The 2025 season in Logan was a total fever dream. Seriously. If you just look at the final record—a 6-7 finish capped by a loss to Washington State in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl—you’re missing the actual story. Utah State football stats from this past year tell a tale of a team that was simultaneously one of the most explosive offenses in the Mountain West and a defensive unit that was, well, frequently an open door.
Bronco Mendenhall took over a program in transition and turned them into a "stats over standings" darling. They averaged 30.9 points per game. That’s top-40 nationally. Yet, they finished below .500. It’s the kind of year that makes gamblers pull their hair out and alumni stay glued to the bleachers at Maverik Stadium until the final whistle because you never knew if you were getting a 51-point blowout or a heartbreaking one-point loss to Boise State.
The Bryson Barnes Experiment: Efficiency Meets Chaos
Bryson Barnes is basically the personification of Aggie football in 2025. The former Utah Ute came in as a graduate transfer and put up numbers that would make most QBs blush. He threw for 2,803 yards and 18 touchdowns, but it was his legs that really broke the stat sheet. Barnes ran for 740 yards and 10 scores. When you add it all up, his 3,420 yards of total offense ranks as the fifth-best single season in the history of the school.
Think about that.
He’s in the same breath as guys like Jordan Love and Chuckie Keeton now. But here’s the kicker: his completion percentage sat at 59.3%. It wasn't always pretty. He averaged a Mountain West-best 13.3 yards per completion, which basically means the Aggies were living and dying by the deep ball. They weren't interested in dinking and dunking. They wanted to rip your throat out on every third play.
Who Else Was Moving the Needle?
Braden Pegan was the undisputed king of the perimeter. He hauled in 60 catches for 926 yards. Honestly, he was the safety valve that kept Barnes from spiraling when things got hectic.
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Then you have Miles Davis. He didn't just run the ball; he was a total Swiss Army knife. Davis finished with 958 all-purpose yards and 11 touchdowns. He averaged 5.6 yards per carry, which is high-level efficiency when everyone in the stadium knows you're getting the rock.
Utah State Football Stats: The Defensive Paradox
Okay, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. The defense. It’s hard to win games when you’re surrendering 440 yards per game to your opponents. Utah State's defense allowed 28.7 points per game. On paper, that doesn't sound like a disaster until you realize they were consistently out-gained on the ground. Opponents gashed them for 181 rushing yards per outing.
However, John Miller was a monster. The linebacker led the team with 109 tackles and 7.5 sacks. He was everywhere. If the Aggies didn't have Miller and safety Ike Larsen (who earned an honorable mention All-MW nod despite the team's defensive struggles), those stats would have looked a whole lot worse.
Larsen remains a ball hawk, but even a pro-level safety can’t fix a front six that gives up nearly 5 yards per carry. The 2025 defensive stats show a team that was great at creating individual highlights but struggled with fundamental "stop the run" football.
Home Cooking vs. Road Woes
If you only watched games at Maverik Stadium, you probably think the Aggies are a powerhouse. They went 5-1 at home. The air is thinner, the fans are louder, and the offense just clicks. They hung 49 on Air Force and 51 on Nevada in Logan.
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But the road? Total nightmare.
1-5 on the road.
The low point was probably that 2OT loss to UNLV in Las Vegas (29-26). They had the stats to win. They outgained the Rebels in several categories, but they couldn't finish. That discrepancy between home and away performance is the primary reason this team wasn't playing for a conference title.
What Most People Get Wrong About the 2025 Numbers
People look at the 6-7 record and assume the Bronco Mendenhall era started with a thud. That’s just not true. Look at the "Open G" run scheme that co-offensive coordinator Cooper Bassett developed. It was a statistical revelation. They used 11-personnel sets to create massive lanes for Miles Davis and Javen Jacobs (who averaged 6.6 yards per carry on limited touches).
The offense was actually more efficient than the 2021 championship team in several metrics, particularly in Red Zone touchdown percentage. They scored touchdowns on 30 of their 47 trips inside the 20. That's a 63% clip, which is elite. The problem wasn't scoring; it was the fact that the defense gave up scores on 41 of 49 opponent trips to the red zone.
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Historical Context You Should Know
To understand where this program is, you have to look back.
- Jose Fuentes still holds the career passing yardage record with 9,168.
- Demario Brown is still the rushing king at 4,053 yards.
- Robert Turbin and Abu Wilson are still tied for the most rushing TDs at 40.
Bryson Barnes won’t catch those career marks because he’s out of eligibility, but his single-season impact in 2025 was statistically one of the top ten performances by a quarterback in the 111-year history of the program.
Actionable Takeaways for Aggie Fans
If you're tracking Utah State football stats for the upcoming move to the Pac-12 in 2026, keep your eyes on these specific areas:
- Monitor the Transfer Portal for Defensive Linemen: The 2025 stats prove that without a stouter interior, the Aggies will get bullied in a tougher conference.
- Braden Pegan’s Growth: With Kevin McGiven moving on to the Utah Utes, the new offensive play-caller needs to keep Pegan as the focal point. He is a Sunday-level talent.
- Red Zone Defense: This is the "make or break" metric. If the Aggies can't drop that 83% opponent scoring rate in the red zone, the move to the Pac-12 will be a rough one.
The numbers don't lie, but they do tell a complicated story. The 2025 Aggies were a high-flying, glass-cannon of a team. They provided some of the best entertainment in the Mountain West, even if the win-loss column didn't always reflect the talent on the field. As they transition out of the MW, the foundation is clearly built on offense, but the ceiling will be determined by whether they can finally figure out how to stop the run.
Check the final box scores and you'll see a team that was almost always one play away from a different destiny. That's the beauty—and the frustration—of Aggie football.