played 112 times in total, the return of the Battle of the Brothers was championed as a major positive.

“It is tremendous for our football program to host the University of Utah this fall,” Sabau said in a statement. “Aggie Nation has certainly stressed the importance of in-state matchups in my short time at USU. Thank you to Utah athletic director Mark Harlan and his staff for making football in the state of Utah important for our fans.”

USU will host the first contest while the Utes will then host the later two, the first in 2026 and second in 2031.

While Utah has won 14 of the previous 15 matchups, the last time the rivals played in Logan it was the Aggies who walked away victorious, a 2012 upset that is still talked about today.

The return of the rivalry comes at a time when the status Aggies’ series with BYU is unknown, paused with the Cougars’ move to the Big 12, and rivalries against Colorado State and Wyoming are not guaranteed on a yearly basis, due to Mountain West Conference scheduling after the league eliminated divisions.

Dancing again

It feels like ages ago now, but Utah State men’s basketball made its return to the NCAA Tournament in March, the Aggies’ first appearance under Odom and the first since the 2020-21 season.

Utah State won 26 games in total, the best record by the Aggies since the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season and as a No. 3 seed advanced to the MWC tournament championship game, before losing to eventual national runner-up San Diego State 62-57.

All of it led to the Aggies being awarded the No. 10 seed in the Big Dance, the only in-state team to make it to the tourney in 2023, with a matchup against No. 7 Missouri.

USU was viewed as a trendy upset pick, due in part to a standout season from point guard Steven Ashworth — now at Creighton — but the Aggies struggled with the Tigers and were eliminated with a 76-65 loss.

The defeat marked USU’s third consecutive first round elimination, going back to two tournament appearances under now Utah head coach Craig Smith.

“When you finally fight all the way back, and you take the lead, then all of a sudden that kind of takes the life out of you (when you give it up),” Odom told the Deseret News following the loss. “It is unfortunate, but I’ll tell you what I told the guys after the game: There’s only one team that’s going to finish with a win in this and going to have tremendous joy.”