Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years: 99. Utah State
Utah State, Just Barely Making the Double Digits
And with our first double digit ranking team, narrowly escaping the triple digits, we have Utah State. The Aggies have a surprisingly long and pretty good history, playing since 1892 and accumulating a 576-562-31 record. The lowest ranked out of the 3 teams in Utah, we won’t see BYU and Utah for a while, but 99th is nothing to scoff at, Utah State’s had some pretty good years.
Best Seasons and Highlights
+------+------------+------+--------------+--------+
| rank | team | year | resume score | record |
+------+------------+------+--------------+--------+
| 15 | Utah State | 2012 | 27.894 | 11-2 |
| 22 | Utah State | 2018 | 19.947 | 11-2 |
| 29 | Utah State | 2021 | 15.979 | 11-3 |
| 43 | Utah State | 2014 | 6.33 | 10-4 |
| 45 | Utah State | 2013 | 4.32 | 9-5 |
| 42 | Utah State | 1993 | -4.662 | 7-5 |
| 64 | Utah State | 2011 | -8.925 | 7-6 |
| 65 | Utah State | 2019 | -10.332 | 7-6 |
| 54 | Utah State | 1996 | -11.341 | 6-5 |
| 67 | Utah State | 1997 | -14.933 | 6-6 |
| 66 | Utah State | 1983 | -16.608 | 5-6 |
| 65 | Utah State | 1991 | -17.042 | 5-6 |
| 76 | Utah State | 2015 | -17.358 | 6-7 |
| 66 | Utah State | 1990 | -17.561 | 5-5-1 |
| 71 | Utah State | 1992 | -19.472 | 5-6 |
| 72 | Utah State | 1987 | -22.48 | 5-6 |
| 93 | Utah State | 2017 | -22.72 | 6-7 |
| 103 | Utah State | 2022 | -25.76 | 6-7 |
| 84 | Utah State | 2000 | -27.582 | 5-6 |
| 87 | Utah State | 2001 | -27.763 | 4-7 |
| 94 | Utah State | 2009 | -28.356 | 4-8 |
| 87 | Utah State | 1999 | -28.894 | 4-7 |
| 82 | Utah State | 1995 | -30.898 | 4-7 |
| 86 | Utah State | 2002 | -31.095 | 4-7 |
| 82 | Utah State | 1989 | -32.996 | 4-7 |
| 97 | Utah State | 2010 | -35.051 | 4-8 |
| 85 | Utah State | 1988 | -35.513 | 4-7 |
| 105 | Utah State | 2016 | -36.803 | 3-9 |
| 116 | Utah State | 2020 | -38.368 | 1-5 |
| 89 | Utah State | 1985 | -38.434 | 3-8 |
| 96 | Utah State | 1998 | -38.447 | 3-8 |
| 88 | Utah State | 1994 | -39.644 | 3-8 |
| 106 | Utah State | 2008 | -39.832 | 3-9 |
| 91 | Utah State | 1986 | -41.034 | 3-8 |
| 97 | Utah State | 2003 | -41.172 | 3-9 |
| 105 | Utah State | 2005 | -41.624 | 3-8 |
| 105 | Utah State | 2004 | -42.042 | 3-8 |
| 112 | Utah State | 2007 | -49.002 | 2-10 |
| 100 | Utah State | 1984 | -53.35 | 1-10 |
| 117 | Utah State | 2006 | -66.952 | 1-11 |
+------+------------+------+--------------+--------+
Overall Score: 4904 (99th)197-269-1 record
5 conference titles
6-6 bowl record
1 consensus All-American
31 NFL players drafted
5 conference titles? That’s pretty good! Utah State checks all the statistical boxes here and narrowly misses out on being the first team with 200+ wins. Clearly it’s been rough at points though. Had it not been for the 2010s, which 7 of Utah State’s 8 best seasons have come from, they probably would’ve been bottom 10 on this list or close to it. They’ve made 10 bowls in the last 12 years, making them one of the better G5 teams in the country in that span. Notable NFL players include LB Bobby Wagner and QB Jordan Love.
Top 5 Seasons
Worst Season: 2006 (1-11 overall, 1-7 WAC)
My god. I feel like I’ve said this a few times throughout this series, but this really looks like one of the worst teams ever. Had it not been for a 13-12 win over Fresno State in the middle of the year, it might be considered among the worst. In one of the worst offensive starts to a season ever, Utah State opened with 7-38, 0-20, 0-48, and 0-38 losses to Wyoming, Arkansas, Utah, BYU, for a combined score of 7-144 in 4 games. Utah State managed to average a respectable 15.4 PPG the rest of the year for 10.8 PPG on the season, surprisingly only 3rd worst in the nation. The defense wasn’t any better, giving up 38.5 PPG, also 3rd worst. Former Parade High School All-American QB Riley Nelson threw for 925 yards 6 TD 7 INT. If that name sounds familiar, yes, it’s the former BYU QB. Nelson went on a mission in 2007/08 and was essentially “poached” by BYU, who coaxed him into transferring. This led to the “Riley Nelson rule”, where other teams can’t contact an athlete who’s serving a mission. The move would work out for Nelson, who went on to play at BYU from 2009-12, throwing for 35 TD.
5. 2013 (9-5 overall, 7-1 Mountain West)
After winning the WAC in its final season in 2012, Utah State joined the Mountain West for 2013. It was the first year with new head coach Matt Wells, who’d go on to have 2 more seasons on this top 5 list before leaving for Texas Tech. It was tough to peg Utah State in their new conference, but they surpassed expectations by making the conference championship game. The year started fairly strong with blowouts of Air Force and Weber State, and close losses to Pac-12 opponents Utah and USC. Utah State would start just 3-4 (2-1 MWC), trailing Boise State (5-2, 3-1) for the division lead. Utah State had lost to Boise earlier, so they needed to win 1 more game than Boise down the stretch to have a shot at the title. That they did, winning their last 5 games by an average margin of victory of 23.4 points, and Boise dropped an OT game in their 2nd to last week to San Diego State. 8-4 Utah State faced a tough #24 10-1 Fresno State team, but after going down 7-24 in the 3rd, could only make it 17-24 by the end. They faced #24 Northern Illinois in the bowl, who had a 12-0 regular season before losing the MAC championship game, and beat the dejected Huskies 21-14 to close out the year strong. Utah State had a very good defense, giving up just 17.1 PPG (7th best in the country), led by a secondary which featured future NFL 4th Round Draft Picks Mo Alexander and Nevin Lawson.
4. 2014 (10-4 overall, 6-2 Mountain West)
I wouldn’t say the 2014 team was much better than 2013, they just had more wins. Once again defensive coordinator Todd Orlando led a stifling defense that gave up just 19.7 PPG (12th in the nation) and ranked 2nd in the nation in sacks per game. 4 players made 1st Team All-MWC Defense, including LB brothers Nick and Zach Vigil. Zach won Mountain West DPOTY with 138 tackles, 9 sacks, 9 TFL, 5 FF, and 1 INT. Don’t be fooled by the 14 game schedule—Utah State didn’t make the conference championship game, they just played an away game at Hawaii. They had a chance to make the CCG at the end of the year, as the winner between 9-3 Utah State and 9-2 Boise State would head to the MWC title game. Utah State’s offense couldn’t get anything going and the defense crumbled, so Boise won 50-19. Still, they ended the season with a bowl win over UTEP, and notable wins on the year included 36-24 over Wake Forest and 35-20 over #18 BYU on ESPN.
3. 2021 (11-3 overall, 6-2 Mountain West)
When Blake Anderson joined as head coach, it was a massive upgrade over Gary Andersen (the two aren’t related, check the spelling), who had struggled the previous 2 seasons. Blake won 2 Sun Belt titles in 7 years with Arkansas State, and looked to try to bring Utah State back to the success they had in the early 2010’s. Picked just 5th out of 6 teams in the preseason MWC Mountain Division, a bowl would’ve sufficed for 2021. Down 11-23 to Washington State with 6 minutes left, it seemed like the Power 5 team would hold off the pesky Group of 5 team, until the Aggies mounted a furious comeback to take the lead with 13 seconds left and win 26-23. They’d do the same against Air Force 2 weeks later, down 34-45 in the 4th before winning 49-45. Not sure what to make of the season, they’d get handled fairly easily by Boise State and BYU in back-to-back weeks to fall to 3-2.
They’d fight hard the rest of the year, going 9-3 with some close wins, some blowouts, and a big loss to Wyoming. They made the conference title game, and surprised everyone by dominating #19 San Diego State 46-13. A 24-13 win over Oregon State in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl was both comedic and satisfying. Transfer QB Logan Bonner, who had followed Andersen from Arkansas State to Utah State, threw for 3628 yards 36 TD 12 INT on the year, and WR Deven Thompkins had a monster year catching 102 passes for 1704 yards and 10 TD. A satisfying year for Utah State with a conference title and 2 wins over P5 teams, they finished #29 in my rankings.
2. 2018 (11-2 overall, 7-1 Mountain West)
Utah State opened the season by heading to #11 Michigan State, who was expected to easily win a tune up game before heading to the tougher Arizona State. By the end of it, Michigan State was sweating bullets, having only gone ahead 38-31 with 2 minutes left in the game, holding off a relatively unknown but talented young QB by the name of Jordan Love. It turned out to be nowhere near as embarrassing as people thought, as Love ended up being a 1st round NFL Draft pick and Utah State had plenty of talent in all 3 phases of the game. Utah State ran through their schedule with literally the best offense (statistically) in the country. Surprisingly, they wouldn’t make the Mountain West Championship Game, as they lost 24-33 to #23 Boise State on the final week to fall to 10-2. Par for the course in 2018, they’d boat race North Texas 52-13 in the bowl.
The offense finished 2nd in the nation in PPG with 47.5 thanks to Love, who threw for 3567 yards 32 TD 6 INT and ran for 7 TD. A 1-2 punch of RBs saw Darwin Thompson go for 1044 yards and 14 TD on 6.8 YPC and Gerold Bright go for 888 yards and 10 TD on 6.3 YPC. Savon Scarver was Utah State’s first Consensus All-American since 1969, earning an All-Purpose selection with 33.7 yards per kick return and 2 KR TD. Scarver would go on to tie the NCAA record for kick return TD in a career with 7, and had a KR TD 5 straight years from 2017-21. Utah State won 7 games by 30+ points on the year, and Matt Wells and his coaching staff left for Texas Tech after the season.
1. 2012 (11-2 overall, 6-0 WAC)
While those other teams were good…there was something different about 2012. It was the last year of the WAC, and it felt like everyone decided to give 110% because of it. San Jose State and Utah State finished the year in the Top 25, Louisiana Tech spent most of the year in the Top 25, and even newcomer UTSA finished 8-4. Utah State fans could tell it was going to be a special season when they beat Utah 27-20 in week 2. It snapped a 12 game losing streak to the Utes, and to this day is considered one of Utah State’s biggest wins in the 21st century. USU travelled to Camp Randall to face Wisconsin, who was in the midst of winning their 3rd straight Big Ten title, and held the Badgers to just 16 points in a 14-16 loss. Utah State had a chance to win on a 37 yard FG with no time left, but pushed it wide right. After winning 2 more and falling to 4-2 with a 3-6 loss to BYU, Utah State was flawless the rest of the year. They beat San Jose State 49-27, who’d finish 11-2 and #21 in the nation. They dominated New Mexico State, UTSA, and Texas State.
Then came the de-facto WAC championship game, 8-2 Utah State at #19 9-1 Louisiana Tech. LT were heavy WAC favorites coming into the year, and the game was in Louisiana. In a CRAZY game, Utah State went up 41-17 in the 3rd quarter before LT came storming back to tie it 41-41 with no time left. After scoring a TD in OT, Utah State held Louisiana Tech for the 48-41 OT victory and claimed the WAC title in its final year. They won their bowl against Matt Campbell’s Toledo 41-15 to finish the season. Utah State scored 34.9 PPG while giving up just 15.4 PPG. In 6 home games, they beat opponents by an average score of 37-10! Wins on the year included 27-20 over Utah, 49-27 over 11-2 San Jose State, 48-41 over 9-3 Louisiana Tech, 41-15 over 9-4 Toledo, 48-17 over 8-4 UTSA, and a whole bunch of blowouts. Their 2 losses came by just 5 combined points to Big Ten champion Wisconsin and BYU.
QB Chuckie Keeton was arguably the best player Utah State’s ever had, and if not for injuries throughout his career, would’ve been a household name. He completed 68% for 3373 yards 27 TD 9 INT and ran for 619 yards 8 TD on 4.8 YPC. RB Kerwynn Williams was one of the best RBs in the country with 1512 rushing yards and 15 TD on 6.9 YPC, along with 45 catches for 697 yards and 5 TD. That’s a combination of 2209 yards and 20 TD from scrimmage on 8.4 yards per touch! Utah State finished #15 in my rankings, and it was well deserved.
5th Quarter
Which do you think was the best Utah State team? Any favorite teams you’ve enjoyed learning about in the series so far?
Ranking the Top 131 College Football Programs of the Last 40 Years - Main Hub
