Column: View from the Stands
If nothing changes with the football team this week, here’s what will happen in Tuscaloosa Saturday when Utah State plays No. 5 Alabama:
It will be an even, low-scoring first quarter. USU will gain some momentum in the second quarter and score a touchdown to take a 10-3 lead. On Alabama’s ensuing drive, the Aggie defense will hold strong on first and second down, but someone will blow their pass coverage on third-and-long and give up a 40-yard play.
The Crimson Tide will go on to score two touchdowns before halftime and another one at the beginning of the third quarter to take a 24-10 lead. USU will have plenty of opportunities to get back in the game, but the offense will panic and won’t move the ball when they need to and the defense will continue to give up big plays on third down.
Final score: Alabama 45, Utah State 17.
Sound familiar? That’s because the same game already happened against Utah, Boise State and Fresno State. In each of those games, USU took an early lead and controlled the game before freaking out and blowing it.
For the first 25 minutes of the Utah and BSU games, USU played the way it practiced, ran its offense the way it was supposed to and had its opponent on the ropes. But then it seemed like the Aggies remembered that they weren’t supposed to be playing well and collapsed once they made a simple mistake.
Head coach Brent Guy said before the Utah game that he was worried about his team’s “first-quarter jitters.” After the game, he said it wasn’t the “first-quarter jitters” that cost the Aggies the game, it was the “it’s-almost-halftime-and-we’re-winning jitters.”
Now keep in mind, this may be a problem, but it’s not as bad as the last few years. Last season, the team would wait around until the other team had a 28 point lead before they would decide to start trying.
This team can’t handle making mistakes. It’s putting way too much pressure on itself to be perfect.
Utah wasn’t perfect. Fresno wasn’t perfect. Boise wasn’t perfect. But they all beat us. So why do we need to be perfect in order to win?
The Aggies don’t have any confidence in themselves. They act like any decent team is just better than they are and that in order to beat them, they can’t make a single mistake. That’s certainly a good goal to have, but it’s not necessary. Every team makes mistakes. It’s how they react to those mistakes that determines if they are good or not.
Coach Guy is always telling the team to be mentally tough. This is exactly what he’s talking about.
When Boise went down 14-10 in the second quarter and then appeared to go three-and-out on its next drive, you could see the frustration in its quarterback and coaching staff. It’s defense wasn’t holding and it’s offense couldn’t buy a yard. But they weren’t panicking. They still knew they would get back in the game and come out with a win.
That’s the attitude the Aggies need to have. They need to expect to win. Not just hope for it, not just play for it, not just know that it could happen, but expect it to happen.
Then, even if they start losing, they will still have the confidence in themselves to climb back in the game and win.
The Aggies’ talent is not what’s holding them back. It’s the fact that they don’t realize how good the are.
Bryan Hinton is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to bhhinton@cc.usu.edu