For many, if not most, Bryson Barnes is the presumed starting quarterback for Utah State. For good reason too.
“Whether anyone says it out loud, (QB) is the most important position on the team. And (the QB) determines trajectory more than maybe even the head coach.”
— USU football Bronco Mendenhall
Barnes — a transfer from the University of Utah — is by far the most experienced quarterback on the Aggies’ roster, having played in 25 games over four college seasons.
He’s been a starter at a Power Four conference level, albeit due to injury, and was a record-breaking QB last season for Utah State while being the primary backup to Spencer Petras.
He’s a dual-threat QB, the kind of quarterback new USU head coach Bronco Mendenhall prefers, and has good size (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) for the position.
It is fair for anyone that took in Utah State games against Robert Morris, Hawaii, San Diego State and Colorado State last season to come away thinking Barnes was going to be the next great Aggie QB.
When at his best, Barnes was a game-breaker and he deserves a lot of credit for three of Utah State’s four wins in 2024.
There is a chance that Barnes won’t be the Aggies' starting quarterback, though.
Mendenhall is happy with the overall quality and depth of his quarterback room, which includes Barnes, and fellow returners Jacob Conover and CJ Tiller, along with newcomers in Anthony Garcia, Levi Manning and Braden Siri.
“I like our quarterback room,” Mendenhall said on National Signing Day. “I think we are deep. I think we are competitive and that gives our program a great chance to have success. Really excited about them.”
And as USU’s new head coach, Mendenhall and offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven could go any direction at QB.
Manning and Siri are both junior college transfers brought on to provide depth. But Garcia is different.
A transfer from Arizona, Garcia previously committed to and learned from McGiven while coach and player were at San Jose State.
Mendenhall noted there is a real familiarity between McGiven and Garcia, and because of that Utah State knows exactly what it has in Garcia, a 6-foot-2, 195 pound sophomore.
“What I love about that is the history and the vetting and the person and the player,” Mendenhall said. “All that has been known and seen. And when that happens, there aren’t any misses.”
Mendenhall didn’t go so far as to say that Garcia will be the Aggies' starter come Aug. 30, when Utah State opens the season at home against UTEP. In fact, he went out of his way to note that Garcia isn’t necessarily the starter.
“Does that mean he is our starter? That is not what that means,” Mendenhall said.
He did note, however, that the combination of McGiven and Garcia could end up being special for Utah State.
“It does mean we know what we are getting and he (Garcia) knows what he is getting,” Mendenhall said. “With a coach and a system that he has already committed to once. And so, for both parties that could be really powerful.”
There is a lot to like about Garcia.
While his collegiate career has yet to really get started — he didn’t appear in any games a true freshman at San Jose State in 2023 and appeared in only one game with Arizona last season — he has tantalizing potential.
While at Capital Christian High in Sacramento, Garcia proved to be a top-20 to top-30 quarterback in California.
As a senior, he threw for nearly 3,000 yards (2689) and 34 touchdowns, per Max Preps, while completing nearly 60% of his passes.
He also rushed for more than 500 yards (553) and eight touchdowns, averaging over eight yards per carry.
Most intriguingly, though, Garcia was a three-sport athlete, lettering in football, basketball and track and field. The last of those, he was a sprinter and long jumper.
Garcia fits the molds of high level and versatile athlete that Mendenhall has liked at quarterback, along the lines of a Taysom Hill at BYU or Devon Dampier at New Mexico.
Historical precedence suggests that Garcia’s time will come at Utah State, but not in 2025, though. At least not as the starter on Day 1.
Mendenhall has been a first-year head coach at four FBS programs in his career now — at BYU in 2005, at Virginia in 2016, at New Mexico in 2024 and now at Utah State in 2025.
And at each stop prior to his coming to Utah State, Mendenhall’s starting quarterback in Year 1 was the most experienced QB on the roster.
At BYU that meant John Beck, who had played in 11 games for the Cougars the previous season.
At Virginia it was Kurt Benkert. A graduate transfer from East Carolina, Benkert supplanted Virginia’s previous starting quarterback, Matt Johns, when Mendenhall came aboard.
Johns wasn’t without experience himself, but Benkert had more and the move proved worth it as Benkert set numerous single-season records in his lone year at Virginia.
At New Mexico this past season, Dampier was by far the most experienced signal caller on the roster and he started every game for the Lobos last season.
It isn’t surprising that Mendenhall has trended toward experience at QB.
As he put it, there is no more important position on the team and potentially no more important a person in the entire program than the starting quarterback.
“Whether anyone says it out loud, (quarterback) is the most important position on the team,” Mendenhall said. “And (the quarterback) determines trajectory more than maybe even the head coach."
Mendenhall wants to be competitive at Utah State from the outset. Who the Aggies' starting QB is will go a long way in making that happen.
