Preview: Utah State Welcomes Idaho State For 2026 Opener

It's been three years, nearly to the day, since a then little-known true freshman quarterback named McCae Hillstead made his collegiate debut in the waning minutes of a dominant Utah State win over an outmatched Idaho State squad. His outing wasn't especially memorable, completing 3 of 5 passes for 18 yards and rushing twice for another 17 yards, but everybody has to start somewhere.

That game, a 78-28 Aggie victory in the record books, also marked something of a fresh start for Idaho State. It was just the second contest at the helm for newly hired head coach Cody Hawkins, the son of former Boise State, Colorado and UC Davis head coach Dan Hawkins, hired to revive a program in dire straits. Idaho State was 51-157 across its previous 19 seasons spanning five different head coaches, claiming three times as many one-win campaigns (six) as it had winning seasons (two, 8-4 in 2014 and 6-5 in 2018).

It hit what seemed to be an all-time low point under John Zamberlin in the late 2000s, going a preposterous 6-39 in his four seasons as head coach. After faring slightly better under his replacement, Mike Kramer, the Bengals found a new low in the latter half of the 2010s into the 2020s. It started with internally promoted wide receivers coach Rob Phenicie, who went 10-12 in his first two years on the job before the difficulty of the job caught up with him, leading to his ouster following a brutal 6-23 stretch from 2019-21.

Cal special teams coach Charlie Ragle succeeded Phenicie in December of 2021 and spent the next 11 months overseeing a program in open revolt. Assistant coach DaVonte' Neal was arrested on an Arizona warrant charging him with first-degree murder, for which he was later sentenced to 20 years in prison. Players ran amok on campus without repercussions. Ragle missed several practices and even an October game against Montana State with health issues. The team was a complete mess, bumbling to a 1-10 finish and managing only 27 points across its final four games while surrendering a whopping 150. Save for a 40-31 victory over a 2-9 Cal Poly squad, Idaho State was outpaced by an average of 25 points per game, 36.1-11.1. When Ragle resigned in November to take on an assistant coaching job at Arizona State, he described the season as "miserable."

That was the backdrop for Hawkins' arrival about two weeks later. He spoke at his introductory press conference of his plans to establish a high-flying offense, to develop a real identity, and to completely rebuild Idaho State's program culture – all things that the Bengal faithful had heard far too many times before to truly believe.

"What is love? It's a relentless dedication to putting them first, to showing them that good, bad or indifferent, you’re going to put their needs ahead of yours," Hawkins said. "And I look forward to doing that for these student-athletes. They've been through a lot in the last three years. But college football should first and foremost be a fun, amazing experience that helps propel these young men to heights greater than they ever thought imaginable. And they can't do it by themselves. They can't do it with me. But they can do it together, with each other and with this community."

Utah State welcomed an Idaho State program at the very beginning of that process back in 2023. The Aggies squared off with and largely stymied ISU's new sophomore quarterback Jordan Cooke, intercepting him once while holding him to 185 yards and one score on 20-of-30 passing. They had no trouble dispatching the dismal Bengals, handing them one of eight losses amid a 3-8 debut for Hawkins.

A lot can happen in three years, though. Hillstead, the other young signal-caller in that game, burned hot, burned out, and spent two seasons maturing from the sidelines at BYU before returning to Utah State this past winter. He was sold on the move by a Bronco Mendenhall-led coaching staff that has next to nothing in common with the group they were hired to replace. He'll guide the Aggies onto the field this Saturday as their starting quarterback and unquestioned offensive leader, lauded by his coaches for the perspective he couldn't have had without those three arduous, oft-demoralizing years.

And in a bit of college football serendipity, he'll do so opposite the opponent that began his journey all those years ago. They've changed too. Hawkins' 3-8 debut ceded to a 5-7 sophomore campaign, led by an offensive attack nearly 20 points better per game (32.1 PPG) than the one he inherited and promised to fix (13.7 PPG). That unit improved again in 2025 (33.0 PPG), finally joined by a defense more than 10 points better on average (27.3 PPG) than it had been in 2024 (37.8 PPG) en route to a 6-6 mark, Idaho State's best since 2018. Had the ball bounced in a slightly different direction once or twice against UNLV (38-31), New Mexico (32-22) or Montana (42-38), the Bengals could have been an FCS playoff pick for the first time since 1983.

There's no avoiding attrition in the modern college game, and Idaho State suffered its share this offseason with the portal departures of wideouts Ian Duarte (Tennessee) and Damien Morgan (Nevada), standout safety Rylan Leathers (Tulsa) and cornerback Mike Lindsay (San Diego State), to name a few, but it also had much to celebrate.

Cooke, by now a borderline NFL prospect, eschewed what would have been a major payday to finish his career in Pocatello. Several key offensive pieces joined him, as did the vast majority of that clearly improved defensive two-deep. After a 38-10 blowout of VMI in week zero, Idaho State made its first appearance in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll since 2018, checking in this week at No. 23. With good fortune in the health department and a bit better luck in close games, the Bengals may very well snap their 43-year-long FCS playoff drought this fall.

Utah State isn't likely to be caught by surprise, given the focus level and intensity typical of a season opener and having already seen the Bengals play once before this season, but surprises aren't really Idaho State's game anymore. A lot can happen in three years, after all.

"I think it'll be a really challenging game," Mendenhall said. "You don't really need to look further than their opener against UNLV last year and game two or three against New Mexico, where they were in the lead or toe-to-toe right until the very end with a great chance to win the game. We're preparing for a very difficult game.

"I think it's helpful (to have tape on Idaho State). I've been on both sides of that. I've always liked to have a game under our belt before our next opponent, so I like an early start. Then, you can argue that the downside is the opponent sees your personnel and you haven't seen theirs yet. I think you can easily look at that either way and twist that into a positive. For us, I think it's great that we have a chance to see their team. For them, they've already played, and I'm sure they feel like that's an advantage."