Now Utah State is heading to a bowl game thanks to Barnes’ late-career flurry. He has 2,500 passing yards, 27 total touchdowns and a league-leading 13 yards per completion. He accounts for nearly 70 …
Logan • Bronco Mendenhall was on his remote Montana ranch when he first heard of “the pig farmer.”
And there might not have been a quarterback more tailored for the coach-turned-cowboy.
So when Mendenhall flipped on Utah’s game and saw then-signal caller Bryson Barnes leading the way — with the announcers explaining how he tended to thousands of pigs on his family’s farm — he gravitated toward his story.
“He came in as a backup, and I was just like, ‘Man, what a tough, tough kid,” Mendenhall said. “I wasn’t watching tons of games, and I don’t consider myself a fan. But I did remember watching that game. I remember his story.”
Years later, the cowboy and the pig farmer’s relationship turned out as fitting as it sounds.
Mendenhall left his horses in Montana to coach the Aggies. Barnes, originally from Milford, transferred from Utah and became Mendenhall’s first captain.
And the pair has effectively rebuilt Utah State’s football program into a postseason contender in just 10 months.
Now Utah State is heading to a bowl game thanks to Barnes’ late-career flurry. He has 2,500 passing yards, 27 total touchdowns and a league-leading 13 yards per completion. He accounts for nearly 70 percent of Utah State’s entire offensive output.
It has Mendenhall calling for Barnes to be named the Mountain West player of the year.
“It’s Bryson Barnes every day, all day, every vote,” Mendenhall said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. What he is doing for this team, simply by commitment, is setting the foundation for this program for a long, long time.”
But it wasn’t always that easy.
When Mendenhall took over Utah State’s rebuild, he had doubts about putting Barnes in charge.
Nearly everywhere Mendenhall had been, he entrusted his offense to freakish athletes. He coached Taysom Hill at BYU, who famously ran a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash and squatted 685 pounds. He had Bryce Perkins at Virginia, a player so athletic that he set UVa’s all-time record with 3,600 total yards in a single season.
“They’re phenomenal athletes, in terms of the sheer vertical jumps and speed and all that. And while Bryson is an amazing athlete, his testing numbers aren’t the same,” Mendenhall said.
Barnes didn’t have the track record either. While he famously came in during the Rose Bowl to spell an injured Cam Rising, at Utah Barnes only had moments instead of sustained success.
He beat USC in the Coliseum but never threw for more than 1,600 yards in a single season. He threw a touchdown against Ohio State, but was forced to transfer after riding the bench most of his career in Salt Lake.
His first year in Logan didn’t go as planned, either. He ended with under 1,000 yards passing and a fan base restless to see if Barnes was really the future.
“That [first] year was just interesting. We lost our head coach in the summer and it always felt different in that way,” Barnes said. But Mendenhall’s “offense utilizes my strengths more than [2024] offense,” he insisted.
Mendenhall started to see it that way too as they became closer.
Both had a similar story of being overlooked. Mendenhall famously always wanted to play for BYU but never got the call. Instead, he chose to play at Oregon State so he could play against the Cougars. The day the Beavers beat BYU inside LaVell Edwards Stadium, Mendenhall was doing snow angles on the stretch Y at midfield.
Barnes, too, was told he wasn’t good enough by Utah’s coaching staff. Even as he was Rising’s long-time backup, the Utes brought in star freshman Isaac Wilson and others to play over him. So he ventured to USU to prove himself.
It worked.
USU gave Barnes the reins as he beat up on Air Force and UTEP. He accounted for 421 total yards and five touchdowns against McNeese State.
“What I didn’t know, even through spring, is the competitive spirit, the toughness,” Mendenhall said. “I mean, that’s been remarkable. I saw the other side and I said, ‘Man, this is going to be a good quarterback.’ I didn’t know that part, not to the level he has been.”
Together they have enjoyed a career resurgence.
The Aggies went from four wins to six in his first year.
Barnes is having a career year. He just had his first child, Reed, in October and is looking to end his five-year college stint with something to leave behind in Logan.
“I’ve just got to run out of words. I’m kind of out of descriptors,” Mendenhall said.
To Mendenhall, Barnes has already done more than he expected.
But for one parting gift, with bowl eligibility on the line, Barnes put on a vintage performance against Fresno State. He threw for 151 yards and ran for 113 more. Facing the best run defense in the league, USU escaped to get to six wins.
Barnes followed that up by taking Boise State to the wire on Saturday night. He broke USU’s single-season record for most rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. He finished with over 250 total yards in a 25-24 loss.
It was Barnes’ final game at Maverik Stadium, but the Aggies believe their quarterback has set the table for the future.
“I’m really excited for the direction and trajectory of the program,” Mendenhall said.
Not bad for a pig farmer and a cowboy.
Source: Utah News