Does the win over Air Force mean that Utah State football is a good team this year?

The jury is still out on how good the Air Force Falcons are, as well as the UTEP Miners and even the No. 16-ranked Texas A&M Aggies, which means it is difficult, three weeks into the 2025 season, to definitively say what Utah State football is and if the Aggies are any good or not.

Based on how the Aggies played Saturday night in Logan against Air Force, though, Bronco Mendenhall is likely to exceed expectations his first year as head coach at Utah State.

Advertisement

USU defeated Air Force 49-30 Saturday, in both teams’ Mountain West Conference opener.

The Aggies are now 2-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play, with games against McNeese State (FCS) and Vanderbilt left before MWC play begins in earnest.

Barring a crazy upset of the Aggies by McNeese State next weekend, Utah State will finish its non conference slate with a record above .500.

That right there exceeds expectations. Before the year, USU was projected to win four games. Three weeks in and the Aggies are already halfway there, and against Air Force, Utah State looked like a team that would do a lot more than just double that win total.

Advertisement

Utah State was the best it had been so far this season Saturday night, in all phases.

On offense, the Aggies were nearly unstoppable and tied for the second-most points scored against Air Force in program history. A lot of that had to do with quarterback Bryson Barnes, who played arguably the best game of his Aggie career, maybe eve his collegiate career.

Defensively, Utah State gave up a good amount of points and yards on the ground but forced three turnovers, was in position to force more and made big play after big play when needed.

It was almost a complete performance for the Aggies, from beginning to end.

Advertisement

“We’re not perfect as a staff or as a program, but they play hard and they want to win,” Mendenhall said. “The crowd was electric; it was a fun environment. I sense the beginning of a lot of really cool things getting ready to happen here.

“Air Force is tough and their scheme is challenging. Coach (Troy) Calhoun is sixth or seventh on the all-time wins list of active head coaches right now. That program and the kids that go there, I can’t say enough about them.”

No USU player was more impressive than Barnes. The sixth-year quarterback was in complete command of Utah State’s offense and accounted for five touchdowns, two through the air and three on the ground.

Advertisement

He nearly threw for 300 yards and completed nearly 80% of his pass attempts.

He was still pressured and sacked too much — Air Force finished with three sacks and two quarterback hurries — and there were still a few Aggie offensive possessions that went nowhere, but Barnes was more consistent and more effective than he’d ever been as an Aggie.

It wasn’t just him, though. Aggie skill position players made play after play after play.

Wide receiver Braden Pegan had a career outing with seven receptions for 147 yards and two touchdowns. Fellow wide receiver Brady Boyd had four receptions for 72 yards. Running back Javen Jacbos had a breakout performance with 71 yards rushing and a touchdown, as well as 36 yards receiving.

Advertisement

And those are just the most notable.

Utah State’s offense was clicking Saturday. The Aggies finished with 473 total yards of offense, 287 through the air and 186 on the ground. Utah State averaged 8.4 yards per play, including 5.5 yards per carry, and completed nearly half of its third down tries.

“There are a lot of things that go into touchdowns to begin with,” Barnes said. “There are so many moving parts. Everybody has to be executing and everyone has to be on the same page.

“I feel like it all came to fruition on my run plays down in the low red zone. On two of them, I was untouched, so I really feel like that’s a lot of dudes working together, executing, and doing their job. I’m lucky to be carrying the ball there. It just happened to be me in that moment. When 11 guys are executing at the right moment, good things happen.”

Advertisement

Defensively, the numbers aren’t as exciting. USU gave up 30 points after all, and Air Force racked up 445 total yards of offense. The Falcons rushed for 266 yards, averaging 4.4 yards a carry, and finished the game 9 of 19 on third down and 5 of 5 on fourth down. The Aggies’ defense was far from impenetrable.

That being said, USU was good defensively. Good enough to get the win and good enough to engender optimism going forward.

Utah State forced three turnovers in the game — two interceptions and fumble — and if not for replay review there would have been a few more fumbles added to that total.

Advertisement

“When you look at it, we just had way too many mistakes,” Calhoun said. “Credit to (Utah State), they played really well. We’ve got to get some guys to play like veterans. They deserve to be coached that way, in terms of the way we push our guys.”

The Aggies were disruptive beyond that, too, with two sacks — one each from linebackers John Miller and William Holmes — and three tackles for loss.

“We prepared so hard this week for this game,” Holmes said. “Probably the most that we’ve prepared in the first three games. It was just fun to be out there with my guys and be able to make plays out there.”

Despite Air Force dominating time of possession and plays run (38 minutes compared to 21 minutes and 84 total plays to 56), Utah State’s defense never collapsed. The quickest scoring drive by the Falcons took over two minutes and came in garbage time.

Advertisement

When the game was really on the line late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, the Aggie defense made Air Force work hard, waste time and come up empty in key moments.

Perhaps most encouraging of all in the game, Utah State had just five penalties for 28 total yards. Discipline wasn’t an issue at any point, on offense, defense or special teams.

It wasn’t all perfect, of course.

As previously mentioned, Barnes still was pressured and sacked more than you’d like. The Aggies’ offensive line still has room for improvement, in pass protection especially. Utah State wisely moved Barnes out of the pocket late in the game, having him throw the ball on the move instead.

Advertisement

Beyond that, USU’s vaunted run game was not super consistent, despite the finished product looking great. Neither Javen Jacobs nor Miles Davis could regularly move the ball on the ground against Air Force. It was more in spurts, with both showing flashes of big play potential.

Jacobs ended the day for USU with a 52-yard touchdown run.

On the other side of the ball, the Aggies’ secondary was — at times — picked apart by the Air Force quarterback Josh Johnson, and he was platooning with quarterback Liam Szarka, too.

Former Roy High standout Cade Harris torched the Aggies on the ground and through the air and finished with 157 all-purpose yards.

Advertisement

What’s more, too often the Falcons had their way in big moments, like on fourth down again and again, and though Utah State was competitive up front defensively, Air Force proved too much to handle at times.

Utah State played complementary football, though, for arguably the first time this season, and the result was a resounding Aggie victory and yet another Mendenhall victory against Air Force.

Does it mean that Utah State is good? Has Mendenhall already turned the program around, faster than almost anyone would have anticipated?

If the Aggies can regularly play like they did against Air Force for the remainder the season, they have a real chance to be a good team.

Advertisement

A bowl eligible team and and maybe even something more.