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BOISE, Idaho — Capping off the 2025 college football season with a winning record was not to be for the Aggies.
Utah State struggled mightily on offense, gave up too many big plays on defense, shanked another field goal and the end result was a 34-14 loss to Washington State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in front in an announced crowd of 17,031 Monday afternoon at Boise State's Albertsons Stadium. This is the fifth straight time the Aggies have lost in their bowl game when entering with a record of 6-6.
"That's a Pac-12 preview game, so that's great learning and takeaway for us, and a chance to play one more football game with young people that I love," USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "We came to win the game and fell short. My responsibility is to have the team prepared to play and execute at a level that will hold through the entire game and be strong enough to help us win, and I fell short as well. I love my team and I love the work they've put in this year."
Indiana Hoosiers vs. Chicago State Cougars - Game Highlights
It was a rough conclusion to a season of ebbs and flows for the Aggies, who just couldn't get anything going offensively in the opening half and trailed 14-0 at the break. USU only mustered up a measly 49 yards on 28 plays during the first two quarters.
"Yeah, they were outstanding," Mendenhall said of WSU's defense, which entered the contest ranked in the top 26 among FBS programs in total defense and scoring defense. "The reason they've been statistically strong, not only this year at Washington State, but the defensive coordinator of the previous two years at his FCS stop was leading the country in defense, so really strong scheme, really good players that execute well within that. And, again, they were consistently better (than us) just really in most circumstances until the very end where we were kind of able to make a last-minute push. And so I was impressed and they were as advertised, for sure."
The Aggies played well defensively, with the exception of a couple of plays, in the first half, but got gashed time and time again after halftime. The Cougars (7-6) had 10 yards rushing on 14 attempts in the opening half, but went off for 245 yards on the ground during the final 30 minutes of action.
"We weren't fitting cleanly, precisely nor consistently, and so you have to give Washington State credit because they were executing, but really there was no intent nor capability to run the ball in the first half (because) Washington State was mostly in the air," Mendenhall said. "And they had success being able to run the football in the second half, which then, man, kept our defense off balance and playing run calls, pass calls and neither very consistently, which led to some big plays. So, the ability to run the football was the difference in the game, I thought in particular in the second half, which attributed to us just not being consistent enough doing what we're supposed to do over and over again."
Utah State finally found some success offensively in the second half with three touchdowns — two of them in garbage time in the fourth quarter — but it was too little, too late. Aggie quarterback Bryson Barnes left the game in the fourth quarter after taking a big hit and backup Jacob Conover tossed a pair of TDs.
Missed opportunities prevented the Aggies from gaining any momentum against their soon-to-be Pac-12 Conference rivals. USU picked off Washington State starting signal caller Zevi Ecklaus twice in the first quarter — both times inside the WSU 30-yard line — but was unable to capitalize on either of the takeaways.
Safety Ike Larsen came through with the first INT — with an assist on a nice tipped pass from defensive end Carson Tujague — while cornerback Dylan Tucker snared the other Ecklaus pass. It was Larsen's 10th career interception, which is tied for the No. 8 spot in the USU record books.
The Aggies, who trailed 7-0 at the time, went nowhere following Larsen's pick, and Tanner Rinker shanked a 31-yard field goal. USU picked up one first down following Tucker's INT, but Barnes was picked off in the end zone.
"We didn't capitalize on a couple of turnovers early on, which I think swung the momentum a little bit, but we ultimately just didn't play consistently enough really in any phase to end up having a chance to take over and win the game," Mendenhall said. "And so just when there were moments when we started the battle back, our execution didn't hold or our consistency didn't hold, and that's exactly where we were."
The Cougars, who missed a 32-yard field goal on their opening possession of the contest, extended their advantage to 14-0 on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Eckhaus to Hudson Cedarland with 4:43 remaining in the opening half. WSU's first foray into the end zone was courtesy of a 41-yard pass from Eckhaus to a wide open Mackenzie Alleyne midway through the first quarter.
Washington State marched inside the red zone late in the second quarter, but USU defensive linemen Enoka Migao and Tujague teamed up for a fourth-and-1 stop from the 10-yard line. The Aggies were fortunate to only trail by 14 points at the half, considering the Cougars' whopping 242-49 edge in total offense.
USU was ultimately unable to slow down WSU's ground attack in the second half, although the Cougars' first two possessions ended in chip shot field goals as they extended their cushion to 20-0. Larsen was ejected for targeting early in the third quarter, which left USU's already short-handed secondary — the Aggies were without injured first-team all-Mountain West cornerback Noah Avinger — even more depleted.
Both teams suffered their fair share of injuries Monday. The Aggies lost fellow injured starters Jr Sia (right tackle) and Tyree Morris (defensive end), in addition to Barnes, in the second half.
"It was a physical game," Mendenhall said. "We thought that was what it was going to look like and that's what it looks like in game 13 of a year as well. I mean, so you put it in context of game 13 ... and the targeting call where Ike was removed, as well as Noah Avinger not being able to play through an injury as well, and so that tests your roster pretty quickly. But that's what happens in bowl games, that's what happens in week 13 and that's what happens when you play physical and tough opponents. And that played out just like that."
The Aggies finally dented the scoreboard, paring their deficit to 20-7 with 2:27 remaining in the third quarter on a 2-yard keeper by Barnes. The first career interception by USU reserve safety Gio Kafentzis — his team's third of the contest — led to that TD. A 42-yard pass from Barnes to Brady Boyd and a pass interference call on the Cougars also helped the Aggies score.
WSU was undaunted, though, it is immediately answered with a 39-yard dime of a TD toss from Eckhaus to Landon Wright 49 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Conover replaced Barnes a few minutes into the fourth quarter and floated a 21-yard TD pass to Boyd, plus found Javen Jacobs on a well-executed 26-yard wheel route for a score later on. The scoring pass to Boyd took place three plays after a wild, long pick six by the Cougars was negated by a penalty.
"We preach just always being ready and I think that just goes to show the culture that coach Mendenhall has established," said Conover, who completed 5 of 7 passes for 78 yards in his final collegiate game. "Like he said, week 13, I mean, guys are going down and it just shows the relentlessness of our team. And sometimes you think maybe there's a Heavenly Father above that does care about football and, thankfully, it wasn't a pick six. But I think it just goes to show that there's a hundred guys on our team who never quit, that fight right side by side offense and defense."
WSU's final TD was a 34-yard run through a gaping hole by backup QB Julian Dugger. That gave the Cougars a 34-14 lead with 4:06 left, followed by Jacobs' aforementioned TD with 1:48 remaining.
The Cougars accumulated a season-high 626 yards of total offense, compared to 254 for the Aggies. Barnes threw for 116 yards on 9 of 21 passing in his final collegiate game for USU, which got 99 yards on four receptions from Boyd and 154 all-purpose yards from Jacobs. Jacobs was a big weapon on kickoff returns as he averaged 28 yards on three returns.
Safety Brevin Hamblin finished with 12 tackles for the Aggies, followed by first-team all-MW linebacker John Miller with nine. USU accounted for 9.0 tackles for loss, highlighted by a career-high 2.5 from cornerback D'Angelo Mayes, who missed out on a potential INT in the second quarter on WSU's second march to paydirt.
USU is now 6-12 all-time in bowl games — 1-5 at this particular bowl — while WSU improved to 9-11 all-time in bowls.
