On fourth down and mere inches to go, San Jose State lined up to go for it. With four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Spartans needed points and weren’t settling for a punt. Utah State needed a stop to preserve its 27-25 lead. Any kind of points would put the Aggies in a rather precarious situation.
Perhaps more nerve-wracking, in a very similar scenario earlier in the game — a 3rd & 1 early in the third quarter — the Spartans went for it and broke a 66-yard touchdown run. But Utah State’s coaching staff, with full confidence in their players, called the exact same defensive play. SJSU quarterback Walker Eget took the snap and handed the ball to running back Steve Chavez-Soto — the same man who ran in the 66-yarder earlier — only to have the freshman back slowed by USU linebacker John Miller and wrestled to the ground by safety Brevin Hamblin for no gain.
Turnover on downs. Aggie ball with victory fully in its offense’s control.
Big 4th Down stop by the Defense!! Aggies take over on downs!📺@CBSSportsCFB pic.twitter.com/QHPMUZmZid
— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 18, 2025
Utah State’s defense came to play the entire night. In the first quarter alone, the Aggies had five pass breakups, surpasing their single-game mark of four set against McNeese in just the one quarter. They came out knowing they had to stop Eget from controlling the game through the air. To do so, they consistently dropped eight defenders into pass coverage and dared the Spartans to run it. Which, they actually did do pretty well, gaining a near-season-best 194 yards. ButUSU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was willing to make SJSU do something it hadn’t been good at most of the year to keep the ball out of the air, where the Spartans have been deadly.
“They’re explosive, they’re dynamic, and they excel in throwing the football,” Mendenhall said of SJSU. “And our thought simply is, to manage the points and to give our team our best chance to win, is to invite them to run the ball, maybe more than they would want to run the ball. And then have great leverage in the pass game and make them catch, [we] tackle. Catch, tackle. And then find the right third downs and fourth downs to get off the field. And the plan was executed really, really well by our defensive staff, Coach Howell, the defensive coaches, the defensive players.”
And while Eget still had 340 yards through the air, his completion percentage of 55% told just a big a story of how Utah State actually managed to slow him down. Additionally SJSU star wide receiver, Danny Scudero, was hounded and hunted, taking multiple brutal hits and having the ball jarred free to force incomplete passes. The nation’s leading receiver, averaging 140 yards per game, caught six passes for 27 yards.
One of the other most important plays of the game was on one of Scudero’s receptions which occured directly before the crucial fourth-down stop. Eget hit Scudero over the middle, but the receiver took a full-force body check from Aggie safety Ike Larsen, who dropped the 5-foot-9 receiver on the spot and, crucially, short of the line to gain. The hit was so hard, the officials initially flagged Larsen for targeting, only to see on review the hit was hard, but clean. No penalty and a fourth down the Spartans would eventually fail to convert on.
After the fourth down stop, Utah State’s job was far from over. San Jose State had been stopped once, but the Spartans had also scored on four straight drives spanning the second to the fourth quarter — at least they had before the turnover on downs. Points were very likely needed to fend off San Jose State. A field goal at minimum, a touchdown if possible.
Utah State got the former, as the offense ground time off the clock and yards down the field. Despite some struggles in the run game, averaging just 3.4 yards per carry on the night, the Aggies managed runs of 14 and nine yards to help set up placekicker Tanner Rinker for a 44-yard field goal. The junior had already hit from 31 yards and 45 yards, and he didn’t flinch on the third attempt, slotting the ball between the uprights to give his team a crucial five-point lead.
“It was really cool,” Rinker said of making the kick in a clutch moment. “Offense does a great job of putting me in position. But I try and treat every kick like the same. So no matter the context of it, like, it’s got to go through. So that’s just my mentality on it.”
The final San Jose State drive, which had to go the length of the field with 1:53 on the clock and one timeout, ended up still being quite the nailbiter. Eget managed to convert a prayer of a fourth down pass, along with some other great completions to put the team within range of a last-second toss to the end zone. But the final desperate try for a touchdown was batted away from Spartan hands in the back of the end zone and blue jerseys swarmed the field to celebrate.
It was a victory to represent what the Aggies had overcome, not just on that night, but in the last few weeks where positive results had been very tough to find. The defense had given up 99 points in the last two games, with the offense having one of its worst outings last week at Hawaii.
All of that got put behind them in the triumphant moment.
“You saw it. I mean, they’re in tears,” Mendenhall said. “I have really high expectations for my players. And we work really hard. And the program is fiercely demanding. And it takes everything. And a week ago when we have plane trouble and we can’t get to Hawaii. And then we get to Hawaii on a Friday. And then we’re one-point deficit going into the fourth quarter. And yeah, we expect to win and we don’t. Then you fly home and then you play Friday night. And how hard they worked from the minute we landed until that game. I don’t have the words to express it. But they gave everything.”
Utah State’s performance was far from without fault. Its offense stalled for most of the first half, scoring on its first drive only to have the next four drives come up scoreless. Three of those possessions went three plays then punt. The fourth scoreless drive made it to the SJSU 13-yard line, but the Aggies got aggressive on 4th & 4 and ultimately fail to convert. Utah State’s final drive of the half finally broke the spell, ending with a 31-yard field goal with three seconds before the break.
Despite those struggles, big plays were made by the several different players, but two in particular: Bryson Barnes and Anthony Garcia. Barnes, who alongside his wife will welcome the birth of his first child in the earliest hours of Saturday morning, completed 22 of 31 passes for a career-high 326 yards along with 56 rushing yards and another touchdown. That passing touchdown was thrown to Garcia, who was incredibly wide open for a 74-yard touchdown.
The Swiss Army Knife strikes AGAIN!! Deep shot from @bryson_barnes10 to Anthony Garcia for 6⃣!📺@CBSSportsCFB pic.twitter.com/NbKnRm3ac0
— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 18, 2025
“The safety guarded the sail route by Brady Boyd, and the corner ended up falling off. I’m not quite sure what their responsibilities are supposed to be. Somebody’s got to be on (Garcia),” Barnes said when recalling the play. “He ended up popping on the post. So, I mean, rolling out to my left, those usually don’t really think of the post in those progressions and those thought processes. But when it pops wide-open like that, you’ve got to be able to get the ball down there to your playmakers.”
Garcia’s TD catch made him the first Utah State football player since Steve Smith in 1976 to have a receiving, rushing and passing touchdown in a single season. He’s the sixth Aggie to do it overall, joining Smith, John Strycula (1970), Roy Shivers (1965), Overton Curtis (1957) and Jack Hill (1956). Garcia had an all-around day, attempting one pass (which he completed to Barnes for five yards), one rush attempt for 10 yards and a career-best 121 yards on three catches. All of this against a Spartans team he spent the his 2023 freshman season with.
That touchdown helped spark a third-quarter surge for the Aggies. After just 10 points in the first half, enabling a 10-9 halftime advantage, they scored on the first two possessions of the third quarter. It helped keep pace ahead of San Jose State, who had started the aforementioned four consecutive scoring drives that would keep the Spartans within reach all night. In fact, in the early fourth quarter, SJSU scored a touchdown to go up 25-24.
Crucially, the Spartans failed on a two-point conversion that would have put them up by a field goal, leaving room for Utah State to put the pressure on if it could get a field goal. Which they promptly did as Rinker hit from 45 yards out
And from there, the defense took over, making the plays necessary to secure the fourth victory of the season and preserving the Aggies’ homecoming pride. And for Barnes, he’ll avoid a dampened greeting of his firstborn son.
“We were kind of joking around the other day,” he said, “Don’t make me meet my son a loser.”
