A week after a crushing loss that all but ended any hopes Utah State had at a Mountain West championship, the Aggies responded in the best way it could. They finally snapped the vexing road losing streak (which had reached seven games dating back to last season) and reached bowl eligibility by defeating Fresno State 28-17 in a late Saturday contest.
As the game reached the mid-way point, though, the Aggies were going through what could have been an incredibly demoralizing run of momentum. With 39 seconds left in the half, Fresno State scored on a 43-yard touchdown pass from EJ Warner to Jahlil McLain to take a 17-7 lead. The Aggies nearly responded with a field goal, driving into the makeable range of Tanner Rinker. However, Rinker badly missed a 46-yard attempt as time expired in the second quarter, continuing his struggles in the kicking game.
With Fresno State set to receive the second-half kickoff, that was a bad combination, and both coaches and players for Utah State were frustrated by a general lack of success in the first half, especially offensively.
“There wasn’t discouragement, but there was some frustration that we were in the situation we were,” USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “Meaning that we were [playing] from behind and we knew that’s not where we wanted to be against this team.”
Crucially, frustration did not lead to excessive haste or sloppiness. The Aggies had the time to grind things out in the second half, and it’s exactly what they did.
Following a very necessary and very timely stop by the defense to start the half (forcing Fresno State to a three-yard three-and-out) Utah State’s offense engineered its longest drive of the season; if not by number of plays or yards, certainly by time of possession. The Aggies went 78 yards in 15 plays and took 8:37 off the clock. Quarterback Bryson Barnes, in what would be emblematic of his impact on the night as a whole, accounted for 80 yards on the drive (the math doesn’t quite math on its face with the length of the drive due to penalties pushing USU back). And Barnes gained those yards in every way possible, rushing for 32 yards, passing for 46 and then catching a two-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Garcia (who had two TD tosses on the day) to cap off the marathon drive.
Dial it up ➡️ Aggie Special!📺 @CBSSportsNet pic.twitter.com/VsyikU6WgZ
— USU Football (@USUFootball) November 23, 2025
Barnes would go on to finish the game with 265 total yards, 150 passing, 113 rushing and two receiving. He had 23 rush attempts in the game, which included the two sacks he took but also doesn’t include the many times he peeled himself off the turf after a pass attempt. His toughness drew immediate praise from Mendenhall and Barnes’ teammate, Bronson Olevao Jr.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tougher football player, a more resilient young man than our quarterback,” Mendenhall said. “He, in my opinion, just took over the game. Run after run, and first down after first down, and delivering the football. What a remarkable leader he is. And it’s absolutely my pleasure to be his coach.”
Bronco Mendenhall on whether Bryson Barnes should be the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Year:”It’s Bryson Barnes every day, all day, every vote.”Mendenhall didn’t exactly express confidence that Barnes would get the award, though, calling the selection process “one of… pic.twitter.com/xqqqOpCiV2
— Jason Walker (@jwalker_sports) November 23, 2025
“Bryson will lay it on the line for this program for his brothers,” Olevao said. “You see him running. You see him taking hits. He loves his teammates. He loves this team and he executes.”
Barnes’ aforementioned receiving touchdown in the third quarter pulled the visitors within three points, 17-14. Just one more move and Utah State could seize control. Except at that point, disaster pulled up to the Aggie sideline, threatening their progress.
USU managed to stop Fresno State on the Bulldogs’ next possession, though a great punt pinned the Aggies on their own four yard line. But as they were worming their way out of the shadow of the goal posts, a Miles Davis fumble at the tail end of a 10-yard run bounced right into the grasp of Fresno State. Perhaps a little too fittingly, the man who recovered the loose ball was former Utah State linebacker Jadon Pearson, who left Logan (apparently not by his wishes initially) and has become a defensive star in California.
That mistake just about handed all the hard-earned momentum back to the Bulldogs, who got the ball just 19 short yards away from the end zone. However, it would only take three plays for the Aggies to earn it back. On a 3rd & 2 pass attempt, Warner’s throw was tipped and then picked off by Olevao — his second interception in as many games. The interception not only avoided the catastrophe of giving Fresno State easy points and allowing the deficit to grow, it ended up setting the stage for the Aggies’ go-ahead touchdown drive. Following another length possession, 13 plays and 80 yards this time across almost exactly five minutes of game time, Javen Jacobs cashed the first of his two touchdown runs of the evening
ALL DETERMINATION 😤@_JavenJacobs 📺 @CBSSportsNet pic.twitter.com/lohDUCaZrc
— USU Football (@USUFootball) November 23, 2025
“There’s a lot of ups and downs. I mean, that’s the game of football right there in a nutshell,” Barnes said. “For us to hit a big low and then for our defense to create a big high for our team, it was great to come back, reset, and go get that drive.”
With that go-ahead touchdown, the Aggies entered rare territory for their team. At no point this season had they needed to protect a one-score lead in the fourth quarter. That lack of experienced hardly mattered as Utah State didn’t let up on the throttle. Its defense forced a fourth straight drive of five or fewer plays, handing the ball back to Barnes and company. And just the previous drives, the senior quarterback led the way on the ground. He ran for 23 more yards on what became a 75-yard drive. Jacobs again signed the check on the TD, running it in from 32 yards to put the Aggies up by the eventual final score of 28-17.
.@_JavenJacobs has OFFICIALLY taken over! 📺 @CBSSportsNet pic.twitter.com/tVlVJe16Kd
— USU Football (@USUFootball) November 23, 2025
Utah State’s defensive effort could hardly go unmentioned, given its overall performance. Outside of two explosive plays by the Bulldogs — touchdowns on a 69-yard run and 43-yard pass — the Aggies’ D allowed 253 yards and just 4.3 per play. In the second half, USU allowed zero points and only 109 total yards of offense. Fresno State had six offensive snaps in Aggie territory the entire second half, three of those being after the fumble by Utah State on its own side of the field. At one point this season, such effective and clutch play could hardly be expected from the USU defensive unit. But for each of the last three weeks, it’s quickly becoming the norm.
“It’s definitely been a roller coaster with this season,” Olevao said. “As we’ve gone throughout this season, it’s how do we bounce back through adversity and trials when things don’t go our way? It’s another week. It’s a new week. Let’s move on. Let’s execute. Let’s do the little things right. And I think every week we’ve been able to improve.”