FRESNO, Calif. — Utah State quarterback Bryson Barnes left Jim Sweeney Field bruised and battered, with turf burns all up and down his arms.
He took hit after hit in a Saturday night bout with the Fresno State Bulldogs, but he also took one more key thing off the field with him: an elusive sixth victory that made the Aggies bowl eligible once again.
In the wake of a heartbreaking loss to UNLV a week ago, Barnes put on a heroic second-half performance against Fresno State and launched himself into what should be firmly in the running for Mountain West offensive player of the year award.
“He, in my opinion, just took over the game,” said head coach Bronco Mendenhall. “Run after run and first down after first down … what a just remarkable leader he is.”
Barnes finished the day 16-of-30 for 150 yards passing, with 113 rushing yards and one receiving touchdown — the first of his career. It was his third 100-yard rushing game of the season, which extended his school record for 100-yard rushing games by a Utah State quarterback.
In the second half, Barnes was 8-of-13 through the air, with 82 of his 113 rushing yards collected.
“Offensively, we wanted more points on the board, so we were definitely frustrated with the production that we were having,” Barnes said of the first-half offense. “In the second half, we came out with a little bit more determination and trusted in the game plan and went out and executed.”
The determination and execution from the famed pig farmer and his offense led the Aggies to victory, and showcased, once again, why Barnes is one of the top quarterbacks and offensive players in the Mountain West.
The conference’s offensive player of the year award has been won by a running back in each of the last three seasons, with 2024 Heisman Trophy finalist Ashton Jeanty winning the award in each of the last two.
The last quarterback to win the award was Nevada’s Carson Strong in 2021, his second straight year winning, after throwing for 4,175 yards and accounting for 36 touchdowns.
The two front-runners for the award are UNLV quarterback Anthony Colandrea and Hawaii quarterback Micah Alejado.
Colandrea leads the pack in many statistical categories, having thrown for 2,780 yards and accounting for 28 total touchdowns through 11 games. Alejado, having missed two games early in the season, trails with 2,543 yards and 20 total touchdowns, making his path to the honor much more difficult.
Barnes, though, has 2,502 passing yards and 27 total touchdowns through 11 games after Saturday’s win.
In just a simple look at the numbers, it would appear that Colandrea has had a more impressive season while leading the Rebels to a 9-2 record and a chance at the Mountain West championship game, something that is sure to catch voters’ eyes; however, a closer look at the two teams reveals that it isn’t quite that simple.
Utah State’s nonconference schedule included third-ranked and undefeated Texas A&M and twelfth-ranked Vanderbilt, both on the road. UNLV’s lone Power Four opponent was at home against UCLA, a program that fired its head coach after a home loss to fellow conference contender New Mexico and has just three wins on the season.
Barnes’ current stats also don’t include the second half against Nevada, where he played just one drive before giving way to the backup squad. In addition to the strength of the opponent, Barnes has intangible value to his team and teammates that simple statistical categories just can’t measure — as proven Saturday.
“Bryson is our leader, Bryson is our spark, and Bryson will lay on the line for this program, for his brothers, as you can see,” junior linebacker Bronson Olevao Jr. said. “You see him running, you see him taking hits, but you know he loves his teammates, he loves this team, and he executes.
“And, honestly, I wouldn’t want anyone else but Bryson Barnes in that role or to achieve that.”
The conference accolades rarely account for many of these intangibles and frequently are skewed based on the overall team record. Nevertheless, Barnes’ impact on the Aggies and the team’s ability to win games cannot be understated.
“It’s Bryson Barnes every day, all day, every vote,” Mendenhall said. “Unfortunately, Mountain West honors aren’t like that, and it’s not a perfect process. It’s probably one of the most flawed and imperfect processes that exists. I’ve never seen anything like it … what he’s doing for this team, just simply by commitment, is setting the foundation of this program for a long, long time.”
Each of the aforementioned quarterbacks are deserving of the award, but Barnes continues to prove year after year he’s willing to do whatever it takes to win for his team. From a gutsy Rose Bowl performance with Utah to his stellar two seasons with Utah State, Barnes remains the ultimate warrior on the field.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.