Armed and Dangerous: Borel has Aggies thinking bowl berth in 2010
Diondre Borel won’t go so far to say that he’s the best quarterback in the Western Athletic Conference. Neither will his coach, Gary Andersen, who’ll be the first to tell you that the Utah State senior-to-be still has plenty of room for improvement.
But ask Aggie wide receiver Stanley Morrison who the best signal caller in the West is, and he’ll tell you that his friend and teammate ranks second to none.
“He is the best,” Morrison said without hesitation. “At least to me he is.”
Morrison may be a little biased. He was, after all, the beneficiary of 33 passes thrown by Borel last season, good for first on the team in both total receiving yards (616) and average yards per catch (18.7). That being said, the explosive receiver has good reason to sing the praises of Borel, who enters his senior season with what is already one of the most distinguished résumés in Utah State football history.
Not only is the quarterback eighth on the USU career passing list with 4,590 yards, but he’s sixth in total yards (5,868) and already holds the top mark for career-rushing yards by a quarterback. His 3,343 yards of total offense produced in 2009 set a USU single-season record, while his four interceptions are the least thrown by a USU quarterback who started every game in a single season.
Indeed, 2009 was a watershed year for the Oakley, Calif., native, who directed USU to its best offensive output in program history. It’s an impressive feat when one considers it was Borel’s first year starting all 12 games and that the record-setting surge came amid a change in coaching staffs and systems. If opposing defenses didn’t have enough reason to fear Borel already, than the senior’s rapid offseason improvement – coupled with his continued mastery of USU coordinator Dave Baldwin’s spread offense – should make the Aggie offense even more potent in 2010.
“Diondre’s looking really good,” said Morrison, who has once again established himself as Borel’s favorite target during the spring. “He’s been getting his footwork right, and everything has been getting better. He’s getting his reads down and has more patience with throwing the ball on time. Everything is getting better.”
Borel’s improvement shouldn’t surprise anyone. After struggling with turning the ball over early in USU’s 4-8 season, Borel came on strong at the end of 2009, completing over 60 percent of his passes in four out of the final five games while throwing for a season-high 369 yards and four scores against Idaho. A dynamic threat to run the ball as well as throw, Borel admits that he was a bit lost during the first few months of last season, but now feels more comfortable than ever with his coaches and the system.
“Last-year coach Baldwin was throwing all these formations at us with the route concepts and the different ways to run it,” Borel said. “So that first year was kind of difficult. Now everyone is just used to it, and we know what he is going to call and we know how to run it.”
One of the chief reasons for Borel’s improvement this spring has been the intimate relationship he’s developed with his offensive coordinator. Last season, Borel was coached by Kevin McGiven, who had come over from Weber State when Andersen was hired as USU’s head coach in December 2008. Borel made major strides under McGiven, but the former Wildcat OC departed this past December to take over a similar position at Memphis. Baldwin stepped In his place and assumed a more hands-on approach to mentoring his starting quarterback. According to Aggie headman Andersen, the situation has proved especially beneficial for the senior quarterback, who has since progressed past the basics of the read-heavy and formation-laden offense.
“I think (Diondre) is more comfortable for a number of reasons,” Andersen said. “No. 1 because he’s been in the system, but also with this being his second year and having the opportunity to have Dave coach him as both the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, it’s a big advantage. A year ago it was a big advantage to have coach McGiven coach him as the quarterbacks coach, but I think in year two we are better off in having Dave and Diondre together.”
Borel agreed with Andersen’s assessment and said that while coach McGiven helped “break him in” last year, it had been coach Baldwin’s tutelage that has helped him take a giant step forward during this year’s spring season.
“Coach McGiven taught me a lot already,” Borel said. “He’s a smart guy, but it was coach Baldwin’s system, and now it’s (coach Baldwin) teaching me the same stuff. It’s been a lot better this spring in terms of making my reads and picking up blitzes and those kinds of things.”
Borel has improved in a number of areas, among them in his ability to prepare for games and his capacity to take a more active leadership role in the offense. They’re intangibles not lost on his head coach, who sees shades of former Utah Ute and current NFL quarterback Alex Smith in Borel. Despite a fundamental difference in the two quarterbacks’ playing styles, Andersen compared Borel favorably to Smith, who quarterbacked the 2005 Utah team, which Andersen helped coach to a Fiesta Bowl victory.
“(Diondre) and Alex are very different,” Andersen said. “Alex was a true pocket passer and not as nifty running the ball as Diondre. But they both have very similar personalities, just in the way that they come into work every single day. The way they prepare for games definitely reminds me of each other, and there is definitely some correlation between the two, even though their playing styles are very different.”
Borel’s legs have played an important part in helping the Utah State offense get out of jams. He has rushed for 11 touchdowns over the past two seasons and even surpassed the 100-yard threshold against Fresno State last year. According to teammate Stanley Morrison, Borel’s unique dual-threat ability adds just another layer to USU’s already-multifaceted offense.
“It gives us a lot,” Morrison said of Borel’s running ability. “(Defenses) just can’t sit back on him and hope he can’t find somebody, because he’ll take off on you. He can find the open man right when he needs to, and if he’s in trouble, he can improvise. That’s the best thing about it.”
Borel acknowledges that his athletic ability outside of the pocket has been an asset for the offense in the past, but said his main focus this offseason has been in trying to improve his decision-making in the passing game. It’s not that he’s carrying a chip on his shoulder as the stereotypical “scrambler,” but rather that he feels USU’s bevy of deep-play wideouts – many of them newcomers in 2010 – will be better utilized if he can locate them downfield.
“I love to run the ball, but where I want to get better at is throwing the ball,” Borel said. “It’s what I always want to work on. I know I can run. If (the coaches) are going to call a run play, I know it’s my number or that I’ll have an option, so I’m not really worried about running the ball.”
He continued, saying, “I’m confident in my receivers. They want the ball and they all want to play. They can go down the field and it allows me to throw deeper passes. Speed-wise, we got it. Last year’s receiving corps was great, but with the downfield threats now, we have a lot more speed.”
Andersen has already seen a big change in Borel’s ability to come off of his initial read and find the open man during the Aggies’ first two scrimmages of the spring. While the health of his quarterbacks ultimately guided Andersen’s decision to make them “off limits” to defenders in USU’s two scrimmages, Andersen said the limits placed on contact situations have caused Borel to see the field more clearly.
“It’s spring ball, so he’s not getting hit, but he seems more poised in the pocket and wants to throw the ball first instead of just checking down from his first receiver and running it,” Andersen said. “His progression continues to improve as a quarterback. He’s a tremendous young man and we love it.”
For his part, Borel remains a perfectionist and continues to hold himself to extremely high standards. While his coaches are pleased with his progression, the soon-to-be senior lists managing USU’s two-minute offense as one of his major points of emphasis for the spring, while also saying that he’d like to sustain his weight at or around the 200-pound mark. But even as he considers the goals he hasn’t quite met, Borel is thinking of the future goals he plans to meet – namely, leading Utah State to its first bowl game since the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl.
“I’m trying to help us win these games and get to a bowl game,” Borel said. “It’s one of our goals, and it’s what coach Andersen and all the coaches have wanted to do since they came here.”
So is Borel poised to have the best season of any WAC quarterback in 2009?
Nevada signal caller and Heisman darkhorse Colin Kaepernick might have something to say about that, but Borel isn’t planning on playing second string on any postseason ALL-WAC lists.
He may be reluctant to dive into comparisons or name names, but Borel makes no mistake about his desire to earn first-team All-WAC status – an accolade that only three Utah State players have ever achieved.
“It’s one of my goals,” he said of being named the top signal caller in the conference. “I’m trying to be that guy and be that quarterback out there, so hopefully that will happen.”
Armed with a new and explosive group of skills position players – as well as numerous returning starters and a firm grasp of the offense he’s been called on to command – Borel gives Aggie fans no reason to doubt that their team will be any less dangerous on offense in 2010, and every reason to look forward to the school’s best finish in a decade.
USU will return to the field of Romney Stadium one final time on Saturday, as the Aggies trot out at 2 p.m. for the annual spring Blue and White game. Admission is free, and fans can receive autographs from their favorite Aggie football players prior to the action.
– adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu