University of Utah

"Not a former athlete, but a former employee at the University of Utah. I was there when Mark became the AD from USF and honestly, when the hire was made, my coworkers and I were very excited. Working on the external side of the athletics department, we had very limited resources to invest into our fans, student-athletes and the overall game experience. We lacked key departments and personnel that every other P5 school had and it showed. Due to this, we were asked to do more or “Other duties as assigned” to make up the gap. During COVID, we were working on a ‘Mask up Utah’ campaign with BYU and Utah State and due to our lack of creative department, BYU pulled out of the campaign because we couldn’t provide a quality of production up to their standards. Despite this, the internal units continue to get resources to grow their staff and exceed KPI’s and this was we had to anything and everything for the student-athletes. I’m not saying the SA experience isn’t important, it absolutely is, but a part of that experience is to an increased presence on social media, digital production and a in-game experience filled with Utah fans. There was ZERO concern about the investment in the fan experience. We were very underpaid, which is normal in college athletics, but I’ve never had to work a second job at a hotel at anywhere else in my career but Utah. During COVID, things changed. We all understood that we all had to be flexible because we didn’t know what was coming next. I remember that July, the B10 canceled their football season and the butt sniffers of the PAC did the same 24 hours later. This concerned everyone because our jobs depended on it. We knew if we played, we’d have to find other sources of revenue, but not playing would take away the limited revenue. It was a Thursday during an all staff that Mark said “we’re going to make more cuts in department budgets but NO ONE WOULD BE LAID OFF. He was very firm on this and reassured us multiple times in that meeting. Furloughs were likely, but no one was losing their jobs. That upcoming Monday, I was 1 of 25 total that week to be laid off. Mark and his administration couldn’t be further from being honest. I get that things changed daily, but let us know that sadly job cuts were going to have to be made. In the last 4-5 years since, I’ve continued to watch this man embarrass the university, athletes, fans and students. Utah deserves better. Student athlete college athletics working staff, stay away from anything Mark Harlan involved with. "

"Terrible AD -- has no respect for any athlete/individual with Utah athletics. Completely childish in the way he acts, scrutinizes others whenever he makes a mistake and is steering Utah Athletics down a terrible path."

"He is prejudice towards certain people, he doesn’t care about the player, he has no emotional intelligence whatsoever "

"He’s a mean person who doesn’t care about the University of Utah athletes"

"Best Coach I’ve ever had. Would recommend 100%"

"Jonas is a guy who means buisness and is building an amazing culture at the University of Utah. He’s aggressive in recruiting and ambitious with his goals for the team. "

"Richard is the best diving coach I have had in my diving career. He tailors to each athletes needs inside of the sport and outside. He shows up to every practice with the ambition to push the athletes in a positive manner and allow them to express what they want or believe they need to work on. The team culture is one in a million. This team is a family and the athletes contribute not only athletically, but also academically, in the community, and within groups in athletics. Richard holds the team to a high standard academically and pushes his athletes to achieve things outside of the sport as well. One thing I would criticize about him as a coach is a slight lack of communication in some circumstances. I believe he has improved in this, but I think it would still be helpful to work on it a little further. Overall, Richard is a one of a kind coach that anyone would be lucky to work with. I highly recommend him and have enjoyed working with him over the past few years. "

"My daughter attended an ID camp at NU. She had a positive experience overall."

"Terrible. Says we're here to have fun, not win. Also out of all of the options the head coach hired his brother in law (Rich) which ruined the program, already sucked before. He did nothing but dance around. Had a losing record at Utah, just needs to retire. "

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"Very easy to get along with."

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"Coach that is more focused on the big picture and all around aesthetics of dives rather than building based on smaller technical corrections. spends a lot of time programming practices that consist of optionals at a high volume with not a lot of basics. If you are an athlete who has always trained opps year round and is willing to do a lot of them in a practice then :) If you are an athlete who focuses on technique and needs a lot of basics before doing their opps then :("

"He was great and I really enjoyed playing."

"He was an amazing person or coach."