LOGAN, Utah – Utah State football held its 11th practice of fall camp Tuesday morning and the wide receivers have shown plenty of potential heading into the 2023 campaign.
 
"So far, I've been really pleased with the wideouts in fall camp," said co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Kyle Cefalo. "We've done a good job in year three of building the room. We still have a lot of work to do, but there's effort every day, and I've just been really pleased with the group.
 
"The scrimmage on Saturday went really well, and we had multiple guys step up and make plays. It wasn't perfect, but they tried to do exactly what we asked them to do, and they did a really good job catching the ball and making plays, so I'm very pleased."
 
Despite losing two of its top three wide receivers from last season, Utah State's coaches are optimistic that this year's group can produce at a high level as it returns six letterwinners from a year ago.
 
Utah State returns one starter here in senior Terrell Vaughn, who caught 56 passes for 624 yards and five touchdowns last season, as he earned honorable mention all-Mountain West accolades.
 
"Terrell has picked up where he left off last year," said Cefalo. "He had a great spring, a great summer, and now, he's having a great camp. He's taking the field with confidence. He knows what to do, knows how to do it, and his effort every day is non-stop. He just goes and goes and goes."
 
Utah State returners five more letterwinners here in senior Kyle Van Leeuwen, juniors Kyrese Rowan and Jalen Royals, and sophomores Ryder MacGillivray and Otto Tia. Van Leeuwen is the most experienced player in this group as he has played in 19 career games, including starting three in 2022, before missing the remainder of the season due to injury. For his career, Van Leeuwen has 16 receptions for 151 yards and one touchdown.
 
"I've been with Otto for almost three years now and the scrimmage on Saturday was easily the best that he's performed. With him, it's confidence. He's got to get out there, he's got to know that he can do it, and then, he's just got to keep doing it," added Cefalo.
 
In addition to the six players mentioned above, Utah State welcomes back two more players in freshmen Austin Okerwa and Quentin Riley, who both redshirted a season ago.
 
Along with the eight players mentioned above, Utah State added eight newcomers here with two four-year transfers, three junior college transfers and three high school players. Highlighting this group is graduate junior transfer Colby Bowman (Orange, California/St. John Bosco HS/Stanford) and redshirt freshman transfer Grant Page (Boulder, Colorado/Fairview HS/Colorado).
 
Bowman spent four years (2019-22) at Stanford and appeared in 26 games, including one start, while Page had 173 catches for 2,538 yards and 26 touchdowns during his prep career.
 
The three junior college transfers are junior Kahanu Davis (Kapa'a, Hawaii/Kapa'a HS/Southwestern College), junior Micah Davis (Atlanta, Georgia/Harrison HS/Iowa Western CC) and junior Arcellus Johnson (Woodland Hills, California/El Camino Real HS/Moorpark College). Micah Davis is the most experienced player in this group as he spent two seasons at the United States Air Force Academy and one year at Iowa Western JC.
 
Utah State also welcomes three high school freshmen in Zakkarii Black (Covina, California/Charter Oak HS), Cole Christensen (Highland, Utah/Lone Peak HS) and Jackson Olsen (Millville, Utah/Ridgeline HS).
 
All fall camp practices are closed to the public. Fans are invited to watch Utah State's final scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 19, at noon, as part of its annual Family Football Fun Day, which 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.