USU football: Two former Power 5 conference athletes to play for Aggies

Utah State’s football program continues to add depth to its secondary prior to the 2023 season.
Former Nebraska and UCF defensive back Jaiden Francois pledged his commitment to the Aggies on Sunday on Twitter. The Herald Journal has learned Francois will be on scholarship and will be part of the ’23 roster.
Francois is the third defensive back who started his collegiate career at a Power 5 conference to announce his landing spot at USU since the conclusion of spring camp, joining cornerback AL Ashford III and safety Simeon Harris. Ashford III, who transferred from Wisconsin, and Harris, who transferred from Colorado, have both signed with the Aggies.
Francois was a highly recruited high school product out of Florida that chose Nebraska over the likes of Auburn, Florida State, Georgia, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon, among other big-name programs. The 4-star recruit signed with the Huskers in December of 2019, but never played a down in Lincoln. Instead, he elected to enter the transfer portal in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and enrolled at UCF prior to the 2020 campaign.
The 6-foot-0, 190-pounder spent three seasons at UCF and played sparingly in 13 career games for the Knights. He made two career tackles during his time at UCF.
Francois, who has two years of eligibility remaining, entered the portal in July as a graduate transfer and will ultimately end up in Logan.
The Aggies have added a handful of former P-5 athletes to their roster over the last few months as, in addition to Harris and Ashford III, defensive tackle Sir Mells (Oregon), offensive lineman Ralph Frias (Arizona State) and wide receiver Grant Page (Colorado) have transferred to USU.
Another former P-5 program player who has made his way to Cache Valley is Ioholani Raass, a former Utah high school star who initially signed with UCLA. Raass’ addition to USU’s roster was first reported by Brian Phillips of Big Blue USU Aggies News and confirmed by the Herald Journal. Additionally, the former Skyridge High standout is listed on USU’s roster and in the 2023 media guide.
Raass was on UCLA’s roster during the COVID-19 shortened season of 2020 before transferring to Snow College and playing eight games for the Badgers last fall. In those eight games, the defensive end was credited with 12 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss — all sacks. The 6-2, 235-pounder finished with 1.5 sacks against Monroe College. Snow College, perennially one of the best junior college programs nationally, went 8-2 in 2022.
The Lehi native sparkled in his final two seasons at Skyridge as he garnered 6A first-team all-state honors as a senior and 5A second-team all-state accolades as a junior. Raass finished with 45 tackles, including 14.5 for a loss, 9.0 sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery as senior, and came through with 63 tackles, 22.0 TFLs, 16.5 sacks and two forced fumbles as a junior. Raass had at least two sacks in three different games as a senior for the Falcons.
The 3-star recruit chose UCLA over other scholarship offers from USU, BYU, Colorado and Washington, according to 247sports.com. Raass redshirted for the Bruins in '20.