NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Utah State football battled to a draw with No. 18 Vanderbilt through the first 27 minutes of play but was unable to keep pace as the Aggies ultimately fell to the Commodores, 55-35, on Saturday, Sept. 27, at FirstBank Stadium.
Utah State's 35 points are the most by the Aggies against a ranked opponent since defeating then-No. 19 San Diego State, 46-13, in the 2021 Mountain West Championship game.
Utah State posted 393 yards of total offense (274 passing, 119 rushing) and was led by graduate QB
Bryson Barnes, who was 15-of-22 passing for 161 yards and a season-high-tying three touchdowns. Barnes, who rushed for 48 yards on 10 carries, was hurt on the first play of the fourth quarter and missed the remainder of the game.
Junior RB
Javen Jacobs produced a career-high 153 all-purpose yards as he rushed for 63 on four carries, to go along with 48 receiving yards on six receptions and 42 returns yards on two kickoffs. Graduate TE
Broc Lane had a career-high seven receptions for a career-best 98 yards, the most by an Aggie tight end since Kellen Bartlett had 121 receiving yards on five catches in 2010.
Junior WR
Braden Pegan finished with seven catches for 66 yards and one touchdown, while graduate RB
Miles Davis had two catches for 19 yards and one touchdown. Graduate TE
Josh Sterzer added two catches for 16 yards and a touchdown, while graduate WR
Brady Boyd had two catches for 14 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore QB
Anthony Garcia contributed two receptions for 13 yards. Five different Aggies caught a touchdown, tied for the most in program history, also doing so against Air Force in 2013 and Wyoming in 2011.
Graduate QB
Jacob Conover entered in the fourth quarter for an injured Barnes and finished with 92 yards on 11-of-14 passing for two touchdowns as his completions, passing yards and touchdowns are all career highs.
Senior CB
Noah Avinger led the Aggies defense with 12 tackles and an interception in the end zone in the fourth quarter. It was his second double-digit tackle outing of the season and the fourth of his career, while adding his third interception this year and the sixth of his career. Graduate ILB
John Miller also had 12 tackles for his third double-digit tackling outing of the season and his career.
After both teams went three-and-out to begin the game, USU went to work on the first of back-to-back 75-yard touchdown drives for the Aggies. Utah State needed only eight plays to march down the field as Barnes capped the drive with an 18-yard strike to Davis for an early 7-0 lead.
Following a Vanderbilt touchdown, the Aggie offense again advanced down the field, aided by a pair of fourth-down penalties on the Commodore defense. Barnes then found Sterzer for a 10-yard score to again give the Aggies a touchdown lead. Vanderbilt responded with three-consecutive touchdowns to take a 28-14 lead.
Barnes engineered a last-minute scoring drive for the Aggies, finding Pegan on a fade route for a nine-yard touchdown to make it 28-21. A 46-yard field goal by Vanderbilt made it 31-21 entering halftime.
The Commodores then scored 17 straight third quarter points to build a 48-21 lead.
Conover engineered a pair of fourth quarter touchdown drives for the Aggies as he found Boyd for a 14-yard touchdown and Jacobs for a six-yard score to make the final margin 55-35.
Up Next
Utah State football (3-2, 1-0 MW) enters their first of two bye weeks this season before returning to Mountain West play at Hawaii
on Saturday, Oct. 11, at 10 p.m. (MT). The game will be streamed on the Mountain West Network.
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