Utah State Football: How quickly can Blake Anderson turn Aggies around?

How will Utah State football fare in 2021?

Utah State is not unaccustomed to tough schedules, but when you are rebuilding, it can be tough to not catch many breaks from a scheduling perspective.

The Aggies face most of the top teams in the Mountain West, as well as a game against Washington State. This won’t be an easy first season for Blake Anderson.

• Game 1: Washington State (L) — The good thing is this game is at home, but I think Washington State will have too much firepower for Utah State.
• Game 2: North Dakota (W) — This game against an FCS team like North Dakota represents a good opportunity to get an early win.
• Game 3: at Air Force (L) — The Falcons are always tough due to the option offense and playing them early in the season under a new defensive staff makes it even tougher.
• Game 4: Boise State (L) — This will be a tough game against the premier program in the conference, which also has Top 25 potential.
• Game 5: BYU (L) — BYU is losing a lot of experience and star power from last year’s squad, but not enough for the Aggies to pull off an upset.
• Game 6: at UNLV (L) — This is a tough game to predict because neither team is going to be very good and both will be desperate for a win, so I usually side with the home team in that case.
• Game 7: Colorado State (L) — Steve Addazio is going to have the Rams playing tough and physical football and they should be able to take care of Utah State.
• Game 8: Hawaii (L) — Another toss-up game, I will give the edge to the more proven team in Hawaii.
• Game 9: at New Mexico State (W) — New Mexico State will be a bad team this year and Utah State should win this one with ease.
• Game 10: at San Jose State (L) — San Jose State shocked a lot of people by winning the MWC last season and is hoping to have an encore season that is even better than last year.
• Game 11: Wyoming (L) — Wyoming always has a tough defense and is further along as a program than Utah State is right now.
• Game 12: at New Mexico (W) — I think the Aggies can finish off the season with a win on the road against the Lobos.

Final Record: 3-9 (2-7 Mountain West)

There is an opportunity for more wins on the schedule for Utah State, but uncertainty at several positions and the talent pool not being great makes it tough to forecast any more wins for Utah State this season.

I fully expect Anderson to turn this program around and get them back to winning and competing for conference titles soon. Utah State fans will just need patience this season.