Experience in college football is both highly sought after and hard to find in a world where players only have so much eligibility and in the modern era are increasingly likely to take their experience up the ladder via the transfer portal. Utah State has struggled at times to retain experience, instead needing to get it via the transfer portal.
This year is not too different as many of the Aggies most experienced players didn’t get most of that experience while wearing Aggie colors. Of the 10 most experienced players at USU by snaps played (at their listed position), five haven’t even played a down for the Aggies and two others have spent only a year in Logan. But experience is experience and the team will need as much of it as they can get given recent circumstances.
Here is a ranking of the USU players that have the most Division I experience based on number of snaps played with some honorable mentions. In all, it’s roughly the 15 most experienced players on the roster either by games or snaps played.
1. JORDAN VINCENT | Senior | Safety
- 43 Games Played, 33 Starts
- 2,229 position snaps (278 special teams snaps)
Vincent is the only player on the Utah State roster with north of 2,000 snaps played at the Division I level, even including special teams snaps for other players. The catch, of course, is that none of those snaps have been in an Aggie uniform. Still, that experience, combined with the fact much of his playing time came under interim head coach Nate Dreiling, should come in handy for a defense in desperate need of a turnaround.
2. SPENCER PETRAS | Graduate Senior | Quarterback
- 37 Games Played, 31 Starts
- 1,874 position snaps (0 special teams snaps)
Petras is almost unique among Aggie players in that he’s in his seventh year at the collegiate level. A big part of that long tenure comes from a redshirt season, a COVID year and spending last season on the sideline due to injury. Petras has seen the field plenty though as a three-year starter at Iowa and that’s enough to make him the second-most experienced player on the team, with more snaps played than the rest of the QB room combined.
3. COLE MOTES | Graduate Senior | Offensive Tackle
- 31 Games Played, 22 Starts
- 1,746 position snaps (0 special teams snaps)
Motes has been with the team since 2020, his redshirt year where he didn’t appear in any games. Since then, though, Motes has been a staple of the Aggies’ offensive line rotation, appearing in 31 total games with 22 starts. He made eight starts as a redshirt freshman and this past season started in all 10 games he appeared in.
This season, Motes will likely retain his starting spot at left tackle and, presuming good health, should appear (and likely start) in all of Utah State’s games and be the next Utah State player to cross the 2,000 snaps while wearing Aggie Blue and Fighting White.
4. FALEPULA ALO | Graduate Senior | Center
- 32 Games Played, 12 Starts
- 1,681 position snaps (10 special teams snaps)
“Pule” Alo is one of a handful of current athletes on the roster to have appeared in a game for USU pre-Blake Anderson. He started in four of the Aggies’ five games in 2020 at center as a true freshman then started three games in five more appearances as a sophomore. In 2022, Alo didn’t start a single game but still played 555 snaps as a key depth player on the interior O-line, splitting his snaps between left and right guard along with a handful of snaps at center.
In 2023, Alo made the move back to being a starter, with eight starts in 10 appearances and is likely to retain that same role this upcoming season.
5. BLAINE SPIRES | Graduate Senior | Defensive End
- 26 Games Played, 10 Starts
- 1584 position snaps (341 special teams snaps)
We’ve had two players on this list with zero snaps at USU and a couple who’ve spent their whole careers as Aggies, here we have someone split between the two. Spires played a fair amount at Bowling Green before transferring to Logan, he then played nearly 600 snaps between defense and special teams last year.
6. ANDRE SELDON | Junior | Cornerback
- 30 Games Played, 27 Starts
- 1,265 position snaps (169 special teams snaps)
Most of Seldon’s experiences comes by way of his two seasons at New Mexico State, with only two appearances at Michigan as a freshman and redshirt freshman. In 2022 and 2023, Seldon started in 27 of his 28 appearances for NMSU. Last year in particular he was an iron man, starting all 15 of New Mexico State’s games and playing nearly 800 snaps on defense.
7. IKE LARSEN | Junior | Safety
- 25 Games Played, 17 Starts
- 1,210 position snaps (296 special teams snaps)
It feels like not too long ago Larsen was simply the up-and-coming young safety, making spectacular plays in limited snaps and on special teams. Now he’s the most experienced Aggie on the defensive side of the ball and the nominal leader of the entire unit. He made his full jump into the limelight by earning All-Mountain West honors at the end of last season and is getting plenty of preseason accolades for 2024.
8. DAVON GRAHAM II | Junior | Cornerback
- 26 Games Played, 10 Starts
- 889 position snaps (341 special teams snaps)
“D.J.” Graham as he’s gone by before played right away for Oklahoma as a freshman in 2020, playing in eight games that year and then 12 as a sophomore (including 10 starts). That’s the majority of his time at cornerback. He actually switched positions to wide receiver during 2022 but never played a single snap on offense. He sat out 2023 and now comes to USU, moving back to corner and bringing his experience at that position with him.
9. TORREN UNION | Senior | Safety
- 39 Games Played, 9 Starts
- 908 position snaps (425 special teams snaps)
A relatively late addition to Utah State via the transfer portal, Union comes to USU from New Mexico State and South Dakota State before that. He’s played the ninth-most positional snaps and the fourth-most special teams snaps, giving him a lot of roster versatility, something that will be useful given how many experienced safeties the Aggies already had on the roster when Union joined the club.
10. SIMEON HARRIS | Junior | Defensive Back
- 24 Games Played, 13 Starts
- 893 position snaps (32 special teams snaps)
Harris joined the Aggies last year and played a role in helping the team try and add depth at linebacker. Not by playing the position himself, but by replacing Anthony Switzer at the hybrid “striker” position when Switzer made his move to linebacker full-time. With Dreiling having a similar position in his base defense, Harris is a likely candidate to take on that role and help the team make a turnaround on defense.
Honorable Mentions
Using D1 snaps played as the measuring sticks leaves out a few players that otherwise would be noted for their experience, and there’s two main reasons as to how that happens. One, they’re a specialist, like kicker or punter, or are seniors that spent most of their time in the Division II ranks.
Here are the players, in no particular order, who are honorable mentions as experienced players but got cut out by the methodology behind these rankings.
JACOB GARCIA | Senior | Long-Snapper
- 40 Games Played, 40 Starts at long-snapper
Among active players, Garcia has played the most games in an Aggie uniform and will put himself toward the top of the all-time leaderboard at Utah State should he play a full healthy season. He won’t have a chance to break the career games played record of 59, set by Demytrick Ali’ifua, but what Garcia can do is tie, or potentially break, Alfred Edwards’ record of 53 career starts. It would all depend on Garcia playing every regular season game, plus USU making a bowl game to tie the mark, with breaking the record only happening if the Aggies also made the conference title game.
STEPHEN KOTSANLEE | Senior | Punter
- 39 Games Played, 39 Starts at punter
Kotsanlee is only a hair behind Garcia in total games played, and were it not for a season-ending injury last season he’d be just ahead. He’s served as Utah State’s punter since the 2020 season and has been consistently one of the top three or four punters in the Mountain West each year.
ELLIOTT NIMROD | Senior | Kicker
- 46 Games Played, 12 Starts at kicker
Nimrod holds the honor of appearing in the most games out of any player on Utah State’s roster, though he’s not been a starter as a placekicker for much of that. For several years he served as Arkansas State and then Utah State’s kickoff specialist before finally getting to be the full-time field goal kicker for the Aggies last season.
JON ROSS MAYE | Senior | Linebacker
Four years at Lenoir-Rhyne, including nearly 300 career tackles, has given plenty of game experience for Maye, it’s just not Division I experience. There’s still every reason to consider Maye one of the veterans of the team, he’ll just also be adjusting to playing football at a Mountain West level instead of DII ball.
WYATT BOWLES | Graduate Senior | Offensive Guard
- 36 Games Played, 8 Starts
If for no other reason, Bowles should be mentioned as among the most experienced for the fact that he’s one of two seventh-year players on the roster alongside Petras. His total snaps played is relatively low but he’s fourth on the list of games played in an Aggie uniform among active players.
