Idaho State gears up to face another Mountain West opponent in Utah State

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - Following a great effort in a close loss to open their season at San Diego State, the Idaho State Bengals take on the Utah State Aggies Saturday for the first time since 2017.

ISU only lost by one score to San Diego State, a surprising result for many people except Head Coach Cody Hawkins.

"You never expect to go out and lay an egg," Hawkins said. "So I knew we weren't going to do that because we have enough good players. And I think our our culture isn't all the way where you want it to be, but we're on the way. And I think our guys are going to fight. I think we have tough kids that care."

This week, the focus shifts to Utah State, a team that Hawkins said is a completely different opponent compared to San Diego State and another formidable foe.

"I want to be able to look at the tape and understand how Utah State's a good football team and they won the Mountain West two years ago and Blake Anderson knows exactly what he's doing," Hawkins said. "And they got some good players, so they got some guys on their team that could play in the SEC. They just didn't put it together the way they wanted to last year."

Utah State has won five straight games in the series, including their last meeting in 2017, a 51-13 victory. Idaho State trails 18-2 in the series, with its last win coming in 2000.

Kickoff Saturday night is at 6:00 p.m. MT at Maverik Stadium, and we will have coverage from Logan this weekend on Sports Line.