Utah State football has its man, and he is someone very familiar with football at the FBS level in the state of Utah.
The school announced the hire of Bronco Mendenhall Friday morning.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Mendenhall has agreed to six-year deal with USU.
“Bronco is one of the most experienced coaches in college football. His leadership, proven track record, and deep understanding of the game make him the ideal choice to elevate our program,” Utah State athletic director Diana Sabau said in a statement.
“Bronco’s success goes far beyond football. He has a deep connection and care for growing young men. His student-athletes are proven leaders. He has consistently built programs that emphasize character, discipline, and excellence in every aspect of their lives.”
Mendenhall will be the 31st coach all-time for Utah State and will take over a program that was under a cloud of uncertainty throughout the 2024 season.
Last July, a month before the start of fall camp, Utah State fired Blake Anderson as its head coach. As a result, the Aggies were led throughout the past season by interim head coach Nate Dreiling, who was the youngest head coach in the entire FBS.
The program also dealt with the tragic death of a player (Andre Seldon Jr.), plus double-digit season-ending injuries to starters and finished the year 4-8 overall.
In total, it was the worst full season (12 games) for the Aggies since 2016 and the worst season in general since the 2020 pandemic season, in which USU won a single game.
Mendenhall isn’t a stranger to rebuilds, though, and that is what he will be undertaking at Utah State in his fourth stint as a collegiate head coach.
When he became BYU’s head coach in 2005, the Cougars were coming off three straight losing seasons. In his first year leading the Cougars, though, Mendenhall had them back in a bowl game and the following season they won 11 games, the first of four straight double-digit win seasons.
The rebuild Mendenhall undertook at Virginia was no less daunting. Prior to his arrival in Charlottesville, the Cavaliers’ best season in a more than a decade was an 8-5 campaign in 2011. In the four years prior to Mendenhall’s arrival, UVA’s best year was a 5-7 campaign in 2014.
Mendenhall took over Virginia in 2016 and the next season he had the team in a bowl game. Two years after that Virginia won nine games and played in the Orange Bowl.
Then at New Mexico, Mendenhall took over a program that hadn’t won more than four games in a season since 2016. The Lobos finished this season 5-7 (3-4 in Mountain West Conference play), narrowly missing out on a bowl game with a season-ending loss at Hawaii.
With 18 seasons of head coaching experience at the FBS level, Mendenhall is a proven winner and is the only active FBS head coach who has inherited at least two programs that were coming off a losing season and then had the team playing in a bowl game within two years of his arrival.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Mendenhall has a proven track record of developing NFL talent. More than 80 players who have played for him at either BYU or Virginia have signed with NFL teams coming out of college.
Utah State has struggled to put talent into the NFL recently, with Jordan Love being the Aggies’ last draft pick in 2020 (wide receiver Jalen Royals will end that drought in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft).
Utah State turns to Mendenhall at a key moment in its athletic department’s history, and for the football program especially.
Earlier this year, USU accepted an invitation to the join the newest iteration of the Pac-12 Conference, along with Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga (all sports except football) and San Diego State.
A step up in both competition and prestige — as the Aggies and the other Mountain West Conference defectors believe — the Pac-12 should prove a more difficult test than the Mountain West did.
“Athletics is an important part of the Utah State University experience, and the success of our football program is at the forefront,” Utah State University President Elizabeth R. Cantwell said in a statement.
“The impact that a championship-level football program can have on the profile of the university, the student-body experience, with our alumni and in the Cache Valley community, is immeasurable. Bronco Mendenhall is absolutely right for this moment at USU and he will help propel us into a great future.”
Ever since Gary Andersen turned around the USU program in the early 2010s, expectations in Logan are that the Aggies will contend for conference championships.
In 2021 USU did just that, in the first year of the Blake Anderson era. Since then, though, USU has gone 6-7, 6-7 and 4-8, falling from the ranks of contenders in the conference.
Mendenhall will be expected to build the Aggies into a contender once again — even make them a threat to make the College Football Playoff — while dealing with the specter of the Department of Justice, which has been investigating USU athletics since Feb., 2020, following reports of sexual misconduct involving student-athletes received between 2013 and early 2017.
Add in the ever changing landscape of college sports with NIL and the NCAA transfer portal and Mendenhall’s task is to help USU successfully navigate perhaps the most tumultuous time in the history of college football.
“My passion is developing young people and transforming football programs to reach their full potential,” Mendenhall said in a statement. “Utah State provides a great opportunity to do both and allows a family focus that is essential to me and Holly. We look forward to adding to Utah State’s rich tradition and striving for football excellence.”
