Utah State athletics is in desperate need of stability. Some might call it loyalty. Particularly its football and men’s basketball programs.
Since 2020, here’s every university president, athletic director and coach (football and men’s basketball) who has come and gone from Logan:
That list doesn’t include any of the interim presidents, ADs or coaches who’ve held down the fort when people have left either.
Include those in, and over the last five years Utah State has had at least 15 people fill the four most important jobs on campus, as it relates to college athletics.
Making matters even more difficult, during that same period the football program has been under investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice, NIL and the NCAA transfer portal became a thing in full force — both Utah State football and men’s basketball have been hit especially hard by transfer portal defections — and now revenue sharing has arrived, which means more money is needed for USU athletics than ever before.
“Total underestimation on our part. This is a magical place. And the valley, the people and the values.”
— Utah State coach Bronco Mendenhall on the Cache Valley
Oh, and Utah State will become a member of the Pac-12 Conference next summer and is currently embroiled in litigation alongside the other departing Mountain West schools in an attempt to lower and/or do away with significant fees associated with leaving the MW.
To say the Aggies need some stability is probably an understatement and anyone even slightly connected with Aggie sports knows it. So of course, Bronco Mendenhall — Utah State’s new head football coach — is well aware.
“I think more than anything at Utah State we’re craving stability,” Mendenhall said in an interview with KVNU at Mountain West media days last month. “I think we’re craving consistency and direction and leadership that can be connected with and relied on over time.”
That Mendenhall sounded all-in at Utah State was interesting, given the departures of the two women who hired him, Cantwell and Sabau. Plus the fact that he was only at New Mexico for a single season and prior to that he had abruptly retired from coaching altogether after a successful run at Virginia.
But on Tuesday at Utah State’s annual football media day in Logan, Mendenhall doubled down, noting that even without established permanent leadership right now, he feels that Utah State is more committed to athletics than ever. The unsaid part being that he is too.
He singled out the hire of interim AD Sandy Barbour and his interactions with interim president Alan L. Smith as evidence and sounded as committed to Utah State as ever.
“Her (Barbour’s) interim hire, reflected to me the continuation of the direction we’re already going,” Mendenhall said. “And so I’m really excited. The commitment to the Pac-12, interim AD hire, the trajectory, the momentum to keep all that going. I haven’t seen one sign yet that reflects anything other than we might be more committed now than even when I was hired.
“And so while the president has changed and the athletic director has changed, what I’ve seen, the decisions made in the meantime, have reflected doubling down on the direction rather than stepping away from the direction.”
Mendenhall also praised the community of Logan as a whole, his face genuinely lighting up when he talked about a Cache Valley atmosphere that he had long admired from afar.
“I think Holly and I, we knew we would like it here after being here before, being raised in the state (of Utah), and playing games here,” he said. “I’ve been called lots of names here, for sure, as a former coach of a different place, but the community itself, we always thought, how come we’re not there? That would be a great place.
“Total underestimation on our part. This is a magical place. And the valley, the people and the values.”
Mendenhall is a realist and he didn’t shy away from the fact that he needs to win in order to remain the football coach at Utah State. Maybe not in Year 1 — Utah State is predicted to win fewer than five games this season, per ESPN’s FPI — but before too long.
“Winning absolutely matters,” he said. “Championships are fun and are expected.”
He later added that winning is what will keep him in Logan, in addition to the development of his players, on and off the field.
“My job is to help that be enough for wins to happen too, and that’s how I get to stay in Logan,” he said. “And if I don’t, I don’t.”
In modern college football there is little guarantee of anything, really. Not with the sports landscape changing at a pace never before seen. At Utah State that has included a coach being around one year to the next. But with Mendenhall, it really does feel as though Utah State has landed upon a football coach who can be in Logan for a long time, given his track record for building winning programs and his own statements about Utah State and Cache Valley.
And maybe, just maybe, if everything goes right, Mendenhall will be the one to usher in a golden age for Aggie football.
Utah State players take a knee to listen to USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall during spring football practice at Maverik Stadium in Logan, Utah. | Utah State Athletics