Utah State has signed former University of California EDGE rush defensive end John Gayer. Gayer is 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, and will enter the 2025 season as a junior and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. Gayer made his decision just a day after visiting the Utah State campus over the weekend.
Gayer signed with the Golden Bears last December and chose to enter the transfer portal once spring ball had wrapped up. In 2024, at the College of San Mateo (CA), he racked up 53 tackles, 21.5 tackles-for-loss, and 15.5 sacks while on his way to being named a junior college all-American.
According to 247sports, coming out of the College of San Mateo (CA), Gayer was rated as the 177th-best junior college player nationally, the 15th-best EDGE rush defensive end, and the 32nd-best junior college player in the State of California.
He originally held offers from Akron, Bowling Green, California, Florida Atlantic, Massachusetts, Mercer, Samford, UC-Davis, and UTEP. Upon entering the transfer portal, it appears that Utah State was his first and only offer.
Gayer becomes the Aggies third post-spring ball transfer portal addition, joining Elon cornerback Dylan Tucker and Purdue offensive lineman Jimmy Liston.
Despite playing for Cal, a big name school, he apparently didn’t have a lot of playing time and most likely sat on the bench a lot. That’s evidenced by not getting offers, or much interest, from other power conference schools. The kid has good size but might be lacking in athleticism. I am concerned that Bronco is just picking up marginal and not impact players. Could be that the NIL money is just not there and Bronco is doing the best he can on the cheap.
In looking at his film, I feel like his ability and stats compare favorably to former Aggie Cian Slone. Cian became a good player at Utah State despite being undersized for his position. In my opinion, John is a bigger version of Cian as John is 20 to 25 pounds heavier and should be able to battle at the line of scrimmage better.
Insightful observation and I thank you.