Through six weeks of college football (including Week 0), only two players at the FBS level have been responsible for more touchdowns scored than Bryson Barnes.
Only Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza and Baylor quarterback Sawyer Robertson (18 touchdowns apiece) have produced more scoring plays than Barnes has (17 touchdowns).
The Utah State quarterback has, quite simply, been better than ever to start the 2025 season. Better than he ever showed capable previously, at least on a consistent basis.
Through five games Barnes has thrown for 1,143 yards and 11 touchdowns, while completing 66% of his pass attempts. He’s also rushed for 245 yards and six touchdowns while functioning as USU’s primary ball carrier.
He is completing a higher percentage of passes than he ever has before and his passes are resulting in more yards per reception than ever. Plus he’s producing touchdowns at an elite clip.
To give Barnes’ start to the season even more context — last year he played in eight games and started four. His total production, while quarterbacking a Utah State offense that finished the year No. 6 nationally in total offense, was 856 yards passing and 12 touchdowns, along with 530 yards rushing and five touchdowns.
Barnes has already matched or surpassed almost all of that.
If he keeps up this pace, Barnes will finish the regular season with nearly 3,000 yards passing (2,743), 26 touchdown passes, 588 yards rushing and 14 rushing touchdowns.
Those are numbers that would put Barnes in the same tier — as far as single seasons go — as Chuckie Keeton, Jordan Love and Logan Bonner in Utah State history.
In fact, he’s positioned to break Keeton’s record of 12 200-yard total offense games in a season, as well as Love’s record of 39 touchdowns responsible for in a single season.
All of which makes it little surprise that Barnes has been showered with praise week after week.
After Utah State’s loss to Vanderbilt last weekend, head coach Bronco Mendenhall said, “He plays with his heart and soul and is completely committed. He’s physical and plays with great effort. ... Bryson, there is no one that tries harder on our team and in our program, maybe in (all of) college football at his position.”
Barnes’ status going forward is something of a question after he left the Vanderbilt game early in the fourth quarter with an undisclosed injury.
Mendenhall hasn’t commented on the nature of Barnes’ injury — the Aggie quarterback was able to walk off the field under his own power at the end of the game — aside from saying that he will let Utah State’s medical team announce it when the time is right.
“I feel more comfortable that way,” Mendenhall said.
If Barnes comes back, the Aggies will be well positioned to contend in the Mountain West, with league games against Boise State, UNLV, Fresno State and New Mexico likely to factor heavily in the conference race.
If Barnes isn’t able to return, the Aggies will turn to Jacob Conover, a former BYU/ASU transfer who played well in limited action against Vanderbilt, throwing the first two touchdown passes of his collegiate career.
The Aggies obviously want Barnes back, but he has been so good this season that even if he doesn’t return he’s had one of the better seasons by a USU quarterback in the last 15 years, in just five games played.
Since 2011, only six Utah State quarterbacks have been responsible for at least 17 touchdowns in a season, let alone five games.
- Keeton in 2012 (35 TDs) and 2013 (20 TDs)
- Kent Myers in 2015 (19 TDs)
- Love in 2018 (39 TDs) and 2019 (20 TDs)
- Bonner in 2021 (36 TDs)
- Cooper Legas in 2023 (19 TDs)
- Spencer Petras in 2024 (18 TDs)
Of that group, only Keeton and Myers were able to have the success that Barnes has had as dual-threat QBs. (Love rushed for seven touchdowns in 2018 but he wasn’t really a primary option in the run game.)
There have been other quarterbacks who’ve come through Utah State and played in more games in a season than Barnes has this year, most notably McCae Hillstead, Darell Garretson and Adam Kennedy, and Barnes has outproduced them all.
It has been that kind of start to the season for the Aggies quarterback, unprecedented in many ways. As Barnes told The Mountain West Network’s Jesse Kurtz, “Yeah, no I’ve not had a stretch like this (before).”
Few Utah State quarterbacks have.
