Utah State looking to snap ugly trend against Top 25 opponents
Sep 9, 2026, 4:47 PM
Utah State is looking to snap an ugly skid against Top 25 opponents when they face the No. 19 Washington Huskies on Saturday. (Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images)
(Photo by Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images)
LOGAN – History hasn’t been kind to Utah State when it comes to AP Top 25 opponents.
The Aggies enter Saturday’s matchup with No. 19 Washington just 6-72 all-time against ranked teams. On the road, the numbers are even grimmer: 3-57 against AP Top 25 opponents away from home.
Already 0-3 all-time against Washington, Utah State is 1-31 against Big Ten teams.
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Headed to Washington this week 🤘 pic.twitter.com/9Nq7Ascaqx
— USU Football (@USUFootball) September 7, 2026
And those numbers are about to be tested like never before.
The program’s move to the Pac-12 means ranked opponents are no longer a handful of nonconference curiosities scattered across the schedule — they’re conference mates. As many as three of the Aggies’ next four opponents could carry a Top 25 ranking, with No. 20 Utah a potential matchup if the Utes win this weekend, and Boise State likely to crack the poll before traveling to Logan to open Pac-12 play for both teams on Oct. 3.
For a program that hasn’t beaten a ranked team since routing No. 19 San Diego State 46-13 in the 2021 Mountain West championship game, the road ahead looks like a proving ground — or a gauntlet.
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Utah State against AP Top 25 teams since 2022
Utah State couldn’t parlay its 2021 MW title game triumph into sustained success against ranked opponents.
Since that victory, the Aggies are 0-9 in such games, losing by an average of 26.3 points:
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2022
- 55-0 loss at No. 1 Alabama
- 38-26 loss at No. 19 BYU
2023
- 24-14 loss at No. 25 Iowa
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2024
- 48-0 loss at No. 13 USC
- 38-21 loss vs. No. 12 Utah
- 62-30 loss at No. 21 Boise State
- 49-28 loss at No. 20 Washington State
2025
- 44-22 loss at No. 19 Texas A&M
- 55-35 loss at No. 18 Vanderbilt
The nine-game skid spans three head coaches and features five losses by 20-plus points. Only the BYU and Iowa defeats were decided by fewer than two touchdowns.
If Bronco Mendenhall’s first Pac-12 season is going to signal a shift for Utah State, the evidence will have to come against exactly the kind of opponents who have owned the Aggies for the better part of a decade. Saturday in Seattle is the first exam.
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Brian Preece is a sports.ksl.com insider covering Locals in MLB and the Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball here. Find Brian on X, Instagram, and BlueSky at @bpreece24.
Parts of this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team.
