Ag football looks to avenge OT loss
Utah State may have lost a shootout last year against Lousinana-Monroe, but the Aggies get one thing the losers in Dodge City never got: another chance.
USU will play its first ever Sun Belt Conference game against the Indians, who beat the Aggies in double overtime 51-48 in Monroe last season.
It will be the Aggies’ first conference game since leaving the Big West in 2000, and their first home game of the year.
Indians Head Coach Charlie Weatherbie will be a familiar face to Utah State fans, having coached the Aggies to the only bowl victory in their history, a 42-33 win over Ball State in the 1993 Las Vegas Bowl.
Weatherbie said he looks forward to returning to Logan, but will stay focused on his current job.
“It’s going to be fun to go back there and see some of the people that I have acquaintance with,” he said. “I look forward to our team playing well and us taking care of business there.”
Weatherbie coached at Utah State from 1992 to 1994. Members of the ’93 team will be on hand at the game for a 10-year reunion.
Either the Aggies or the Indians will walk away with their first win of the year Saturday as both teams are winless.
Utah State will be without two team leaders for the game, having lost Mackey Award candidate Chris Cooley with a broken foot and cornerback/kick returner Jerome Dennis with a blood clot.
Cooley will be out four to six weeks and Dennis is out for the season. Both players are team captains.
The Aggies are coming off a bye week after starting the season with road losses to Utah as well as AP Top 25 teams Nebraska and Arizona State.
Louisiana-Monroe has an 0-4 record, losing lopsided games to LSU and Mississippi, but playing close games against S.F. Austin and Northwestern State.
Offensive guard Greg Vandermade said playing against high-caliber teams early gave the Aggies valuable experience.
“We have played against really good competition, which will help us even though we wound up losing those games,” Vandermade said. “I feel that playing against those teams helped us overall. We have seen speed and we have seen size and we just need to be able to get it done. We need to execute, if we can do that we will be fine.”
Aggie Head Coach Mick Dennehy agreed with Vandermade.
“The one thing that I feel good about is that in the three games that we have had, we have seen elements in each of those three games of what we are going to see against Louisiana-Monroe,” Dennehy said. “It is not going to be anything that the kids haven’t seen.”
Dennehy said Louisiana-Monroe can be a dangerous team.
“They have got the kind of guys that are capable of taking it to the house at anytime,” Dennehy said. “From an offensive standpoint they are a wide-open offense. Louisiana-Monroe is very, very talented athletically in the skill areas.”
The Indians’ starting quarterback, sophomore Steven Jyles, has a ruptured tendon in his throwing hand. Jyles did not start against Northwestern State last week, but replaced Daniel DaPrato in the second quarter of a 14-10 loss.
Dennehy said he anticipates the Indians to start Jyles, but may adapt their offense to compensate for the injury.
Against Northwestern State, Louisiana-Monroe tried to control the clock with the running game, giving freshman running back Kevin Payne more than 30 carries.
Payne leads the Sun Belt with a 92-yard per game average. Utah State’s David Fiefia is second with 63 yards per game.
“I am not sure which Louisiana-Monroe team will show up here,” Dennehy said. “I guess it all depends on how much Jyles is able to handle because I think they want to throw [the ball].”
ULM’s wide receiver/kick returner Charles Estes was last week’s Sun Belt special teams player of the week, returning four punts for 62 yards and three kickoffs for 72 yards.
Defensively, the Indians are led by linebacker Maurice Sonnier and free safety Chris Harris.
In Sun Belt statistics, Aggie quarterback Travis Cox leads the conference in both passing yards and total offense. Linebacker Robert Watts is second in tackles and freshman Terrance Washington is second in interceptions with two.
Fiefia is third in all-purpose yards. Wide receiver Chris Stallworth is in the top 10 in receiving yards and receptions per game.
Tight end Cooley was also in the top 10 in several categories before his injury, while Dennis was sixth in all-purpose yards.
Through their first three games, Utah State has struggled with mistakes that have led to good field position and short scoring drives for opponents.
Dennehy said he hopes to see the team improve by avoiding those kinds of mistakes against Louisiana-Monroe.
“I think the key for us is to make sure that we take another step forward, in terms of us eliminating some of the things we have done that have hurt us a little bit against the kind of teams that we have played,” he said.
USU cornerback Mark Estelle said if the Aggies can prevent miscues, he’s confident the rest will fall into place.
“We are playing really well besides a few mental errors that hold us back a little,” Estelle said.
Dennehy said the bye week was helpful, giving the team time for extra conditioning and preparation for Louisiana-Monroe.
“It was nice to have a week off,” he said. “We got a lot done, actually. Hopefully, we got a little bit better.”
-royburton@cc.usu.edu