{"id":840356,"date":"2026-03-29T05:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/840356\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T05:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T05:13:13","slug":"mendenhall-says-qb-is-teams-top-position-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/840356\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendenhall says QB is team’s top position \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah State football is well into spring camp, and head coach Bronco Mendenhall said earlier this week that he thinks the strongest position on the team is quarterback, despite losing star quarterback Bryson Barnes after the 2025 season. <\/p>\n

The biggest addition to the quarterback room in the past few months was former BYU backup McCae Hillstead returning to the Aggies<\/a>, but it\u2019s not just Hillstead who has Mendenhall and offensive coordinator Robert Anae excited; it\u2019s the entire quarterback room. <\/p>\n

In addition to Hillstead, Utah State added Grady Brosterhous, a transfer from Virginia, and the Aggies also have true freshmen Kaleb Maryland, Brady Goodman and Crew Cacciacarne. <\/p>\n

\u201cI really like our quarterback room,\u201d Mendenhall said. \u201cRobert and I, he is just shocked at the health of the room, so certainly with McCae Hillstead, there\u2019s age, and there is experience being older and some college starts and being a backup, and there\u2019s super value in that. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen, Grady coming from the University of Virginia, and that\u2019s a seasoned and older player, and then someone (Maryland) that\u2019s won a 6A state championship in Texas football. That\u2019s impressive, and that\u2019s as a freshman coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of Cacciacarne, Mendenhall said, \u201cAnother walk-on player, Crew, a quarterback here from in-state (Weber), a great athlete also. It\u2019s still another quarterback coming. I like the succession plan. I like the experience. I like the ability. I like the athleticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the quarterback room as a whole, Mendenhall said, \u201c(It\u2019s) probably as healthy of a starting point for a program that I\u2019ve ever taken over. Not only with a clear player that could be a starter, but with what the succession and the depth looks like, that\u2019s probably one of the strongest positions on our team, which, if you need to have one, that\u2019s the one you want to start with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hillstead seems to be the early favorite to take the starting position in the fall. Despite losing out on the starting job at BYU a year ago to true freshman Bear Bachmier, Hillstead is currently the most experienced quarterback in the room for the Aggies right now. <\/p>\n

He has four career starts and threw for 1,092 yards in his freshman year at Utah State before transferring to BYU.<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly, just because his starting point is further along,\u201d Mendenhall said when asked if Hillstead has taken control in spring camp. \u201cGrady is next furthest along, coming from Virginia. They\u2019re just older, they\u2019re more seasoned, and that helps. It really does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, one of the biggest advantages Mendenhall has now compared to when he arrived a year ago is continuity. He\u2019s no longer starting from square one, and Utah State will have more experience on the coaching staff with Anae<\/a> as the offensive coordinator. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe camaraderie, the execution, the belief, the program development, the program design, all those things are really strong,\u201d Mendenhall said. \u201cI feel great about where we are. <\/p>\n

\u201c(We\u2019re) clearly accelerated further than a year ago at this time… I really like our team. I like the depth. I like the camaraderie. I like the competitive spirit. I really like the progress that we\u2019ve made.\u201d<\/p>\n

An interesting note from Thursday\u2019s practice was that some returning players had names and numbers on their jerseys. Mendenhall said that was a way to acknowledge players who returned. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a choice that I made,\u201d said Mendenhall. \u201cUsually, I start the team brand new each year. I think the landscape is different, and I think Year 2 for me is different, and I wanted to acknowledge those guys that stayed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a difference because they have been here, they have been through an offseason, they\u2019ve been through a spring, they\u2019ve been through 13 games, they\u2019ve been through a bowl game, and they\u2019ve been through another offseason. I just thought that needed to be recognized.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utah State football is well into spring camp, and head coach Bronco Mendenhall said earlier this week that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48,3309],"class_list":{"0":"post-840356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-news-feed-local"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116310756964046299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}