Get to Know Your Foe: Utah State

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Welcome to week two of Get to Know Your Foe. After examining the Fresno State Bulldogs last week, we travel to Logan, Utah, to check out the Utah State Aggies.

Another fellow land-grant university, Utah State University, was founded in 1888 with a focus on agriculture, military science, and training for all branches of the U.S. Department of Defense. The focus on agriculture earned the sports team its nickname, the Aggies. Rather than have an agriculture student be the mascot to fit with the nickname, the university settled on a much more intimidating bull.

The school has 13 sponsored sports. The unique men’s sports are football and golf. The unique women’s sports are gymnastics, soccer, softball and volleyball. Both the men’s and women’s teams have basketball, cross country, tennis and track and field.

The Aggies have one of the oldest football programs on the west coast, starting play in 1892. They defeated the University of Utah in their first-ever game. Like many football programs early on, the Aggies mainly played teams in their region. This includes games against Granite High and Utah Field Artillery in Utah State’s undefeated 1917 season.

Conference realignment isn’t a new thing for Utah State. The Aggies were a part of the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) from 1914 to 1936, now a Division II conference. Some of the original members included familiar names like Utah, Colorado, BYU, Colorado State and Wyoming. In 1937, Colorado, Colorado State, BYU, Utah, Utah State, Wyoming and Denver are split from the RMC to form the Mountain States Athletic Conference, also called the Big Seven. It was later dubbed the Skyline Conference. The conference dissolved in 1962 after BYU, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming left to form the WAC. Utah State applied for membership for the WAC, along with a handful of other Midwestern schools, but was denied. The Aggies then operated as an independent from 1962 to 1977. They became the first non-California school to join the Pacific Coast Athletic Association (now known as the Big West) in 1978. Utah State, however, went back to being independent during the 2001 and 2002 seasons after the Big West stopped sponsoring football. The Aggies would remain in the Big West until 2005 for all non-football sports but played football as part of the Sun Belt in 2003 and 2004. Utah State joined the WAC in 2005, but only because rival schools Utah and BYU departed from the conference to form the Mountain West. In 2013, the Aggies continued to chase their rivals, Utah and BYU, to the Mountain West but yet again only were granted membership after Utah and BYU left the conference.

In 1919, legendary Utah State coach E. Lowell Romney took over the program, coaching the Aggies for 29 seasons. Romney led the Aggies to another undefeated season in 1936 and the program’s first bowl appearance, the Raisin Bowl, in the 1946 season. Utah State’s best seasons came at the beginning of the 1960s. Led by John Ralston, the Aggies went 9-2 in 1960, starting 9-0, reaching as high as 18th in the AP poll, and splitting the Skyline Conference title. The season ended on a sour note, however, losing to rival Utah 6-0 and losing to New Mexico State in the Sun Bowl 20-13. The Aggies rolled the momentum into the 1961 season, going undefeated in the regular season, with their only blemish being a 6-6 tie against Wyoming. They even crossed paths with Wasington State, beating them 34-14. The Aggies again saw Utah to end the regular season and, this time, defeated the Utes 17-6. The near-perfect season got the Aggies an invite to the Gotham Bowl against the Baylor Bears. The Aggies lost 24-9 but finished 10th in the AP poll.

The great success of Aggie football in those two years led Aggie fans to believe they were worthy of an invite to the newly formed WAC in 1962, yet they were denied entry. In those last two seasons leading up the formation of the WAC, rivals Utah and BYU went 13-7 and 5-16, respectively, compared to Utah State’s 18-3-1. As an independent from 1962 to 1977, the Aggies still saw some successes, going 99-66-2, but didn’t see another bowl appearance until 1993 as a member of the Big West. The Aggies rebounded from a 1-5 start, closing the regular season on a five-game winning streak, four of those wins coming by one possession, to launch themselves into the Las Vegas Bowl. The Aggies defeated Ball State 42-33 for the program’s first ever bowl victory.

Following their historic 1993 season, the Aggies fell into a lull. Though they made another bowl appearance in 1997, the Aggies never surpassed six wins from 1998 to 2010. Under Gary Anderson to begin the 2010s, though, the Aggies started to turn things around. A 7-6 2011 season and Famous Idaho Potato Bowl appearance proved to be a launching pad for an even bigger 2012 season and the greatest decade of Utah State football.

In their final year in the WAC, the Aggies went out on top, winning the conference championship behind a 10-2 regular season. Their two losses came by a combined five points on the road against Wisconsin and BYU. They returned to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, this time winning it over Toledo. It would be the second of five straight bowl appearances for Utah State.

Now in the Mountain West, the Aggies didn’t slow down in 2013. Though they started 2-4 with losses to Utah, USC, BYU and Boise State, the Aggies rolled off five straight wins to finish the regular season and win the Mountain Division. In the inaugural Mountain West championship game, Utah State met Fresno State down in Fresno. While the Aggies were able to rally with 10 fourth-quarter points, the Bulldogs would hang on to win the conference championship 24-17.

After a narrow defeat at Michigan State to begin the 2018 season, the Aggies rattled off 10 straight victories to reach 14th in the AP poll and make an appearance in the College Football Playoff top 25. They would fall short in the regular season finale against Boise State to deny them a chance at the Mountain West championship but rebounded for a 52-13 thumping of North Texas in the New Mexico Bowl.

In Blake Anderson’s first season as the head coach at Utah State in 2021, the Aggies again turned out a magnificent season. Starting with a 26-23 win over Washington State, they would go 9-3 in the regular season and 6-2 in the Mountain West to earn their second trip to the conference championship game. They defeated San Diego State 46-13 for their first Mountain West title and first conference championship since winning the WAC in 2012. They capped off their 2021 campaign with an LA Bowl victory over Oregon State.

After their Mountain West title season in 2021, the Aggies have gone 22-29 over the past four seasons but have made appearances in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl three times. The latest, of course, being a loss against Washington State.

Utah State has three regional rivalries: Wyoming, BYU, and Utah. The rivalry game with Wyoming is nicknamed the Bridger’s Battle, named after Jim Bridger, an American frontiersman from the 1800s. The winner of the game receives one of the best trophies in the sport: a .50-caliber rifle.

Though they haven’t met since 2022, Utah State and BYU play for the Old Wagon Wheel. BYU are the current holders of the wheel, and there currently aren’t any future scheduled games between the two.

The in-state rivalry with Utah is nicknamed the Battle of the Brothers. The two met nearly annually, dating back to 1900 and, of course, Utah State’s first-ever game back in 1892. The series was put on pause after the 2015 game and returned in 2024. They will meet again this season in week three at Utah. They aren’t scheduled to meet again after this until 2030.

Between BYU, Utah, and Utah State, the three schools combine to play for the Beehive Boot. The boot is awarded to the school with the best record against the other two schools. The trophy was established in 1971, and Utah State was the recipient for the first four seasons. The Aggies last won the boot in 2014, defeating BYU in the state’s lone rivalry game that season. The boot hasn’t been handed out since 2021 to BYU.

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