LOGAN, Utah – Utah State football held its 16th practice of fall camp Monday morning and the offensive line continues to practice with tempo and urgency as kickoff to its season opener is less than two weeks away.
 
"We haven't been perfect, but I do believe we've gotten better every day," said first-year offensive line coach Cooper Bassett. The big thing for us right now is trying to solidify who our first five are and who the next three behind them at the guard, tackle and center position are. We have a good idea. I've been pleased with the attitudes so far."
 
Despite only returning one starter from last season, Utah State does return plenty of experience with six lettermen who have combined to play in 144 career games and 32 starts.
 
Utah State's lone returning starter is graduate senior Wade Meacham, who has played in 36 games with 13 starts, both of which are the most on the team for an offensive lineman.
 
Utah State has two more returners here with starting experience in senior Falepule Alo and junior Cole Motes. Alo has played in 22 career games with seven starts, while Motes has played in 21 career games with 12 starts.
 
"Our three experienced guys, Wade, Pule and Cole, have done a great job," added Bassett. "Cole has a lot of flexibility; he can play right tackle and left tackle. If I was going to go into a fight, Pule would probably be the first guy I would want on my side. I love his toughness, his work ethic and his grittiness. He's done a great job at center. And then Wade Mecham, he's done a great job. He looks a lot quicker than he did in the spring and has really done a good job with being that vocal guy in the room, getting us squared away and leading us."
 
Utah State returns three other letterwinners here in seniors Wyatt Bowles and Calvin Knapp, and sophomore Elia Migao, who have combined to play in 65 career games.
 
"For the O-line as a group, we've been having a solid camp," said Motes. "We've got a solid group rolling and now we've got a good rotation and we're starting to find the eight or so guys that we're going to be traveling with that we can really depend on to be out there and not miss a beat. So, I feel really good now about the O-line as a group."
 
Furthermore, Utah State welcomes back one more offensive lineman in senior Jackson Owens, who has 10 career games played. USU also welcomes back four redshirt freshmen in Teague Anderson, Tavo Motu'apuaka, Adam Pond and Bryce Radford.
 
In addition to the 11 returners listed above, Utah State added six newcomers to the offensive line, including one four-year transfer, three junior college transfers and two high school players. Highlighting this group is graduate transfer Ralph Frias III (Safford, Arizona/Safford HS/Arizona State), who spent five seasons (2018-22) at Arizona State and appeared in 26 games.
 
The three junior college transfers include junior Shively Asoau Fua (San Francisco, California/Mission HS/Chabot College), junior Jake Hellmann (Pleasant View, Utah/Weber HS/College of San Mateo) and sophomore Aloali'i Maui (Pago Pago, American Samoa/Tafuna HS/New Mexico Military Institute), while the three freshmen are Jarvis Griffiths (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS), K'Leyone Iosua (Lehi, Utah/Skyridge HS) and Jr Sia (Herriman, Utah/Mountain Ridge HS).
 
"With coach (Blake) Anderson's offense, what we want our O-line to be known for is playing with tempo and urgency, but we want to finish with violence. When you come out and see us, we might not be the biggest, the tallest or the strongest, but I want us to play with urgency and finish with violence. If we can do that, then we're going to allow our athletes on the perimeter to make a lot of plays for us."
 
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.