Utah State Aggies 2026 Season Preview

Hillstead is something of a homecoming story. The junior began his career at Utah State, playing extensively as a true freshman in 2023, when he started four games and threw for 399 yards in a home outing against James Madison, before spending the next two seasons at BYU. He returns via the portal and secured the QB1 job with a strong spring. The pairing with Anae, one of the most experienced offensive minds in the sport and a longtime Mendenhall lieutenant across their BYU and Virginia stops, should smooth the transition. Anae has run pass-heavy systems throughout his career but has leaned more balanced in recent years, and with a new signal-caller settling in, expect the Aggies to lean on the run early. Grady Brosterhous provides depth behind Hillstead.

The Aggies lost two productive wideouts but bring back a genuine matchup weapon in Anthony Garcia, a Swiss Army knife who scored seven touchdowns in 2025. To rebuild the room around him, Utah State worked the portal aggressively, adding Eli Wood, who finished strong at Virginia, and slot target Javon Robinson, a compact playmaker out of Georgia State who hauled in 58 receptions a year ago. Demick Starling gives the group another veteran presence on the outside, and junior Kache Kaio is penciled in as the top tight end.

The backfield is the offense's clearest strength. Javen Jacobs, now a senior, is a proven dual-threat back who piled up 1,058 all-purpose yards and eight touchdowns as a junior. He is equally dangerous as a receiver out of the backfield and as a return man, and he figures to shoulder a heavy workload behind an experienced line. Noah White provides a change of pace in reserve.

The front five is the foundation that makes the offensive reset workable. Utah State returns all three interior starters in left guard George Maile, center Jimmy Liston and right guard Tavo Motu'apuaka, a physical, veteran core that should hold up in the trenches. Tackles John Randle Jr. and Seth Wilfred bracket that group. The experience up front buys Hillstead time to grow into the job and gives Jacobs room to work, and it stands out as the unit most likely to keep the offense steady through the personnel turnover elsewhere.

There is real continuity on a defense that badly needs to improve. Utah State surrendered 440.1 yards per game, dead last in the Mountain West, along with 28.7 points and nearly six yards per play. The rebuild starts up front, where returning starters Tyree Morris and Carson Tujague give the Aggies a physically imposing interior. Morris, a senior, and Tujague, a sophomore, anchor a 3-3-5 scheme under returning coordinator Nick Howell, and a deeper, more experienced front should help cut into last season's rushing numbers.

The linebacker corps may be the defense's best position group. Bronson Olevao Jr., an honorable mention All-Mountain West selection, returns after posting 90 tackles, 7.5 for loss and four sacks, and he is joined by returning starter Chris Joe. The headline addition is Harrison Taggart, a well-traveled senior stop rusher whose resume includes stops at Oregon, BYU and Cal, where he tallied 38 tackles last fall. With the line commanding blocking attention, Taggart and Olevao are positioned to generate impressive tackle-for-loss totals and keep the takeaways coming.

The secondary blends returning production with portal reinforcements. Safety Brevin Hamblin, another honorable mention All-Mountain West honoree, is back alongside returning cornerback D'Angelo Mayes, and both were among the Aggies' interception makers on a unit that picked off 13 passes in 2025. Turnovers were this defense's calling card, and the next step is consistency between those splash plays. Utah State added starting-caliber help in safety Chapman Lewis, who started at Texas Tech in 2024, and cornerback Antonio Bluiett, an honorable mention FCS All-American at North Dakota.

Special teams look like a strength. Punter Landon Rehkow returns after averaging 42.9 yards per attempt and booming 18 of his 63 kicks 50-plus yards. The new place-kicker is Kian Afrookhteh, an honorable mention All-Sun Belt pick at Coastal Carolina who connected on 15 of 19 field goals a year ago. The Aggies also have a proven long-snapper in Hyrum Hatch, a 2024 freshman All-American, and Jacobs is a legitimate weapon on both kickoff and punt returns.