LOGAN – Call it ugly. Call it gritty. Call it anything you like, but you also have to call Utah State’s 17-16 result against Washington State a win. Despite a rather unhealthy number of mistakes and a 16-3 halftime deficit, the Aggies rallied to claim victory in their Pac-12 home opener.
When Utah State’s players and coaches went into the locker room at halftime, the optics (and stats) of the game looked bad. So much so that a few boos were heard from the home crowd, displeased with the performance in the first half.
The Aggies only gained 103 yards on offense, with just a singular scoring drive that required a career-long 48-yard field goal from Kian Afroohkteh to squeeze points from. On defense, the Cougars — a team averaging only 19 points per game this season — had managed to score 16 in the opening half with 193 yards of total offense.
Mendenhall didn’t speak much to his team during the break. Only one sentence by his account (when asked directly what that sentence was, he wouldn’t offer a quotation, but did say that he cursed twice, a rare occurrence according to him). The rest of Mendenhall’s staff only spoke slightly more. It was the players who drove the halftime dialogue. Defensive tackle Carson Tujague was one of the most vocal.
“Tujague was actually yelling to us, ‘We’re not losing this game. We’re not losing this game,'” recalled linebacker Asher Cunningham.
“Players took over at halftime. Assistant coaches took over,” Mendenhall said. “They were taking accountability. Players, peer-to-peer, correcting players. And they just had enough of some of the antics.”
Those “antics” included three unsportsmanlike penalties throughout the game, part of eight total penalties that set the Aggies back 87 yards. One of the most damaging helped set up Washington State’s first (though ultimately only) touchdown of the game.
The Aggies had backed the Cougars up to a third-and-long and then finished the defensive stand with a 12-yard sack by Jordan Pendleton, pushing the visitor’s offense into what would have been fourth and too-far-to-count. But several seconds after the whistle blew after taking down the QB, flags flew as safety David Kabongo was assessed a post-play penalty that carried with it an automatic first down for Washington State.
On the first play after that penalty, Cougars’ running back Leo Pulalasi pulled away from the defense for a 54-yard touchdown run.
You could actually tie 10 of Washington State’s first-half points directly to one key mistake. The penalty by Kabongo was one; the other came on the first play of the game. Utah State received the opening kickoff. However, a high and short boot by the Cougars forced Aggie returner Noah White to try to catch the ball on the run. However, he failed to pull off the catch part of that action and the ball spilled onto the turf where Washington State ultimately recovered it.
“Our goal was to start fast, so that went exactly opposite of our intent,” Mendenhall said.
In a way, though, the fact that more than half of the Cougars’ points were a direct result of Utah State’s own mistakes was a sign that the Aggies could get stops. They just needed to get out of their own way.
So, in the second half, Utah State started to get out of its own way. At least on defense.
Led by Cunningham and his 17 total tackles, the Aggie defense held Washington State scoreless in the second half, allowing only 64 total yards. The Cougars punted on five of seven drives in the latter two quarters. As important as forcing the punts were, it was the way Washington State’s other two drives ended that proved to be the most vital to the Aggies’ cause. And that’s where Cunningham’s biggest contributions came into play.
Although 17 tackles is a career-high for the Elon transfer, his two most important plays were a pair of forced fumbles. First, he stripped the ball from the grasp of Washington State quarterback Caden Pinnick. Then he swiped the ball from WSU tight end Jack Pederson, recovering the loose ball himself.
OUR. BALL. #ShowMe | @TheCW_Sports pic.twitter.com/PKpeJlYECE
— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 10, 2026
The two recoveries set Utah State up with their two best starting points on offense for the night — one on the WSU 19, the other on the WSU 39. Both drives ended in touchdowns. USU quarterback Grady Brosterhous hit wide receiver Eli Wood for a 27-yard touchdown toss for one of the scores. Running back Javen Jacobs capped off the second one with a two-yard touchdown that gave Utah State the lead with just over six minutes to play.
That @gbrosterhous12 to @Eli_wood_14 connection is a work of art! #ShowMe | @TheCW_Sports pic.twitter.com/zi9lbgAa87
— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 10, 2026
.@_JavenJacobs PUNCHES IT IN FOR THE LEAD!#ShowMe | @TheCW_Sports pic.twitter.com/DMgZfkT3JF
— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 10, 2026
That Utah State could only score when given a short field attested to the amount of growth still necessary for the now 2-4 Aggies. Brosterhous completed just 11 of 26 passes for only 150 yards. Most of his production came from throwing downfield passes and connecting on a small handful of them (including a 41-yarder to Demick Starling and a 37-yard pass to Wood). The run game fared little better with just 86 net yards and a per-carry average of only 2.9.
“We have got to clean up a lot of things, and it starts with me,” Wood said. “We’ve got to clean up the penalties and a lot of other stuff.”
But for a team that came in with their season’s hope hanging by a thread, all that mattered was one thing. No matter the penalties, dropped passes, overthrown balls, or muffed kick returns, there’s one thing Utah State’s offense had to do, and it managed just that.
“Certainly, we need to score more points. Everyone knows that. Until then, man, just get one more than the opponent,” Mendenhall said.
