Religious ‘coercion’ in Boise State football? Not so, say people in the know

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — Deep in the bowels of State Farm Stadium, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson and a group of his players shuffled into a concrete-walled space that had been converted into a makeshift press conference room.

The Broncos were fresh off a 31-14 loss to Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl on the last day of 2024, putting an end to a season that saw them reach the expanded College Football Playoff for the first time after winning a second straight Mountain West championship.

Sitting at the far end of the table, tears in his eyes, senior defensive end Ahmed Hassanein was asked about the battle at the line of scrimmage, where the game was decided thanks to the Nittany Lions’ edge. Before talking football, he turned to Danielson, two seats down. “First, I want to say all glory to Jesus Christ. He’s the true champion,” Hassanein said. “Coach D, you changed my life. You changed my life. I did not know God until I got to Boise State.”

Danielson is a devout Christian, and he isn’t shy about sharing that part of his life. He opens TV interviews and press conferences by invoking Jesus, and sometimes sounds more like a pastor in church than a coach of a college sport.

On TV after the Mountain West title game, his speech included this excerpt: “He died on the cross, but He rose three days later. That’s the God I serve. Anything is possible.”

He’ll often say he believes he’s a head coach only because “Jesus put me here to develop people,” and how his role in life is to create “better husbands, fathers, professionals.”

For some outside the program, comments such as Hassanein’s, as well as Danielson’s season-long public displays, stoked debate about the role of religion in the Boise State program. Was the coach proselytizing? Did you have to be a believer to be a player? Would a professed Christian be given preference over a non-Christian? Had legal lines been crossed at a publicly funded university?

One of Danielson’s last statements on the 2024 season, about how the football program would be run under his leadership, perhaps added to the controversy. “We want to be a light on the hill that’s going to do football different at Boise State,” the coach said after the Fiesta Bowl. “It doesn’t mean it fits everybody. Doesn’t mean it’s perfect. We’re going to do it differently. It will be based on love. It will be based on giving Jesus the glory. If people don’t like that, don’t come here.”

Two weeks after the Dec. 31 Fiesta Bowl loss, a Boise-based Jewish leader openly questioned Danielson and the school about balancing faith and inclusion within the program, and expressed concerns about student-athletes feeling left out. Then, in late February, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a nonprofit organization that advocates for the separation of church and state, asked the university to address what it called “unconstitutional religious coercion.”

A couple of weeks later, at the Paul “Bear” Bryant Awards, Danielson responded to a question by saying that everyone was welcome at Boise State and treated equitably regardless of their beliefs. And for the players, accusations of coercion or favoritism for those who are religious are just bunk.

“Coach D, he’s an amazing human, and religion is a huge part of him, and he doesn’t force it upon anybody,” said Mason Hutton, a long snapper who will be a redshirt senior this season. “There’s nothing like that going on.”

How prevalent is religion in the Boise State program? Are there legal risks?

Neither Boise State University nor the football program has publicly addressed the FFRF complaint.

In early March, Danielson was asked about it and said he wants his players to “have a foundation that isn’t football,” and said the coaching staff can use religion to strengthen bonds with them.

Boise State informed the Idaho Statesman that Danielson would not be interviewed specifically for this story. The role of religion in the program could raise legal questions for Boise State.

As the February complaint pointed out, the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause — the separation of church and state, essentially — prohibits public school administrators or employees from “unduly favoring one religion over another,” and from “unduly preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion,” according to Cornell Law School.

The FFRF argued that Danielson’s comments after the Fiesta Bowl, and his regular religious remarks — often made on national TV as an official representative of the university — sent a “clear message that participation in the football program is tied to religious belief.”

Staff attorney Sammi Lawrence said in a news release that a “concerned university employee” reported the incidents to the organization. But Tyson Langhofer, director of the Center for Academic Freedom with the Alliance Defending Freedom — a conservative Christian legal advocacy group — told the Statesman that it would take a specific allegation of mistreatment based on religious belief for legal action to be taken.

“Everything that I’ve read would lead me to believe that Boise State does not need to be concerned about (Establishment Clause violations),” Langhofer said. “Because there is equal treatment, even though Coach Danielson has made clear what his personal beliefs are.”

Those personal beliefs have led to some unusual moments within the program under Danielson, who was elevated from defensive coordinator to interim head coach in November 2023, and given the job full time less than a month later.

In the summer ahead of his first full season as head coach, Danielson baptized star running back Ashton Jeanty, and later baptized 14 other players in the Boise River — with some players telling the Statesman it was their idea. He also officiated at the wedding of Braxton Fely, who briefly entered the transfer portal this spring but now plans to return for his final year of eligibility.

In response to questions, Boise State would not disclose where Danielson attends church, what denomination it is, or whether the coach is ordained or holds any qualifications or titles within his church. Many denominations of Christianity do not require the person baptizing someone to be ordained.

Players say that it’s evident pretty quickly that Danielson is a man of faith.

Australian punter James Ferguson-Reynolds, who entered the transfer portal and will play at Oregon in 2025, arrived in Idaho in 2022. He said Danielson would have Bible verses on hand and sometimes include them in motivational talks before games.

Hutton, the long snapper, said he didn’t interact with Danielson as much before the latter became head coach, but he said even from afar, it was apparent that religion played a vital role in the coach’s life. Both players were vehement about there being no “religious coercion” within the program, and Hutton said he was “shocked and pretty upset” that an outside organization would lob allegations at the school and coach without knowing the whole story.

‘There’s no coercion’ at Boise State

One of the first things Andrew Hutton wanted to do when he heard Danielson was the new head coach was to ensure that his son was comfortable. Andrew Hutton said he grew up Catholic and his wife Presbyterian. He said he doesn’t actively practice his religion, and knew Mason wasn’t really religious, so he wanted to ensure there would be no pressure.

“Right away, it’s clear to us that (Danielson) has very deeply held personal religious beliefs,” Andrew Hutton told the Statesman. “He wears that on his sleeve. He doesn’t apologize for it, nor should he have to. But, you know, whenever you encounter somebody like that, you want to take that extra step.”

As it turned out, neither Hutton had much to worry about, according to both of them. Andrew approached his son two or three times early in the 2024 season when he noticed that Mason was one of the few not kneeling in prayer before games. As a volunteer football coach, Andrew knows what a team sport football is and worries when he sees someone doing something individualistic or different.

When asked how he felt after those conversations, Andrew referenced the FFRF’s claims of “religious coercion” within the program. Lawrence, the group’s attorney, wrote in the February complaint that “players trying to please Coach Danielson will no doubt feel immense pressure to go along with this proselytizing.”

“There’s no coercion, there’s no pressure,” Andrew Hutton told the Statesman. “There’s none of that. In fact, when you really talk to Mason about it, you’ll find out it’s the opposite.”

Mason Hutton and Ferguson-Reynolds both expressed frustration when asked about the FFRF accusations, with Ferguson-Reynolds saying that “nobody really knows what goes on inside these four walls.”

“I feel like it’s kind of wrong to make accusations without asking questions first,” Mason Hutton said. “… And it really kind of upsets me.”

Both student-athletes said they never were afraid to approach Danielson if they or any teammates felt uncomfortable. Mason Hutton said everybody in the building knows there’s an “open line of communication” with the coach, and Ferguson-Reynolds said Danielson has a “neutral mindset” regarding religion.

The 36-year-old coach talked about his mindset at an early March press conference.

“A lot of times, people let pride or ego get in the way, so that if someone doesn’t believe what they believe, that means they’re wrong or out to get them,” Danielson said. “No, we’re all in this together. This is us growing. I want to hear someone’s perspective. Everybody was brought up and raised differently. I want to hear, like, what do you believe in, and not even just talking life, talking dreams, desires, philosophy.

“I want our staff to support (the players) in every single part of their life — religion, obviously, being one of those.”

Motivation, religion, football and life at Boise State

Mason Hutton said that religion isn’t something he’s typically interested in and that he wasn’t “educated enough” to deeply discuss his thoughts on the matter. However, he acknowledged that it can be “a great way for people to grow into amazing human beings.”

Ferguson-Reynolds said Danielson “rarely uses” religion in mandatory meetings. The times he does, it’s typically ahead of a game and related to on-field success. “Whatever a quote may be, it kind of touches on the athletic success and the team success, and the religious background, too,” said Ferguson-Reynolds, who identified himself as an atheist. “But it’ll be a five-second read of the Bible verse, and he’s back to football.”

Mason Hutton said Danielson often would quote from a story every sports-minded person knows — of David and Goliath, the underdog defeating the giant. Being the only non-Power Four team in the playoffs, and historically being discounted against college football’s giants, the David role has been assigned to Boise State more than a few times.

Mason said he thinks such stories are a “great way to put things into perspective,” because even players who aren’t religious take something away.

There also are opportunities for players to spend extra time in religious-based activities. Once a week, there’s an optional 30-minute chapel led by the team chaplain before team meetings, Ferguson-Reynolds said.

Another big extra-time opportunity came in Danielson’s first offseason as head coach, in the summer of 2024. Danielson gathered the team on the center of the blue turf at the end of a hot workout, as he typically does, to go through his daily messages. But there was one extra.

“We’re going to be doing baptisms in the river,” Mason Hutton recalled Danielson telling the team. In early August, Danielson had baptized Jeanty. After hearing about that, Ferguson-Reynolds said, other players wanted to get baptized, and he said Danielson told the team that several athletes approached him about it.

Danielson told reporters at the Bryant Awards that he baptized 13-14 players. He invited a local pastor to preside over the baptisms, which were done by Danielson himself, and opened up the invitation to the whole team, even if they didn’t want to be involved.

“Just seeing their lives change … and some players didn’t want anything to do with it, but they wanted to watch,” Danielson said. “They wanted to support their team as they take that step to becoming the best version of themselves.”

Neither Ferguson-Reynolds nor Mason Hutton attended the baptisms. Both said there was no pressure to attend and no backlash if you wanted to stay away.

“He doesn’t treat you any differently. I’ve never participated in the chapel. I’m nothing like the religious type, and I’m on the leadership group,” Ferguson-Reynolds told the Statesman not long before announcing he was entering the transfer portal. “ … He doesn’t treat me any differently.”

If you’re inside Albertsons Stadium early enough for a game, you’ll see many players running to the south end zone and kneeling together before the game, rising whenever finished with their private prayer. It’s a tradition that predates Danielson.

Ferguson-Reynolds said he remembers being “shocked” when he first arrived in America by teammates kneeling in prayer. In his three seasons at Boise State, he became one of the first out of the tunnel, and then he’d stop at around the 20-yard line to high-five teammates as they ran past.

Mason Hutton wasn’t far behind, usually stopping at about the 5-yard line. Neither of them would kneel with the team, and neither discussed their decision with the coaching staff.

“Nobody’s questioned it,” Hutton said. “And it’s not like a deal, it’s not like a thing. It’s just what I do, and nobody questions it.”

Could Danielson be violating the Establishment Clause?

The FFRF’s February complaint citing the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause asserted that Danielson was “not only placing a Christian litmus test on potential and current student players, which is illegal, but is overtly saying nonreligious or non-Christian students are not welcome at this public university.”

That complaint seemed to refer specifically to the post-Fiesta Bowl comments: “If people don’t like that, don’t come here.”

Charles Haynes, founder of the Freedom Forum’s Religious Freedom Center and a First Amendment expert, told the Statesman in an interview that “coercive behavior” occurs when someone feels they must participate in something, such as religion, to have as fair a chance as others.

“Anybody who’s been on a team like that knows you don’t want the coach to be upset with you or feel like you’re an outsider or offending,” Haynes said. “If the coach kind of makes it seem like this is the way we’re all going to be, and this is the culture of the team … this coach does seem to be saying that.”

At the Bryant Awards ceremony in January, Danielson addressed a reporter’s question regarding his comments that Boise State’s program would give “Jesus the glory” by saying everyone would be treated the same at the school no matter what.

“It’s not in an exclusive way, I’m very open,” Danielson said. “There are guys on our team that are Christian, there are guys on our team that are LDS, there’s guys on our team that are Muslim, there’s guys on our team who at this point in their life want nothing to do with religion. All are welcome, all are loved at Boise State.”

The mix of religion and football is nothing new — you can find a Faith and Football page on the Pro Football Hall of Fame website — and legal cases have arisen from it periodically. Recently, in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a Washington high school coach, Joseph Kennedy, claimed his First Amendment rights were violated because the school district did not allow him to pray with his team after games.

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled 6-3 in favor of Kennedy, saying he was not proselytizing and was exhibiting his personal expression, which students were allowed to join if they wanted, or simply ignore.

Haynes noted that Danielson’s situation is different because of how he’s admitted to leading the program, and what its culture will be. He said the Kennedy decision does not allow a coach to be involved in “pushing faith” on student-athletes.

“I think there’s a good case here for coercion, frankly,” Haynes said. “It’s not like he’s done something that is a bright-line Establishment Clause violation. It’s more like he’s doing things that could rise to the level of an Establishment Clause violation.”

Langhofer, with the Alliance Defending Freedom, said there’s nothing for Boise State to worry about, and he contended that the Kennedy decision from the court “doubly protects” religious speech.

“Anytime we live in a pluralistic society where we have multiple religions, anybody who’s expressing their personal religious beliefs might make non-religious or other religions uncomfortable,” Langhofer said. “But that in and of itself is not an Establishment Clause violation.”