USU football releases 2018 schedule

The 2017 football season ended in heartbreak for Utah State. But the the 2018 schedule, released Thursday afternoon, gives fans something to look forward to next season.

Here are all 12 games USU football will play in next year’s regular season (2017 record in parenthesis)

Aug. 31 at Michigan State (10-3)

Sept. 8 vs New Mexico State )7-6)

Sept. 13 vs Tennessee Tech (1-10)

Sept. 22 vs Air Force (5-7)

Oct. 5 at BYU (4-9)

Oct. 13 vs UNLV (5-7)

Oct. 20 at Wyoming (8-5)

Oct. 27 vs New Mexico (3-9)

Nov. 3 at Hawai’i (3-9)

Nov. 10 vs San Jose State (2-11)

Nov. 17 at Colorado State (7-6)

Nov. 24 at Boise State (11-3)

This schedule presents a great opportunity for 2018. Four of the games are built-in wins (Tennessee Tech, New Mexico, Hawai’i, San Jose State), with six games being winnable toss-up games. Only two games on this schedule would be considered non-winnable: the season opener at Michigan State, and the final game at Boise State.

The 10 opponents between Michigan State and Boise State have a combined winning percentage of .363 with only three of the teams posting a winning record in 2017 — New Mexico State, Wyoming and Colorado State. Despite the fact the Aggies went 0-3 against these teams in 2017, they are still winnable.

The two hardest tests for Utah State (outside of MSU and BSU) will likely be at BYU (who will likely bounce back from a historically bad season for them) and at Colorado State. But before each of those two games, the Aggies will have three-game stretches of highly winnable games. The game at Wyoming likely won’t be as hard as last year with Josh Allen entering the NFL.

The best-case scenario for the Aggies is probably 10-2, but that’s a scenario where USU wins all of the toss-up games. A more realistic expectations is 8-4 or 7-5 with a low-end of 6-6 if things go south. This is still a team that dropped several winnable games in 2017, so it would be safe to avoid predictions involving double-digit wins for Utah State.