The Wyoming Cowboys host the Utah State Aggies for “Bridger’s Battle” on Saturday evening inside War Memorial Stadium. The contest set for a 5 p.m. start is the first meeting between the schools since 2022. 

The contest will be televised on CBS Sports Network with John Sadak on the call with Luke Kuechly analyzing the action. The game will also be available on the 26 stations of The Cowboy Sports Network with Keith Kelley on the call, Kevin McKinney on color and Erick Pauley on the sidelines.

BRIDGER’S BATTLE TRADITION

Wyoming and Utah State first played in football in 1903, and this year’s meeting will be the 73rd in the series. Wyoming has won 28 of the previous 72 meetings, while Utah State has won 40 times and there have been four ties.

A new tradition was incorporated into the century-old rivalry in 2013 when the Wyoming Cowboys and Utah State Aggies introduced a new “Bridger’s Battle” tradition to the football series between the two schools.

As part of the new tradition, a traveling “Bridger Rifle” is awarded to the winner each year. The rifle is a .50-caliber Rocky Mountain Hawken rifle that was popular among mountain men of the 1800s, and is widely-considered to be the rifle carried by the legendary Jim Bridger. “Bridger’s Battle” was chosen as the name for the new series due to Bridger’s ties to the Wyoming-Utah region.

The last six games between the two schools have seen Wyoming winning four times and Utah State twice. Wyoming defeated Utah State 28-14 on Oct. 22, 2022 in the last meeting, which came in Laramie.

ABOUT UTAH STATE

The Aggies (1-6 overall, 0-3 Mountain West) are coming off a wild 50-45 home loss to New Mexico. Utah State had 503 yards of total offense but gave up 552 yards (280 rushing, 272 passing) and allowed two touchdowns in the final 3:53 to fall to the Lobos.

Quarterback Spencer Petras has thrown for over 300 yards in each of the last three games and is completing 66% of his passes for 1,631 yards with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions in the five games he has played in. Wide receiver Jalen Royals has 55 receptions for 834 yards and six touchdowns and running back Rahsul Turner has 132 carries for 666 yards and five touchdowns to lead Utah State.

Defensively, the Aggies are allowing an average of 43.9 points and 502 yards per game, which ranks 133rd out of 134 FBS teams ahead of only Kent State (45.9 ppg, 538 ypg).

Utah State leads the all-time series 40-28-4. The Cowboys won the previous two meetings — 28-24 in 2022 in Laramie and 44-17 in 2021 in Logan — to retain the Jim Bridger Rifle traveling trophy. The first meeting between the two programs was in 1903.