Utah State’s 2025 season has officially come to a close, which means it’s time to look ahead to the 2026 season. It’s hard to set expectations for how the offseason will go down thanks to the chaos of the transfer portal, but at the very least it should be less hectic than the previous one which featured an almost entirely new roster in addition to the new coaching staff.
Said staff, led by head coach Bronco Mendenhall, are already hard at work figuring out what needs have to be met to build on their first season at Utah State. The 6-7 record in 2025 was decent in context, but is not the kind of season fans will be content with for long. Utah State fans haven’t seen a winning campaign come through Logan since 2021, and they’ll be itching for one to come in 2026.
The following are the most important things for Utah State to address ahead of next season. They are certainly not the only things, but these need to be checked off or next year may not be much better than this year. And that’s not something Mendenhall and Co. can afford if they want to overstay their welcome in Cache Valley.
Offensive Line
Before anything else, the Aggies have to find a way to get their offensive line settled.
In key offensive line adjacent stats, Utah State ranked rather poorly. The Aggies were 134th in pressure rate allowed on offense, giving up 42 sacks (129th in FBS) and were 91st in short-yardage and goal-line situations per CFB Graphs. Pro Football Focus grades, for what they’re worth, put the Aggies’ O-Line 111th in pass blocking and 113th in run blocking.
Perhaps the most telling thing of all is how much praise Byson Barnes received solely on the basis that he kept taking hits and getting back up. Some of those hits came from carrying the ball 76 times per contest in the last four games of the season, but a great many came from getting plastered on pass attempts.
Mendenhall, alongside Offensive Coordinator Kevin McGiven and Offensive Line Coach Mario Acitelli, are keenly aware of the unit’s shortcomings in 2025 and are/will be hard at work with ensuring the 2026 unit will be ready.
Exactly who will be part of next year’s O-Line rotation is hard to say before the transfer portal resolves itself. What we do know is that multiple players are graduating. Left tackle Jake Eichorn and right tackle Trey Andersen are both out of eligibility, meaning that at minimum Utah State will need to replace the bookends of the O-Line (though Jr Sia, who played significant snaps and made a few starts are tackle, could factor into the equation). The interior O-Line has plenty of potential returners who will be fighting to keep their spots (assuming they don’t enter the portal). The starters at center, left guard and right guard — Jimmy Liston, George Maile and Tavo Motu’apuaka respectively — all have at least one year of eligibility remaining.
Quarterback
Utah State got a lot of mileage out of Bryson Barnes, both at the end of last year and all of 2025. He set multiple records, primarily for his rushing ability, and earned All-Mountain West honors. Most importantly, the Aggies won multiple games because of Barnes’ efforts that otherwise would have been losses.
But Barnes’ eligibility clock ran out when the clock hit triple zeroes at the Potato Bowl and USU must now find its next starting quarterback. The 2025 backup, Jacob Conover, is also out of eligibility so that’s not the place to turn to either.
So who will it be?
There are a handful of options, so let’s go over them
CJ TILLER
Though the depth chart didn’t list this fact, Tiller was the third-string QB for the team. Mendenhall brought that fact up mid-season when there were some questions as to whether Barnes would play leading up to the Hawaii game. And there’s the fact that Tiller got a few snaps in against Nevada after Conover had gotten a few garbage time snaps himself.
Tiller just completed his redshirt sophomore season, i.e. his third college season. He spent one year at Boise State and actually started a game for the Broncos in the 2023 LA Bowl. Tiller completed 12 of 21 passes for 112 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in what was a 35-22 loss to UCLA. Aside from that game, Tiller has not thrown a pass, though he had two other game appearances, one against Utah State in 2023 and one for Utah State in 2025 as noted above.
ANTHONY GARCIA
The former San Jose State reserve QB switched to wide receiver when he came to Logan and had a decent season (20 receptions, 348 yards, two TDs and 11 rush attempts for 75 yards and another TD) but could aim to swap back to his old position. That’s a discussion he’ll have to have with offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven and the relevant position coaches (QB coach Matt Johns and WR coach DeNarius McGhee). It could be an uphill climb for Garcia
TRANSFER QB
There’s a zero percent chance Utah State doesn’t pick up at least one quarterback in the transfer portal and it’s decently likely they end up with multiple portal QBs. But trying to guess who may transfer in is about as productive as guessing where a football will bounce when you drop it. However, there are going to be at least two in-state players transferring that Aggies should keep an eye on. The first is actually a former Aggie, McCae Hillstead. He threw for 1,062 yards in eight appearances for Utah State in 2023 but transferred out of Logan before the 2024 season, heading south to BYU. Now he’s transferring out of Provo after two fruitless seasons there. Could there be a reunion? Perhaps, but likely not.
The seemingly more likely in-state transfer would be a potential sequel to Bryson Barnes’ move to Utah State. Isaac Wilson, a former four-star recruit and younger brother to NFL quarterback Zach Wilson, will enter the transfer portal seeking a new home after two seasons with the Utes. There’s actually been a decent pipeline of Utah-to-Utah State athletes, including not just Barnes, but also Siaosi Mariner, Kyrese White, and Caleb Repp. Aggies fans got a decent look at Wilson when he started a game on Merlin Olsen Field against USU in 2024. Wilson completed 20 of 33 passes for 239 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
FRESHMAN QB
Utah State has two promising freshman quarterbacks incoming for next year’s roster, Kaleb Maryland out of North Shore High School in Texas and Brady Goodman from Mountain View High School in Arizona. Maryland threw for 3,266 yards, 34 touchdowns and eight interceptions, plus 549 rushing yards and 10 more TDs, en route to a 6A D1 Texas state championship. Goodman accumulated 6,163 career passing yards, 924 rushing yards and 100 total touchdowns (76 passing, 24 rushing).
Both of these QBs possess upside in their own way. Maryland is a potential weapon as a dual-threat QB, possessing track speed to pair with his good passing ability, though he is on the small side, listed at 6-foot even and 195 pounds. Goodman possesses great size for a college quarterback, standing 6-foot-4 and weighing 215 pounds, and is also a dual-threat even if not as speedy as Maryland.
High-level Edge Rusher
Utah State can join the 135 other FBS teams (and all 32 NFL teams) in wanting a top-flight pass rusher. It’s essentially the second-most valuable position on the field, mainly because they slow down the first-most valuable position, the quarterback. The Aggies struggled mightily to get consistent pressure on opposing QBs, ranking 126th in pressure rate on dropbacks, which is a lot more telling than USU’s rank of 49th in sacks per game. Sure, they sacked the other team’s quarterback at an above-average rate, but on a down-by-down basis, those QBs usually had enough time to throw. And that’s partly why Utah State ended up ranking 123rd in passing yards allowed per game.
The Aggies have lacked a solid pass-rushing defensive end for several years now. John Miller did rack up 8.0 sacks but did so as an inside linebacker. Utah State’s listed edge rushers (called outside linebackers on the roster) recorded only two sacks all year, both by William Holmes, and a total of 31 quarterback pressures according to PFF. The rest of the position groups had to pull a lot of extra weight this year to generate pressure on dropbacks, and did so at times in terms of sack totals. As noted, Miller finished second in the conference in total sacks, with fellow linebackers Bronson Olevao and Chris Joe each getting 4.0 sacks. That total was also matched by defensive tackle Tyree Morris and USU’s secondary also collectively had 4.0 sacks.
This defense can ill afford to have its pass-rushers get outdone in pass-rushing by literally every other position group on the field. And that’s a big part of why Utah State fared well in sack total but not in pressure rate. Nick Howell has made a living on creative blitz packages that can generate extra pressure on pass plays. But those should compliment a base ability to create pressure by the defensive line, it can’t make up for a lack of a pass rush because while it can emulate sack numbers, it won’t recreate the consistent pressure a good D-Line will have, and it’s the latter that has a much bigger impact on opposing pass attacks.
