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LOGAN — In his seven years as athletic director at Utah State, Scott Barnes was known as a builder.
Barnes helped raise funds to bring multiple athletic and academic buildings to Utah State, including a massive corporate sponsorship and renovation for the new Maverik Stadium, before moving on to fill the athletic director vacancy at Pittsburgh.
Barnes’ replacement is another builder, according to multiple reports.
Former Troy athletic director John Hartwell has been tabbed to the same role with the Aggies, according to multiple media reports. Multiple attempts to contact Utah State and Hartwell were not returned, but reports say the school is planning to introduce the new athletic director at a press conference later this week.
A source within the Utah State athletic department confirmed the hire to the Deseret News on Monday afternoon.
In only two years at Troy, the 49-year-old Hartwell oversaw the construction of a $3 million softball complex; a six-hole, on-campus practice facility that helped the women’s golf team win the 2014 Sun Belt championship; and a $2.1 million upgrade to the Trojan football team’s Veterans Memorial Stadium that includes a 1,250-square-foot video board and a new sound system.
Hartwell’s tenure at Troy also saw the Trojans’ athletic department set a school record with a 3.0 average GPA, as well as significant improvements in the school’s NCAA-mandated academic progress rate.
On the scheduling side, Hartwell helped Troy negotiate home-and-home football contracts with several Atlantic Coast Conference schools such as Duke and North Carolina State, as well as road contests with Nebraska and Wisconsin.
He worked for nine years at Ole Miss as a senior executive associate athletics director, and began his career as an assistant athletic director for business at Georgia State in 1997.
AL.com reported last year that Hartwell was linked to the athletic director opening at Georgia State, but he removed his name from consideration.
Hartwell graduated from The Citadel in 1987 and worked at Ernst & Young as a certified public accountant for four years before returning to his alma mater in 1991.
He and his wife Heather are the parents of three children.
