Utah State

Cache Valley football is built on an advantage the visitor doesn't account for until it's too late: 4,700 feet of altitude at Maverik Stadium, a cold, tight environment, and the accumulated psychological edge of being the state's third program with the most to prove. Gary Andersen's 2012 team finished 11-2 and ranked #16 nationally — the program's modern peak, proof the Aggies can genuinely compete. Blake Anderson's surprise 2021 run to an 11-3 Mountain West championship was the second piece of evidence. Utah State, when the pieces are right, is not a mid-tier program.

The pieces weren't right for several years after 2021, and the coaching turmoil that followed left the roster thin when Mendenhall arrived. His first season, 2025, went 6-7 (4-4 Mountain West), ending in a Famous Idaho Potato Bowl loss to Washington State. It was a steadying year rather than a winning one — the kind of season a rebuilder needs before the rebuild becomes something. 2025 was also Utah State's final year in the Mountain West. In 2026, the Aggies join the rebuilt Pac-12 with Boise State and others, competing at a rung the program has never occupied before.

The 2026 question is specific: can Mendenhall — a veteran coach who built BYU into a legitimate program — arrive in the new Pac-12 with enough roster to compete, or does the conference jump happen a year before the team is ready for it? The opener didn't wait for the Pac-12 to answer that: a 14.5-point favorite at home, Utah State lost to FCS Idaho State 29-17, the kind of result that erases altitude and home-environment advantages entirely. The altitude stays the same. Whether the roster Mendenhall needs is actually there doesn't look like a formality anymore.