LOGAN, Utah – Utah State football held its seventh practice of fall camp Friday morning and the Aggie safeties are emphasizing communication and making sure everyone on defense is on the same page.
 
"I'm really excited about those guys, it's a good group from top to bottom," said first-year safeties coach Ethan Morriss. "We're just working on communication, communicating with conviction, making sure everyone's on the same page. We ask those safeties to do a lot in our defense when it comes to making sure everyone's in the right position, so they've got to do a good job of communicating, seeing the surfaces, seeing the formations, and making sure that everyone's on the same page. Those guys are the quarterback of the defense, and they've got to do a good job of making sure that everyone's on the same page."
 
Utah State returns one starter here in sophomore Ike Larsen. Larsen was named a College Football News Honorable Mention Freshman All-American and a second-team all-Mountain West selection last season as he played in 11 games with four starts. He finished the season with 33 tackles, which included 2.0 sacks and 3.0 tackles for loss, to go along with a team-best four interceptions and a team-high three blocked kicks, while adding two pass breakups.
 
"The first week of fall camp has been good," said Larsen. "We're learning daily, trying to get better, and I feel like we've brought good energy. I've been impressed because we have a lot of new guys and it's awesome to see us all come together and be able to learn one thing, then go out that night and walk through it. I feel confident about this defense. People are doubting us, but we're right where we want to be, so we're not worried at all."
 
Utah State returns one more letterwinner here in senior Omari Okeke, who played in 10 games with one start in his first season with the program a year ago and recorded 18 tackles and one pass breakup.
 
Utah State also has one redshirt returning in junior Anthony Switzer, to go along with senior Dusten Remseyer-Burdett, who appeared in two games last season. Switzer missed the 2022 season due to injury in his first year with USU. Prior to that, he spent three seasons (2019-21) at Arkansas State, appearing in 24 games with 15 starts. At ASU, he had 91 total tackles, which included 4.0 tackles for loss, to go along with four pass breakups, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one interception.
 
"Ike has done a great job this year of learning the defense, growing, maturing, becoming the leader that he needs to be and trying to get the whole group moving on the same page," added Morriss. "Another guy in that room is Anthony Switzer, who has done a great job in continuing to help Ike mature and showing him how it's supposed to be done. Having those older guys grab the younger guys and continuing to show them how it's supposed to be done is really good."
 
Along with the four players mentioned above, Utah State added eight newcomers here, including a four-year transfer in sophomore Simeon Harris (Vallejo, California/Benicia HS/Colorado). Harris played in 11 games with four starts at Colorado as a true freshman during the 2022 season and finished the year with 21 tackles.
 
Utah State also added three junior college transfers to the group in sophomore Devin Dye (San Diego, California/Cathedral Catholic HS/Palomar College), sophomore Teeg Slone (Rocklin, California/Rocklin HS/American River College) and sophomore Javar Strong (Cherokee, Arkansas/Muscle Shoals HS/Hutchinson CC).
 
Dye spent two seasons at Palomar College and recorded 59 tackles, which included 2.0 tackles for loss, to go along with two interceptions in 2022. And, Strong earned honorable mention all-conference honors as a freshman at Hutchinson CC last season, as he recorded 48 tackles, which included 0.5 tackles for loss, to go along with one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
 
Another transfer is joining this group in redshirt freshman Jackson Sundstrom (Smithfield, Utah/Sky View HS/Concordia College).
 
Three high school newcomers round out this group in freshmen Chase Davis (Little Elm, Texas/Little Elm HS), Titan Saxton (Smithfield, Utah/Sky View HS) and Kadiyon Sweat (Lehi, Utah/Lehi HS).
 
Sweat highlights this group as he helped lead Lehi HS to back-to-back 5A state championships. He concluded his prep career with 217 tackles, 26 interceptions, 29 pass breakups, 2,882 all-purpose yards and 11 total touchdowns, including four pick-sixes. As a senior, he earned first-team all-state honors, was the Utah Valley Player of the Year, and was named the Utah Class 5A Region 8 MVP, as he had 57 tackles, which included 3.0 tackles for loss, to go along with 10 interceptions and eight pass breakups.
 
"There are lots of new faces, but they've done a phenomenal job of getting in, putting in extra work to learn the defense, asking the tough questions, making sure that they know exactly what to do on every single play, and we've just seen a huge buy in. We have 50-something new faces, but every single one of them have bought in to what we're preaching and what we're teaching them and it's been great to see the growth so far throughout camp," added Morriss.
 
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. 12, at 11 a.m., and its final scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 19, at noon, as part of its annual Family Football Fun Day. Both scrimmages will be held on Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium.
 
Utah State opens the 2023 season at Iowa on Saturday, Sept. 2, while its home opener is the fol-lowing weekend against Idaho State on Saturday, Sept. 9. USU begins Mountain West play at Air Force on Friday, Sept. 15.
 
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.