Bronco Mendenhall Believes Transfer Portal Creates Unsustainable Coaches Calendar

SALT LAKE CITY – A busy ‘offseason’ is winding down for first-year Utah State head coach Bronco Mendenhall as he looks to create a culture of success at Utah State. Thanks to a transfer portal recruiting window in the spring, college coaches are busier than ever this time of year.

Mendenhall sat down with Hans & Scotty G. from KSL Sports Zone during day two of the Mountain West media days.

“Other than in-season, it’s (June) the busiest month,” Mendenhall said. “You’ve got official visits. The recruiting as well as working out our own team. Then, getting ready for the season and your first four opponents, there’s not enough time.”

RELATED: USU Picked Ninth In 2025 Mountain West Preseason Poll

The veteran coach pointed to the transfer portal as the primary reason for the nearly year-round model that exists today.

“The current model is not sustainable,” Mendenhall said emphatically. “The thing that will be the catalyst as to what the calendar will look like will be the transfer portal window, and will it go from two to one? Where that is placed will then set the cascade effect of then what the coaching calendar will look like.”

Players’ mindset eases Aggie onboarding process

Roster churn is nothing new in college athletics, but the Utah State Aggies are an outlier in 2025 as they look to find early success in the Bronco Mendenhall era.

The former BYU head coach estimated that a first-year head coach will typically lose 45 to 65 players from the previous roster. Those numbers pale in comparison to the 87 players being integrated into Mendenhall’s program for the first time.

Media Day with Coach Mendenhall!🎙️#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/QePoCK6r9p

— USU Football (@USUFootball) July 17, 2025

Compared to the 63 new players Mendenhall had last year at New Mexico, the coaches and players have a tremendous task ahead of them.

“I thought that was an astounding number,” Mendenhall said, referring to last season. “This is a bigger number, but it doesn’t feel as big. I think that’s maybe because of the maturity of players, the environment we’re in, and the expectations. These kids, they are committed and they are mature. They don’t feel like transfers.”

Bronco Mendenhall raves about QB Bryson Barnes

A college veteran entering his sixth season, Barnes is an ideal candidate to help instill a new team philosophy and give his team a chance to win.

“If I went out and just tried to pick someone to be our quarterback or the leader of our team, I couldn’t have picked better,” Mendenhall said when asked about the former Utah Utes QB.

RELATED: Ike Larsen Named To All-Mountain West Preseason Team

Utah State head coach Bronco Mendenhall tells us his first reaction to seeing Devon Dampier at New Mexico and draws comparisons to Bryson Barnes abilities.#AggiesAllTheWay @KSLSports #Utes pic.twitter.com/p4eC8AAi4B

— Sam Farnsworth (@Samsworth_TV) July 17, 2025

Earlier in the day, Mendenhall compared Barnes to Devon Dampier, his QB last season at New Mexico and Utah’s current starting QB.

“I knew a little bit more about Bryson Barnes; I’ve been through a spring with him, but I knew about him before,” Mendenhall said in Las Vegas. “If you saw the town he was from in Utah, it would be the most unlikely place. You’d think you might get a great bull rider or saddle bronc rider or something from there, but you probably wouldn’t be thinking quarterback.”

“But then you watched him play at Utah, and how tough and how competitive, and man, he just as soon run over you as around you, and he’s a great leader,” Mendehnhall continued. “So I saw those qualities from afar on TV. So when I arrived, now having a chance to work with him. He’s not the same player or style as Devin, but there are similarities.”

Following Utah State With KSL Sports Zone

Utah State kicks off the 2025 season on Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium on Saturday, August 30. Kickoff against the UTEP Miners is at 5:30 p.m. MT.

Listen to USU football games on KSL Sports Zone with Scott Garrard on the call.

Find KSL Sports coverage of Utah State University Athletics here.

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Brian Preece is a KSLSports.com insider covering Locals in MLB and the Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball here. Find Brian on X, Instagram, and BlueSky at @bpreece24. 

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