- Utah State defeated San Jose State 30-25, maintaining a 4-0 home record.
- Tanner Rinker scored crucial field goals; Bryson Barnes led with 321 passing yards.
- Coach Mendenhall praised the team's resilience and execution in a tough game.
LOGAN — It was anything but easy, but the Aggies made enough big plays in all three phases of the game to keep their undefeated record at home intact.
Tanner Rinker booted fourth-quarter field goals of 46 and 44 yards to help Utah State earn a gritty, hard-fought 30-25 victory over San Jose State in a Mountain West football game in front of an announced raucous Homecoming crowd of 22,710 on Friday evening at Maverik Stadium.
Utah State improved to 4-0 on Merlin Olsen Field this season, in the process.
"I love my team," head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "They are resilient and they are tough. They believe in one another, they are united and they battled. I'm really impressed with Tanner (Rinker), our field goal kicker, tonight. He was crucial in terms of points under pressure and in context to win a football game.
"Lots of positives in terms of complementary football with the team supporting one another on offense, defense and special teams. Great crowd. My gratitude to the fans, the HURD, the alumni and the members of the valley that were at the game. What a great college environment. I felt lucky to be part of it. I'm just so happy for my team and that they see a tangible result scoreboard-wise for a hard-fought game."
Utah State struggled mightily in the fourth quarter in last Saturday's 44-26 road loss to Hawaii, but displayed a lot of tenacity and executed well enough during the final 15 minutes this time around — and in all three phases, to boot.
Defensive backs Ike Larsen, Noah Avinger and Brevin Hamblin, plus linebacker John Miller, all made big plays in the fourth quarter, as did quarterback Bryson Barnes and running back Miles Davis on the other side of the ball for the hosts.
"Last week, the fourth quarter came around, and that was an emphasis we had in practice this week — being able to get into the fourth quarter and finish the game," Barnes said. "The things that we preached and the things that we continue to work on, they showed up tonight and paid off in a big way."
There will five lead changes in Friday's contest, with the Aggies (4-3, 2-1) pulling ahead for good at 27-25 on Rinker's 45-yard field goal with 6:09 remaining in the fourth quarter. This was the first time this season the Aggies have been in a one-possession game late in the final quarter, and they passed the test.
"It's super special," Barnes said. "We talked about it the entire year leading up to this, that we were going to be in those types of situations. In the Mountain West, it's dead even. You see these games all over the conference, and they can happen to any given team at any given moment.
"We preached it and we practiced those types of situations over and over and over. So, when the defense was out there, there's nothing but 100 percent confidence in them being able to get that done because of how much practice, work and the mindset that we put into those types of situations."
A massive hit by Larsen on standout San Jose State wide receiver Danny Scudero put the visitors in a fourth-and-1 situation near midfield a few minutes later. The Spartans (2-5, 1-2) elected to go for it on fourth down and Hamblin and Miller stuffed running back Steve Soto-Chavez at the line of scrimmage.
It was sweet redemption for the Aggies defensively, inasmuch as Soto-Chavez broke a tackle on his way to a 66-yard scoring scamper on fourth-and-1 early in the third quarter.
"Like coach Mendenhall said, the execution and the details were what we really wanted to harp on this week," said Aggies linebacker Bronson Olevao Jr., who finished with a career-high 14 tackles. "He talked about the play that went for a touchdown, that run play. It's the same play that we executed on the big stops, so it's just about how well we can execute and be detailed in everything that we do on defense. There's lots to improve on, but I'm super glad and super happy for this team and for the boys. They deserve this win."
The Aggies were able to capitalize on their final fourth-and-short defensive stand as Davis and Barnes both came through with nice runs to push them into Rinker's field goal range. And the junior was up to the challenge as he split the uprights from 44 yards out with 1:53 remaining.
The junior college transfer was also successful on a 31-yard field goal in the first half on his way to a career-high 12 points. Rinker improved to 7 for 7 on the season on his field goals, highlighted by four of 40-plus yards.
"It was really cool," Rinker said. "The offense does a great job of putting me in position, but I try to treat every kick the same so no matter the context of it, it's got to go through. That's just my mentality on it."
San Jose State marched to the Utah State 37-yard line in the waning seconds of the contest, but Walker Eget's Hail Mary in the back of the end zone was batted away by Hamblin as time expired. Avinger fought hard to narrowly break up a jump ball pass at the 1-yard line two plays earlier.
Indeed, it was a complete team effort for the Aggies, who gave up 534 yards of total offense, but limited the Spartans to a 1 of 4 success rate on fourth-down plays and limited Scudero, the FBS leader in receiving yards this season, to 25 yards on six catches.
"Yeah, No. 10's a great player," Olevao said of Scudero. "Yes, we game planned for him and want to get and stay on him. It's just about how much we can execute and how much we can fly around, see our keys and react fast, and we were able to get a lot of hits on him. We respect him as a player, but we executed well and that's how we were able to stop him. Props to our back end for that."
Meanwhile, Barnes led the offensive charge for the hosts with a career-high 321 yards passing, plus 54 yards on 16 rushing attempts. No. 16 participated in the post-game press conference and then rushed over to the hospital, where his wife, Brittlyn, was scheduled to be induced at 11:30 p.m. The Barnes family is welcoming a baby boy to the fold.
A lot of people were anticipating a high-scoring game, but that wasn't the case in the opening half. Both teams turned the ball over on downs in scoring range, plus the Spartans fumbled the ball away in the red zone — a big reason why it was a 10-9 Aggie lead at the half.
The Spartans marched down the field after receiving the opening kickoff, but settled for a 37-yard Denis Lynch field goal and a 3-0 lead.
