Cardiac kids do it again
For the first time since 1979, the Utah State football team has seven regular season wins after beating New Mexico State 24-21 Saturday.
Down four, USU quarterback Adam Kennedy threw his third touchdown pass of the day and second touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Matt Austin, with 35 seconds left, to seal the three-point victory.
USU head coach Gary Andersen said he does not purposely plan to have these exciting finishes.
“Trust me, we do not,” Andersen said. “We played well enough to win and there’s a W there. It’ll be there forever.”
In the first quarter, Utah State went for it on fourth down and failed on two different drives. If USU had taken the field goals, the wild finish might not have occurred.
Utah State first scored with 8:52 left in the second quarter on a 21-yard pass from Kennedy to junior running back Robert Turbin, to go up 7-0 on his only catch in the game. Turbin finished with 25 carries for 98 yards.
Senior running back Michael Smith said USU has a three-headed rushing monster.
“Me, Kerwynn (Williams) and Turbin,” Smith said. “We’ve been running the ball very well this season. Why not keep giving us the ball? We’ve been leading this offensive team all year long, so why not keep giving it to us — keep feeding us?”
New Mexico State answered back two minutes later, when quarterback Matt Christian scampered 16 yards up the right side to even the score at 7.
Christian completed 17 of 40 passes for 252 yards and one touchdown in the loss, to go with two interceptions.
“That defense was getting brutalized,” Kennedy said. “(Turbin) and Mike are so big and so strong. It’s fun watching these small DB’s try to tackle them. Even I was trying to get my inner Turbin on and ran over a few people. I was having fun out there.”
With under two minutes to play in the half, Kennedy connected with Austin from six yards out to go up by a touchdown.
Austin had five catches for 32 yards and a pair of scores.
“Despite all the running we still threw three touchdown passes, so let’s not forget about that,” Kennedy said. “Touchdown passes are all that matters — putting points on the board. It’s been fun.”
A couple minutes after halftime, the crimson-clad Aggies again tied up the score on a 51-yard deep ball to Kemonte’ Bateman. USU safety Chris Harris was covering Bateman but slipped, as he came from across the field, and gave up the touchdown.
“This was a hard field to play on,” Andersen said. “It was very slippery. When all the sudden there’s just portions and spots that are hard to get a footing, it makes it more difficult. I think that hindered the receivers and DB’s on both sides.”
The third quarter was filled with punts. Utah State was led defensively by freshman Tavaris McMillian and senior linebacker Bobby Wagner who each had six tackles. Wagner had one sack for 11 yards.
Senior linebacker Kyle Gallagher had five tackles and one interception but dropped another, which might have been caught if he had not broken his hand earlier this season.
“There were some opportunities to definitely make those plays,” Andersen said. “That was the one thing we’ve been able to do to win those games is make those plays.”
With just over nine minutes to go in the game, USU kicker Josh Thompson put the Northern Aggies up 17-13 with a 23-yard field goal.
The Southern Aggies answered right back. The next drive took them just 1:13 and three plays to go 66 yards. Running back Kenny Turner finished the drive from the 3 to go up by four.
After a couple of punts, Utah State found itself on the 17-yard line for first and 10 with 5:04 to play.
The USU Aggies rushed for 12 consecutive plays on the final drive, before Kennedy hit Austin from the 8 to give Utah State the final lead.
Kennedy said he was happy when offensive coordinator Dave Baldwin called a fade pattern to Austin on the final play of the drive.
“I was praying for a fade call,” Kennedy said. “I guess he had been saving it in his back pocket and ended up calling it at a great time. I think a lot of credit goes to our offensive line.”
Andersen said Austin is a great receiver.
“When you throw the ball up and you throw him a good ball, he’s going to catch maybe 80 percent of them,” Andersen said. “So far this year he’s 100 percent when he’s had to be.”
USU kicker Jake Haueter squibbed the ensuing kickoff and Utah State almost recovered the live ball, but possession went to NMSU on its own 36.
On the next play, Christian threw his second pick of the day to USU cornerback Nevin Lawson, who was downed on the USU 30. On the next play Kennedy took a knee to end the game.
“We knew going into the game it was going to be a fight all the way to the end,” Lawson said. “They don’t have nothing to lose, so we knew we was going to have their best game and they brought it.”
The USU Aggies end the regular season 7-5, 5-2 in Western Athletic Conference play. They will next play in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl against Ohio University from the Mid-American Conference on Dec. 17 at 3:30 p.m. in Boise, Idaho.
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu