Aggies fall to UNLV in double-OT heartbreaker as missed kicks prove costly
Utah State had every chance to walk out of Allegiant Stadium with its first road win of the season and bowl eligibility in hand. Instead, the Aggies left with a double-overtime heartbreak, a 29-26 loss to UNLV that hinged on a handful of missed kicks and one last run they couldn’t stop.
Utah State outgained the Rebels, protected the ball and got star turns from quarterback Bryson Barnes, wide receiver Braden Pegan and linebacker John Miller. But a rare off night from a previously automatic special teams unit and a walk-off 25-yard touchdown run by UNLV’s Kayden McGee turned a statement win into one of the most painful losses of the season.
“Certainly disappointed we didn’t win the game,” head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “We had plenty of chances. Our team played resiliently. They played hard, they played tough, they were unified.”
The Aggies looked sharp from the opening drive. Barnes moved the chains with short throws and QB keepers, setting up a 41-yard field goal try for Tanner Rinker. Rinker, perfect on the year to that point, missed wide — his first misfire after starting 10-for-10.
After UNLV answered with a field goal, Utah State delivered its first big punch. Barnes hit Pegan for 30 yards, Anthony Garcia came in for a 17-yard keeper, Miles Davis added an 11-yard run and Barnes capped the march with a 17-yard touchdown to Brady Boyd. But Rinker pushed the extra point wide right, and the Aggies settled for a 6–3 lead that could easily have been 10–3.
Barnes kept his foot on the gas in the second quarter. Following an interception by Bronson Olevao, the senior quarterback ripped off runs of 16 and 10 yards, then launched a 47-yard strike to Noah White down to the 1. Davis finished it on the next snap, scoring in his hometown to make it 13-3.
UNLV responded with a touchdown drive and had a chance to tie or take the lead late in the half, but Utah State’s defense stiffened. Miller stuffed quarterback Anthony Colandrea on a fourth-and-1 keeper, and pressure on the Rebels’ final possession forced a 59-yard field goal attempt that sailed wide. The Aggies took a 13-10 edge into the locker room.
“Defense gave us multiple chances to win,” Mendenhall said. “They made critical play after critical play throughout the game that set us up to win.”
Out of halftime, Utah State put together one of its best drives of the night. Barnes hit Javen Jacobs and Pegan, scrambled for a first down, then found Garcia and Pegan again to move the ball to the UNLV 10. A snap infraction backed the Aggies up, and after a completion to Pegan down to the 2, Barnes was sacked on third down. Rinker’s short field goal pushed the lead to 16-10, but it felt like another missed chance to create separation.
UNLV seized the momentum with a nine-play answer keyed by a 48-yard shot to Troy Omeire and a 9-yard touchdown pass to Daejon Reynolds to go in front 17-16. From there, the game turned into a series of swing plays that never quite broke Utah State’s way.
Early in the fourth quarter, a long Rebel drive ended in a 31-yard field goal and a 20-16 UNLV lead. Utah State looked to flip the script when Davis burst free for a 19-yard run, but a holding flag erased it, and Barnes was hurried into an incompletion that forced a punt.
The defense responded again. William Holmes knifed into the backfield for a tackle for loss, Miller added a sack and an illegal forward pass penalty pushed UNLV behind the sticks, leading to a punt and one more opportunity for Barnes to change the game.
He did, at least for a moment. On the next drive, Barnes saw a crease up the middle and exploded through it, outrunning the secondary for a 58-yard touchdown and a 23-20 Utah State lead with just under seven minutes left.
Barnes finished with 256 passing yards and a touchdown and 124 rushing yards and another score, accounting for 380 of Utah State’s 434 total yards without a turnover.
“He’s exceptional,” Mendenhall said. “He’s durable, he’s consistent, he’s a competitor. He exemplifies everything I admire in a young person and a football player.”
The game’s emotional tenor changed seconds later. On the ensuing kickoff, Aggie special-teamer Titan Saxon went down after a collision and remained on the turf for several minutes before being carted off.
JACK LEWIS BURTON Titan Saxton, 23, holds up a fist as he is carried off the field at Allegiant Stadium on Nov. 15.
“It’s difficult anytime you see someone you love get hurt,” Mendenhall said. “It’s very challenging for his teammates also. We’re forced in this profession, when significant things happen, to move on really fast. It’s not ideal, but it’s necessary. We did the best we could, and I was proud of my team.”
UNLV answered with a 12-play, clock-chewing drive, aided by a personal foul that moved the ball from the Utah State 29 to the 14. The Aggie defense held again, sacking Colandrea on third down and forcing a 32-yard field goal to tie the game at 23 with 2:18 remaining.
Barnes then authored what should have been a game-winning drive: a short throw to Pegan followed by keepers of 6, 7 and 21 yards to get Utah State to the UNLV 26 as the clock ticked down. But Rinker missed wide left from 44 yards at the buzzer, sending the game to overtime and cementing a miserable night for a kicker who’d been one of the team’s most reliable pieces all season.
In the first overtime, the Aggie defense forced another stop, and UNLV’s 39-yard attempt went wide left. Utah State needed only a field goal. Instead, a pair of conservative calls left Rinker facing a 41-yard try he again pushed wide.
Rinker finally connected from 39 yards in the second overtime to put the Aggies ahead 26-23. One play later, McGee bounced a run to the edge and cut back through traffic for a 25-yard touchdown that ended it.
By the end of the night, Rinker was 2-for-5 on field goals and 2-for-3 on extra points with 7 potential points left on the board in regulation and two golden opportunities missed in overtime.
“I’m not sure why they struggled,” Mendenhall said of his special teams. “We’ve been really accurate all year. We had multiple chances from the beginning of the game all the way to the very end, and we earned those chances. Tonight, we just didn’t have the consistency or the outcome we wanted there.”
Defensively, Utah State’s performance was good enough to win almost any night. The Aggies held UNLV’s high-powered offense under 30 points in a game that went to double overtime and limited the Rebels’ run game for long stretches. Miller finished with 11 tackles, 2 sacks and 2.0 TFL, and the unit repeatedly rose up in the red zone.
“Our energy and enthusiasm and celebrating each other’s plays — that’s become our identity the last few weeks,” Miller said. “We drew a line and said ‘They can’t cross it unless we give it to them.’ In a lot of ways, we did that. We just have to finish.”
Pegan led the receiving corps with 8 catches for 109 yards, including multiple chain-movers along the sideline.
“I’m very proud of our defense,” Pegan said. “They held their part of the bargain. For the receivers, whatever the yards are, that doesn’t matter. We’ve got to finish the game and win. We had some chances at the end there to make a play, and we didn’t. Now it’s back to work.”
Instead of celebrating a breakthrough in Las Vegas, Utah State returns to Logan at 5-5 and 3-3 in Mountain West play, with Fresno State and Boise State still looming.
“This isn’t a fast recovery,” Mendenhall said. “They tried as hard as they can try and knew they had a great chance to win multiple times. There’s going to be sting and hurt and grieving. I just told them I love them, I’m proud of them and I’m lucky to be their coach. There are games left. We’ll recover, and then we’ll play.”