Bronco Mendenhall was taking a turn on a Ferris wheel inside a sporting goods store this week when he had a moment to reflect on just how far his Utah State Aggies have come in a year.
Earlier that morning, Mendenhall told his wife as they sat together on the ride, a police officer who works with the Aggies football team had told him something.
“He just says, ‘I’ve never seen a team like this,’” Mendenhall said, “meaning behavior, conduct, character, substance, meaning alignment with the institution, the way they interact with the community.”
That is, of course, the kind of thing Mendenhall, a coach who considers himself to be a program builder and a molder of young men, would love to hear.
But it’s also something Utah State football fans would appreciate after several seasons of uncertainty, loss and scandal.
On Monday, the Aggies fell 34-21 to Washington State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl.
But just playing in a bowl game represented a major step in the right direction in one season under Mendenhall.
“When I was hired, I was told some pretty harsh things about the state of the program and the state of the institution … including there’s no chance that we’d be able to make a bowl,” Mendenhall said over the weekend. “There would be a bowl ban because the academics weren’t strong enough. That was stated multiple times. There won’t be a chance to play post-season. Yet here we are, and with the highest GPA in school history academically.”
Mendenhall arrived from New Mexico in December, transformed Utah State’s roster with 69 new players and gave the keys to the offense to quarterback Bryson Barnes. It was enough to get Utah State bowling for the first time since 2022.
“I like being told what we won’t be able to do. Those things have just been ticked off and checked off along the way,” Mendenhall said. “That doesn’t mean we’re satisfied, doesn’t mean we’ve reached our full potential. I think there’s been significant progress in every part of the program with just more to come.”
On Monday afternoon, Barnes rushed for one touchdown, his 28th score for the Aggies this season, before leaving the game in the fourth quarter with an injury. Backup quarterback Jacob Conover led a rally, but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Finishing the year with a loss — and a 6-7 overall record — was not the ending Mendenhall and his Aggies had hoped for coming into the bowl game. But the coach believes it is only the beginning of what he is building in Cache Valley.
“I love Logan. It’s the perfect fit for my wife and I and my family,” Mendenhall said. “This stage of my career, this time at Utah State, in terms of moving to the Pac-12, the commitment to football, the nature of the valley and the team that is there, the heritage. There’s all these things coming together that seem to be aligned really well.”
Next season, the Aggies will join Washington State in a rebuilt Pac-12 Conference and Monday’s performance showed there is work to be done.
“That’s what it looked like. Washington State was the better team today,” Mendenhall said.
But the coach added: “Our program will continue to improve. We’ll continue to add players that fit with our program and follow in these guys’ footsteps. And we will continue to coach them in a way where there is more precision, execution and consistency.”