LOGAN, Utah – Utah State football held its fourth practice of fall camp Monday morning and the Aggie offense will be led by an offensive line unit that returns four starters from last season, to go along with three more letterwinners, who have combined to play in 145 games with 76 starts during their careers.
 
"We have a lot of experience back," said second-year offensive line coach Micah James. "What I like about our crew is that they're good guys and they want to come in and work every single day. These guys love what they're doing. It's great to come out here and work. The old guys are trying to lead and I'm excited about the young guys, as well."
 
In all, Utah State returns 10 offensive linemen who were members of the program during the 2021 season, including four starters in graduate seniors Chandler Dolphin and Alfred Edwards, senior Jacob South and sophomore Cole Motes.
 
Edwards, who earned honorable mention all-Mountain West honors a season ago, is the most experienced player here with 42 starts among his 43 career games played, while South has started 15 of the 24 games he has played. Dolphin has appeared in 19 games during his career with 11 starts and Motes started eight of his nine games played last season as a freshman.
 
"A big point of emphasis for us, because we are bringing so many guys back, is to improve on what we did poorly last year," said Edwards. "We made great strides in the spring and that has carried over into fall camp."
 
Utah State also returns three other letterwinners here in seniors Wyatt Bowles and Wade Meacham and junior Calvin Knapp, who have combined to play in 40 career games.
 
Furthermore, Utah State welcomes back two more offensive linemen that missed all or parts of last season due to injury in juniors Falepule Alo and Jackson Owens. Alo has started seven of the 10 career games he has played in at USU, while Owens has 10 career games played, as well. USU also welcomes back one redshirt in freshman Elia Migao.
 
In addition to the 10 returners listed above, Utah State added seven newcomers to the offensive line in junior transfer Nikita Iuferov (Petrozavodsk, Russia/Attestat O Srednow/San Mateo JC),
sophomore transfer Austin Leausa (West Jordan, Utah/West Jordan HS/Southern Utah), and freshmen Teague Anderson (Provo, Utah/Timpview HS), Weylin Lapuaho (South Jordan, Utah/Bingham HS), Sione Motu'apuaka (Honolulu, Hawaii/Radford HS), Adam Pond (Lehi, Utah/Skyridge HS) and Bryce Radford (Hyde Park, Utah/Green Canyon HS).
 
All fall camp practices – minus two scrimmages – will be closed to the public. Fans are invited to watch Utah State's first scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 6, at 11 a.m., and its final scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 13, at 1 p.m., as part of its annual Family Football Fun Day. Both scrimmages will be held on Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium.
 
Utah State will open the 2022 season on Saturday, Aug. 27, when it hosts Connecticut at 2 p.m., in a game that will be nationally televised on Fox Sports 1. USU then plays at Alabama on Saturday, Sept. 3, and hosts Weber State on Saturday, Sept. 10, before beginning MW play at home against UNLV on Saturday, Sept. 24, in a game that will be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network at 5 p.m.
 
For Aggie football ticket information, fans can contact the USU Athletics Ticket Office over the phone by calling 1-888-USTATE-1 or 435-797-0305 during regular hours of operation. Fans can also buy their tickets in person at the USU Ticket Office inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum or online by clicking on the "Buy Tickets" tab at www.UtahStateAggies.com.
 
Fans can follow the Aggie football program at twitter.com/USUFootball or on Facebook at Utah State Football, as well as on Instagram at instagram.com/USUFootball. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program at twitter.com/USUAthletics or on Facebook at Utah State University Athletics.