San Diego State quarterback Jordon Brookshire (4) runs away from Utah State defensive end Nick Heninger (42) in the first half during an NCAA college football game for the Mountain West Conference Championship, Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/John McCoy) LOGAN, Utah – Former Utah State football player Nick Heninger was announced as a member of the 2022 National Football Foundation (NFF) Hampshire Honor Society, it was announced Wednesday morning.   The 2022 class is comprised of college football players from all divisions of play who each maintained a cumulative 3.2 GPA or better throughout their college careers.   An elite group of 1,559 players from 313 schools qualified for membership in 2022, the society’s 16th year. The 1,559 honorees are the second-most in a single year during the program’s history. The initiative has now honored 14,640 student-athletes since its inception.   Heninger earned honorable mention all-Mountain West honors in 2021 after starting all 14 games and finishing fourth on the team with 75 tackles. He led the team in sacks (9.0), tackles for loss (21.5) and forced fumbles (5), and was second on the team with five pass breakups, to go along with one fumble recovery, as

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LOGAN, Utah — Utah State football played their first scrimmage of spring camp on Saturday. Things started off well for the defense. They had three interceptions on four drives, picking off quarterbacks Cooper Legas twice and Levi Williams once. Cornerback and safeties Gurvan Hall Jr. and Ike Larsen grabbed the picks. “We dominated, dominated the offense come that first half,” defensive end Byron Vaughns said. “I feel like the defense did good today. Came out with a lot of momentum, a lot of energy.” The defensive line stepped up next by pressuring Legas and Wiliams. Vaughns, and fellow defensive end Daniel Grzesiak, would have had sacks if they could hit the quarterbacks. Vaughns joked that their red, non-contact jerseys take his “killer instinct” out. “Come game time I know it’s going to be the real deal,” Vaughns said. Head coach Blake Anderson was not impressed with the early interceptions, but he “was pleased with the way the offense responded once we worked red zone.” He also liked the performances of running backs Calvin Tyler Jr. and Pailate Makakona. “I saw physical runs out of both,” Anderson said. “In a scrimmage today, probably not a big deal, but in a game,

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LOGAN – In the final two weeks of the 2021 Utah State Aggie football season, the Aggie defense came up big: nine sacks for a total of negative-60 yards, 15 tackles-for-loss, four turnovers, and only 26 points given up, combined, to San Diego State in the Mountain West Conference title game in Carson, California and to Oregon State in the Jimmy Kimmel Live LA Bowl inside the immaculate So-Fi Stadium in Los Angeles, California. So how does a defense the following year match that? You don’t rebuild, you reload. Which is what Defensive Coordinator Ephraim Banda has done, even for himself. “Even for me as a coordinator, I’ve been able to take the next steps in this defense,” Banda said recently during on interview on 106.9 The FAN, “and laying the next layers of this deal in year two…being able to add to the playbook, making it more diverse, different looks and hopefully making it even hard for offenses this year.” If the Aggies are able to repeat their performance from a year ago, they’ll need it to come from a few new guys this year. LA Bowl Defensive MVP Nick Heninger, Arkansas State-transfer linebacker Justin Rice (who came up

LOGAN, Utah — Utah State football’s first week of spring practice is in the books. “Pads on, full live-work today, and I thought it was chippy and energetic and physical,” head coach Blake Anderson said. “Offense had some big plays, defense made a couple too. All in all, four days, healthy and guys are working, I think we got a little better every day, pretty successful.” Here are three takeaways from this week’s action. Turning the Leaf The last event surrounding last year’s football team came with a ring ceremony this week. Members of the Mountain West Champion team received rings to commemorate their 46-13 rout of San Diego State. “Lot of smiles, a lot of fun, and then turn the page. That’s the last opportunity to really celebrate that group.” Anderson said.  “I thought that was a special night and it was a special group, but now it’s back to zero-zero. Put them on the shelf and they’ll collect dust.” The program’s focus has now shifted completely to this next season. “There’s expectations now,” inside linebacker AJ Vongphachanh said. “I’m super happy to be back and get this thing rolling.” Wide receivers coach Kyle Cefalo agreed with Vongphachanh. “They

An 11-3 football season. A Mountain West Conference championship. A dominating win over Oregon State in the Jimmy Kimmel Live LA Bowl. NFL Scouts should be eager to invite you to the NFL Combine, right? Nope. Not one? Zilch. Nobody. But the Aggies turned heads at Utah State Aggie Pro Day inside the Stan Laub Indoor Complex. Utah State brought out 15 former Aggies to their pro day to show off to 17 NFL Scouts to see if there was any proof in the pudding of if this team was actually “that good.” The answer? Absolutely. “What we heard was — it’s kind of funny because everybody thought we were underdogs all year, right?” Nick Heninger said during his opening statement. “But (the scouts) were like ‘wow, this is one of the most talented groups we’ve had.’ And it’s like wow, I wonder why we won the championship?” Heninger, a defensive end, drew shouts and raised some excitement on Twitter after his 225 pound bench reps hit the 30 mark, which would have been the most of any DE or DL at the NFL Combine and would have been the most of the Aggie group, if Marcus Moore would not