Last week Utah State shocked many across the college football world by announcing a bold new helmet design. Instead of the usual all-white design interrupted only by the Utah State logo on either side, this new look would include splotches of blue that mimicked the spots typically found on dairy cows. Something to call back to USU’s roots as an agricultural school.
The helmets will be used for one game only, the season opener against Robert Morris. In a press release about the design, Utah State referred to the institution’s original name at its founding in 1888, the Agricultural College of Utah, and its many agricultural programs that have been integral to USU’s education programs since 1903. Many of the university’s most well-known features, such as the Aggie Creamery and Aggie Chocolate Factory come from its College of Agriculture. And being the 32nd-ranked agricultural school in the nation, according to Niche, is a point of pride for Utah State.
“The helmets provide us an opportunity to honor Utah State’s agricultural success,” said USU director of athletics Diana Sabau in the release, “and those who work to maintain its reputation as one of the leading agricultural schools in the nation.”
The funny part about the whole process is that’s not what the helmet design was originally intended for at all.
Back in March, the content creation and social media teams for USU athletics began tossing around an idea for the upcoming April Fool’s Day. The goal of these content teams is trying to find ways to engage with fans through, among other things, social media accounts. Usually these are videos or posts that drive positive interactions from fans. Except on April Fool’s Day the goals can be a little more mischievous, and Utah State’s team wasn’t alone in trying to have a bit of fun at the mild expense of its fans. Duke posted a supposed plan to use an all-blue turf field this upcoming season. The idea being to make fans temporarily outraged at what is clearly a ridiculous idea, only for them to then see the date on the calendar and realize it’s all a joke.
A bit of harmless fun.
Utah State aimed to do the same thing, only the content team’s idea was to release the “cow print” version of football team’s helmet as the primary design for 2024.
“As we sat down and talked through what we could do for a post to gain some engagement. That was one of the favorite ideas that came up,” said Bobby Nash, the associate athletics director for marketing and fan engagement in an interview with Cache Valley Daily. “It was very much to say let’s throw it up and see if we can get a few laughs and get a little bit of engagement and kind of move on.”
The process took relatively little effort. The photoshoot that included USU’s helmets, which were to be used in upcoming content anyway, had already been done. A quick 15 minutes in photoshop to throw on some cow spots and then hit send.
Embracing our Aggie roots! Introducing a new helmet design for 2024!🤘🐮 #AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/3r8ySwwBFZ
— USU Football (@USUFootball) April 1, 2024
And then a very unexpected thing happened — everyone liked it.
Fans weren’t confused by the fact it was an April Fool’s prank. Several pleaded in the replies saying “Please don’t be an April Fools” joke. Many of the top responses were along the lines of “this is actually pretty cool.” One reply from a former player, Quin Ficklin, said “I would buy a hoodie in this style. And I abhor paying for gear.”
A poll posted by USU Football’s account as a reply to the initial post with a simply yes/no question got an 89 percent response of “yes.”
“A lot of people were really excited about it. Started giving it some nicknames and breathing a little bit of life into something that they found a lot of pride in,” Nash said.
So what had previously been a short photoshop job to create some fun fan engagement then became a new project. Actually creating a cow-themed helmet and finding a way to use it this upcoming season. It took weeks to make it work since this time it wasn’t a job one person could quickly do in photoshop. Instead of just the content creation team it then involved the football equipment team, administrators and marketing to make the most of this now real design.
In the end, the most productive way to incorporate it all was to make it part of Utah State’s Ag Day and be the football team’s way of participating in the yearly celebration of USU’s agricultural heritage.
“We’re really excited about being able to have, you know, this element included into our Ag Day celebration,” Nash said. “Throughout the week leading up to Ag Day you’re going to see some additional content really just around the agricultural history of Utah State. The agricultural prowess of Cache Valley and then during the game we’ll have some recognitions.”
The football team itself was caught off-guard by the announcement of the helmet design. USU interim head coach Nate Dreiling said he found out pretty much the same way everyone else did, that being via the press release and social media posts. But Dreiling also had a bit of fun with it and has his own agricultural roots.
“First thing I told my wife is I’m going to wear my cowboy boots and cowboy hat for the game and she shot that down so I am now regrouping on what I’m going to do,” Dreiling said. “But I’m excited. Both my grandparents were farmers. I grew up on a farm so it’s cool.”
Two of Utah State’s players, Ike Larsen and Falepule Alo, spoke with the media on Monday and were asked about their reactions to the design. Both chuckled when reminded of the design.
“I think they’re pretty cool,” Larsen said. “It’s different.”
“I like them,” Alo said. “You know, they’re cool. It caught me off guard because I know it started as an April Fool’s joke. But It grew on me. I like it. Anything for the fans.”