Aggies set for first bowl game vs P5 school in 60 years
The Mountain West Conference Champion Aggies (10-3) are going bowling for the ninth time in 11 years. Utah State will travel back to Southern California for another high-stakes game. This time they’ll play Oregon State (7-5) in the inaugural Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl on Saturday.
“We are beyond excited for this team to get the opportunity to play one more game,” head coach Blake Anderson said. “I am so proud of what our players and staff have accomplished, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this unbelievable season than by representing the Mountain West as its conference champion in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl.”
It’ll be Utah State’s first game against the Beavers since 1998, but the Aggies are 0-3 all-time against them. The Aggies hold a transitive win over the Beavers. Utah State beat Washington State, 26-23, who beat Oregon State, 31-24.
Running back Calvin Tyler Jr., the lead rusher for the Aggies, transferred to Utah State from Oregon State. He has accumulated six touchdowns and 796 yards this season on 170 carries. This game will be the first time he will play against his former team.
“This will obviously be a strange matchup for him having transferred from Oregon State,” Anderson said, “but I know he appreciated his time there and appreciated the coaches that he knew, and it will be fun for him to get to see a lot of guys he cares a lot about.”
Former Aggie head coach, Gary Andersen, is a common link between the two programs. After his first tenure at Utah State from 2009-2012, Andersen was the Beavers’ head coach for three seasons from 2015-2017. Andersen resigned during the 2017 season. He returned to Utah State in 2019 and was fired after an 0-3 start last season.
The inaugural Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl will not be the first inaugural bowl game for the Aggies. Utah State appeared in the first-ever Gotham Bowl game in 1961. That matchup was the only other time Utah State has played a Power Five opponent in a bowl game. The Aggies lost to Baylor 24-9.
The fixture will be the fourth bowl game for Utah State in the Golden State; the first bowl game there since the Aggies beat Northern Illinois, 21-14, in the 2013 SDCCU Poinsettia Bowl.
The game will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The NFL stadium hosts the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. Utah State’s contest will be the first college football game in the stadium’s history.
“I know the kids will be super excited about being able to play in that particular venue,” Anderson said of SoFi Stadium. “It’s definitely going to be an upgrade from what we just played in. That will be a “wow factor” just coming in.”
The massive oval-shaped video board in the stadium was partially built in Logan, Utah. According to Alden Gonzalez, an ESPN staff writer, the LED cards that make up the jumbotron were fabricated in Logan and then shipped to Inglewood.
Kickoff is scheduled for 5:30 pm MST on Dec. 18. The game will be televised on ABC.