Aggies' A.D. search on schedule, boss says

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Logan • The search for a new athletic director at Utah State remains on schedule, according to university President Stan L. Albrecht.

The Aggies must replace Scott Barnes, who took the athletic director job at Pittsburgh in April. He leaves Utah State on July 1.

Albrecht says the improvement in the Aggie program in recent years under its past two athletic directors, Randy Spetman and Barnes, has raised the job's profile among candidates around the country.

"… We've been receiving lots of queries, lots of feedback and lots of names," Albrecht said in a statement through the school's sports information department. "At this point, we have a list that includes a number of highly qualified candidates, and now we're getting down to the serious business of vetting those names."

Three athletic directors at Big Sky Conference schools with strong ties to Utah are logical candidates for the job. The group includes Southern Utah's Ken Beazer, Weber State's Jerry Bovee and Montana's Kent Haslam.

Beazer has been the athletic director at Southern Utah since 2006. He worked as the director of athletic development at Utah State for four years. A Weber State graduate, Beazer spent six years as Snow College's athletic director.

Bovee became the athletic director at Weber State in 2009. He had been the assistant director of the Utah High School Activities Association and served as an assistant athletic director at Utah State (1992-95). Bovee, who was born in Ogden, is a USU graduate.

Haslam has been at Montana since 2009 — first as an assistant athletic director, and, for the past three years, as the athletic director. He worked previously at Northern Arizona and as the manager of media and communications for the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee. He was the media relations director for the Salt Lake Bees Triple-A baseball team from 1993 to 98. He is a BYU graduate.