Utah State Rodeo Club makes its mark on game day

Before Utah State University football players take the field, members of the USU Rodeo Club are already on horseback.

Carrying Utah State flags around the field before home football games, the riders have become part of the pregame tradition while representing the university’s agricultural and Western roots.

For head rodeo coach Colton Bair, bringing horses onto the football field connects the rodeo program with the larger Utah State community.

“Utah State is a land-grant university, so it just fits so well that we are all ag and that the USU rodeo team can be able to represent Utah State as that land-grant university,” Bair said. “You know, we are all about our Western heritage and the Western way of life and agriculture.”

Bair had previously attempted to initiate the rides but was unsuccessful. After Utah State football coach Bronco Mendenhall was hired, Bair presented the idea to him.

“I had a meeting with him and I kind of pitched the idea. I’m like, ‘Hey, what do you think of, you know, us running flags out,’” Bair said.

Mendenhall supported the idea, helping the USU Rodeo Club to work with Utah State University Athletics and facilities staff to make the rides possible.

Bair said the first appearance was intended to be a one-time surprise.

“Last year it was a surprise, because that was one thing that we wanted to lead up to it, and it was only supposed to happen just for the first game,” Bair said.

Instead, the community response encouraged the club to continue the tradition.

“The community just embraced it like it was a huge hit,” Bair said. “It just kind of blew up like people just love it with the horses on the field and Utah State, and you know, making sure that we stay true to our roots.”

Dane Johnson

A USU Rodeo Club member rides his horse out on Merlin Olsen Field bearing the first of 3 flags spelling “USU” before the Aggies take on the UTEP Miners on Aug 30, 2025. (Dane Johnson/The Utah Statesman)

Now, the club plans to continue the rides as an annual tradition during home football games.

The tradition requires preparation long before kickoff. Bair said the horses are fed around 6 a.m. and riders leave home around 6:30 or 7 a.m. and saddle up before warming up their horses.

“We are on the turf at 8 a.m. to do our run-through,” Bair said.

The club then coordinates with athletics and stadium staff and the band and spirit squads to make sure everyone is prepared.

Not every horse or rider is selected to participate.

“We do hand-select those that are coming to run flags,” Bair said. “It’s a high stress — lots of people around.”

Bair said rodeo horses are accustomed to large crowds, yelling and other distractions, but running on football turf is different from competing on the dirt at a rodeo. The club has equipment and protocols in place to protect both the horses and the riders.

The tradition also has a personal connection to Mendenhall. He is an avid team roper, and two of his sons, Raeder and Breaker, are members of the USU Rodeo Club.

“Seeing my kids bomb around the stadium with Utah State flags before the game — as a college football coach, I don’t know if that happens in the world of college football,” Mendenhall said, “so pretty cool that it can be a family affair, which are my beliefs: family first, last, always.”

While Mendenhall was at the University of Washington game earlier this season, his wife and sons were in Cedar City for a rodeo.

“My wife has clearly chosen my boys, and so she was with them at the rodeo and taking video and pictures,” Mendenhall said. “I can’t think of a better place for her to be while I was working.”

For Bair, however, the tradition is about more than his connection to the football program. It gives the USU Rodeo Club an opportunity to bring Utah State’s agricultural and Western heritage onto the football field and celebrate the university’s Aggie roots.

“It feels so good that you can bring the ag and bring rodeo and the Western heritage all right back to it and be able to celebrate that on game day,” Bair said.

With Utah State flags flying behind them, the tradition has since become a way for the club to share its culture with the larger Utah State community, bringing a piece of the rodeo arena into the football stadium.