Utah State enters game week with depth chart release, new threads

LOGAN — It's time to play football.

Utah State hosts Connecticut at Maverik Stadium in Week 0 action Saturday (2 p.m. MDT, FS1). The matchup against former UCLA coach Jim Mora and the Huskies will be the first opportunity for the 2022 version of Utah State to show its new identity after losing 10 starters from an 11-win team last season.

"We had a good fall camp," head coach Blake Anderson said during his weekly press conference. "We've stayed healthy and guys have worked hard. The team's coming together. Now it's time to go out and put it on the field and see what we're made of."

"I'm super excited. A lot of the guys are really excited as well," senior linebacker AJ Vongpachnahn added. "Just coming off last season, and excited to start this new journey with the guys and some of the new guys, as well."

The first day of game week brought a handful of news, with the official release of the team depth chart and the unveiling of new uniforms.

Here is a glance at what's taking place in Cache Valley days before kickoff.

Depth chart release

Our first look at the official depth chart, and frankly (if last year's lack of depth chart updates is any indication) our only look, came out Monday morning.

Absent of any major surprises, the depth chart goes as follows:

Standing out is senior center Falepule Alo, who appears in the two deep at three different positions on the offensive line. This, in part, shows the lack of depth at the position; only three players — Alo, Cole Motes and Calvin Knapp are in the two deep. It is also a testament to Alo's adaptability since he has been trusted at any of the three inside positions.

"Pule brings a tremendous amount of flexibility and versatility to us," Anderson said. "I think he factors in the starting lineup at any point and he and (Chandler Dolphin) both can slide from center to guard."

The offensive line, as a whole, which has struggled with attrition and consistency throughout fall camp and lost the battle at the line of scrimmage in both fall scrimmages, received encouraging words from Anderson on Monday.

"I've been pleased with the daily progression," he said. "We've been without Pule, we've been without Jacob South, we've been without Cole Motes already at times during fall camp. That has started to look more and more like normal the last few days, and we've started to play better.

"I'm hoping that all those guys are ready to play Saturday; they all look to be on paper ready, healthy, and have enough snaps under their belt that I think we can calm down and kind of get back to some continuity up there that we just weren't able to have the first two weeks."

Elsewhere on the offense, the depth chart did not reveal a starter at the slot receiver position. The coaching staff opted not to tier Kyle Van Leeuwen, Ny Ny Davis and Terrell Vaughn in any sort of pecking order.

For all intents and purposes, Van Leeuwen is the starter; he is the most experienced and had the most first-team reps in fall camp, but considering the Aggies' offense runs several sets that omit the tight end and include a second slot receiver, either Davis or Vaughn could also be a first-teamer, at least in terms of reps.

Of note on the defensive end, former safety Ajani Carter has sole ownership of one of the first-string cornerback roles, while returning starter Michael Anyanwu and Andre Grayson were both listed as first-teamers on the other side.

The starting striker position, which was up for grabs after Arkansas State transfer Anthony Switzer tore his ACL in the spring, belongs to Kaleo Neves, who has been in the program since 2019. He will be pushed by junior college transfer Omari Okeke and alternations of defensive formations to keep his role. But for a program that has plugged in several holes through the transfer portal, seeing a Utah native develop into the role is a good sign.

"He's going to be an impact," Anderson said of Neves. "Don't get frustrated because you're not the guy right now, push to be ready when your opportunity presents itself. He handled Switz coming in perfectly — just kept working and got better over the course of the spring when Switz came down and created an opportunity for him."

New threads

Utah State unveiled its new road uniform Monday morning: a throwback of the 1960's Aggies white jerseys with a modern twist. The new look will be worn during Saturday's white out game against UConn.

"In looking at possibilities of patterns and jersey designs, just kind of a throwback to the Merlin Olsen days with the shoulder stripes and pants, stripes just kind of kept coming up," Anderson said. "And as we talked to Nike, they had an example that we thought was really, really clean, classy, and would look good in a ton of different combinations. So that's what we went with. I think it came out really, really well."

The addition, it appears to be the first step of a complete jersey overhaul for the program.

"We want to change all of our uniforms out; it's impossible to do them all at once," Anderson said. "It's just way too costly and extremely expensive, and so this was the year that we wanted to change our road uniforms.

"And eventually we'll have blue to go with it. ... Pretty cool to start with a new uniform."

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