Sandwiched between last Saturday’s important early-season victory against Air Force and a week ahead of a tough road matchup with 20th-ranked Vanderbilt stands what should be an easy win for Utah State football. The McNeese State Cowboys from southern Louisiana are coming to Merlin Olsen Field and will do so as massive underdogs. The FCS team out of the Southland conference have single-digit percent odds to win this game according to multiple prognostication metrics like KFord and ESPN Analytics.
And yet, USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall knows his team has to remain vigilant. The Aggies, still locked in a battle to prove they are indeed on a rebound course from a string of three consecutive losing seasons, can hardly afford to overlook anybody, not even the FCS teams they’re supposed to beat by 30-plus points.
Both Mendenhall and Utah State are separately familiar with the embarrassing sting of losing to an FCS team as part of an FBS program. It’s only been three years since the Aggies were rocked by a 35-7 defeat at the hands of Weber State. For Mendenhall, the memories are much closer. As head coach of New Mexico, he suffered a loss to Montana State in the Lobos’ season opener in 2024. And back in 2016, the first season he was head coach of Virginia, the Cavaliers lost their season-opener to Richmond.
Overlooking an FCS team probably isn’t happening with both players and coaches who can so easily recall getting upset by a non-major opponent.
“Our team will not have that issue,” Mendenhall said. “We’re hungry. There’s so much to work on and it’s so early in the process that again the focus is completely on us. And it’s a quality opponent.”
McNeese is coming off an emotionally jarring loss to Weber State. The Cowboys trailed 42-21 early in the fourth quarter, but rallied back with a furious fourth-quarter surge on offense. With just 42 seconds left, they scored a touchdown to make it 42-41 on the scoreboard. McNeese could have kicked the PAT to tie the game and likely send it to overtime, but opted to go for the two-point conversion. A pass from quarterback Jake Strong was batted to the ground at the line of scrimmage and the attempt failed, giving Weber State the win on the Cowboys’ home turf.
Although that loss will remain in the minds of McNeese, it’ll bring a tough challenge to Logan via its high-scoring offense. In two of their games, the Cowboys have scored 40-plus points. They put up 54 in a season-opening win over Louisiana Christian and the aforementioned 41 in the nearly successful comeback against Weber State. This offense is not only high-powered, ranking fifth in FCS for yards per game and 15th in scoring offense, it is also balanced. McNeese ranks 16th in pass yards per game (276.0) and 14th in rush yards per game (203.7).
“The schematics are very good. They have good players in the skill positions. They’re really well coached,” Mendenhall said. “And even if they’re defended well, they have the ability to throw it and run it and they kind of just take advantage of where and what scheme you’re playing against them.”
Strong leads the passing offense from the quarterback position and he’s coming off a very impactful performance in that near-rally against Weber State. He threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns (with two interceptions) and also ran for 58 yards and two more TDs. Through three games he’s averaged 266.0 yards per game on a 62.9 completion percentage.
Joining Strong in big production for the offense are running backs Tre’Vonte Citizen and Bryce Strong (no relation to Jake). Citizen leads the team in total rushing yards at 201 with an average of 8.0 yards per carry. Bryce Strong isn’t too far behind at 157 yards. Both running backs broke long touchdown runs against Weber State, Strong breaking free for a 68-yard run in the second quarter and Citizen carrying it 79 yards for a TD early in the fourth quarter, sparking the comeback attempt. Both backs bring their own style as Citizen is a 6-foot-2, 223-pound bruiser with Strong being built a bit slighter at 5-foot-10 and 177 pounds.
Utah State’s defense will have to find a way to handle this duo of running backs (and the change-of-pace back, freshman Marquez Davis who has 12 rushes for 97 yards and a TD this year) and will do so just after playing a run-heavy Air Force offense. But it’s something the Aggies are more excited to face than anything.
“I’m excited to be able to play another team that runs the ball,” USU defensive tackle Carson Tujague said. “As a D-lineman, that’s what I love is teams that want to run the ball, because that means they want to challenge us. And it’ll be exciting to go against this offense as well.”
On defense, the Cowboys have some things to figure out. In the last two games they’ve given up 76 points (and at least 34 in each) and are now tasked with facing up a USU offense that put up 49 points against a ball-control Air Force team. McNeese head coach Matt Viator noted the need for adjustments on that side of the ball, saying “what we have to do defensively is going to be different, yes, no doubt.”
One factor to watch out for is that this will be the first game for McNeese that will take place outside the state of Louisiana. Their games against Louisiana Christian and Weber State were both at home and the road game at Louisiana took place only an hour away from the Cowboys’ home in Lake Charles. Furthermore, elevation could play a factor as McNeese will go from an elevation of roughly 15 feet its campus is at to the approximately 4,500 feet above sea level that Logan sits at.
The best current reference for potential outcome may be from McNeese’s Week 2 game against Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns came away with a 34-10 win, though really only pulled away in the fourth quarter. After the end of three periods, Louisiana led by just one possession, 17-10.
Louisiana makes a solid reference as most computer rankings put it and Utah State very close in their rankings. SP+, for instance, ranks USU 98th and Louisiana 94th. FEI similarly has the Aggies and Ragin’ Cajuns closely ranked (92nd and 89th, respectively), though KFord ranks them 87th and 105th, respectively. That could end up leading to a similar scoring margin, though perhaps not a super-similar score. This Saturday’s game could easily feature more points considering the Aggies have a better ranked offense than Louisiana but with a defense that has given up more points so far.
