Bronco Mendenhall has Utah State back in the postseason just 10 months into his tenure.
But the process to his quick turnaround started long before 2025, if you ask the Aggies’ head coach.
“Man, it’s my life’s work,” he said. “Our team meetings are much more about life than football. I believe culture precedes performance. I believe in will before skill. I kind of do it backwards from what the world thinks.”
This is Mendenhall’s fourth stop as a head coach, and he’s won quickly everywhere he’s been.
He took BYU, coming off a multi-year postseason drought, to a bowl game in his first year. He won six games in his second season at Virginia and took New Mexico from one win to five in 2024.
“I think by building with the right people in the right culture, the results follow. And that’s a pretty atypical approach, but it’s the way I make sense of doing my job,” he said. “It is expected that we’re in the postseason every year. It is expected to happen right away. I don’t see any reason why it can’t happen anywhere, and I just simply carry that belief wherever I go.”
Utah State beat Fresno State on the road over the weekend to get to six wins. The Aggies were picked ninth in the Mountain West in the preseason.
Mendenhall completely rebuilt Utah State’s roster and brought in an entirely new coaching staff of many of his former players and coaches.
The Aggies signed 69 new players in just under a year.
“It‘s taken a lot from the time we arrived in December, adding new players and building a culture, and others leaving the program,” Mendenhall said. “Communicating our messaging, capturing hearts and minds, designing how we’re going to play football, discovering identities along the way. Quite frankly, just building a new program.”
Utah State will wrap up the regular season with Boise State on Friday.
One early projection has USU heading to Frisco, Texas, to play in the Scooter’s Coffee Frisco Bowl.
ESPN has USU going back to Dallas to play in the First Responders Bowl, which is played at SMU.
Texas State and Louisiana Tech have been floated as potential opponents.
“I’m just really excited for the direction and trajectory of the program,” Menhenhall said. “I have super high expectations for everyone in our program. I think that could be the greatest gift. Simply believing they can and expecting that they can.”