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Utah State women’s coach abruptly says she was fired to end awkward press conference

Well, this is awkward

Mark Schofield
Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.

Ahead of the 2019-2020 women’s college basketball season, Kayla Ard took over as the head coach at Utah State. Ard faced a big challenge on campus, as the Aggies were coming off a season that saw them finish with an 8-23 record, last place in the Mountain West Conference.

However, the Aggies have now seen three-straight losing seasons under Ard, with their most recent season coming to an end this weekend in the Mountain West Conference tournament with an 85-49 loss to Boise State in the opening round. With the loss, the Aggies dropped to 4-26 on the year, the most losses in a single season in school history.

Following the loss, Ard took to the microphone for the postgame press conference and was asked how she would turn things around. She gave a rather surprising answer.

“I’m not going to be rebuilding, I just coached my last game at Utah State:”

As you can see from her response, before arriving at the press conference Ard spoke with Utah State Athletic Director Diana Sabau, who informed her that the school was going in a different direction.

Ard then finished her brief answer with a jaw-dropping question of her own:

“I’m assuming that’s going to be the last question?”

It absolutely was, as Ard quickly left the press conference.

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