For about a quarter-and-a-half, Utah State was competing with No. 18 Vanderbilt, holding the lead for a few minutes of the opening half and putting up several scoring drives. But in the end, it simply wouldn’t be enough as the Commodores’ offense ran rampant over the Aggies’ defense to hand them a 55-35 defeat. Utah State’s offense got out to almost as good of a start as the team could hope for. Bryson Barnes completed 15 of 22 passes in the game with 161 passing yards, three touchdown passes and 48 rushing yards. However, Barnes left the game early in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury after fumbling the ball on an 18-yard scramble. USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall declined to give any update on Barnes’ status or provide any details about the injury. Backup quarterback Jacob Conover stepped in and completed 11 of 14 passes for 92 yards and two touchdown in the final quarter in reserve. “Wow, did he do a nice job stepping in,” Mendenhall said of Conover. “Poised and executed really well. And I was really proud of him coming in after Bryson went down.” Barnes’ efforts helped scrape together three scoring drives in the