Bryson Barnes will be Utah State’s starting quarterback when the Aggies play Hawaii late Saturday night.
Officially announced to media Tuesday night following practice, Barnes was a full participant with the team throughout the bye week, a source told the Deseret News.
Since news of Barnes’ availability became public, the Aggies have gone from being considered a slight underdog to a favorite in the game with Hawaii, which shouldn’t come as a great surprise.
Barnes has been special for Utah State this season and is on pace to challenge some of the more notable records in program history, set by players like Chuckie Keeton and Jordan Love.
Through five games, Barnes is third in the Mountain West Conference in total offense, averaging 277.6 yards per game. Only San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget and Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen have been more productive.
Barnes is also the fourth-best passer in the league statistically, when it comes to passing yards per game, but he leads the conference in touchdown passes (11), fewest interceptions thrown (1), is averaging the second-most yards per pass, and is one of just four QBs in the MWC completing better than 65% of their passes.
Barnes’ dual-threat ability has helped the Aggies be the best offensive team in the MWC this season, tied with Air Force for the most points scored per game.
Having Barnes healthy makes the Aggies a genuine threat to win any or all of their final seven games, all conference contests, most of which are against contending teams.
If Barnes were to get injured and miss time later this season, though, USU coach Bronco Mendenhall is confident in what he has in his quarterback room behind him.
Backup Jacob Conover would be the next man up and he played well, albeit in limited time, against Vanderbilt two weeks ago.
“We have a lot of confidence in Jacob,” Mendenhall said. “And if Bryson’s not able to go, it would be Jacob’s role to have.”
The Aggies’ offense would be altered if Barnes were unavailable, as Conover doesn’t possess the same dual-threat ability, but Mendenhall hopes that USU wouldn’t have to change things too much with an offense that has been having great success.
“We’d prefer it not (change) as much as possible,“ Mendenhall said. ”We know Bryson moves the ball many times and corrects mistakes with his legs, so there’d be a little bit less of that, and we (would) probably have to find other ways to be able to manufacture that."
Mendenhall also cleared up the Aggies’ depth chart at quarterback behind Barnes and Conover, noting that sophomore CJ Tiller (a Boise State transfer) is QB3, with quarterback-turned-wide receiver Anthony Garcia is QB4 right now.
Mendenhall did note that Garcia would likely get involved more at quarterback in the event Barnes couldn’t play, to make use of his running ability.
Against Hawaii, Mendenhall and Utah State won’t have to worry about playing without Barnes, though. And Barnes’ assault on the Aggie record books can continue.
