Aggies lay another egg
Forcing four turnovers and collecting 333 yards of total offense might sound good, but it didn’t show up in the win column for the USU football team Saturday.
It all equaled out to another loss – this time a 44-17 stumbling to the Nevada Wolf Pack. The Aggies are now 1-2 in Western Athletic Conference play and 1-6 overall.
USU head coach Brent Guy said the Aggie rushing game was a disappointment.
“When we did (run well), we got penalties,” said Guy, who is now 7-35 as Aggie head coach. “We’d get six and then they’d back us up. Those are the things that kill us.”
USU led the game with 11 penalties for 85 yards.
The Aggies ended with 71 rushing yards, with 50 coming from sophomore quarterback Diondre Borel.
Borel threw for a season-high 262 yards on 19-of-39, tossing two touchdowns for the third time this season. Senior wide receiver Otis Nelson also had a notable day. He had a career-best 86 receiving yards on four catches with two touchdowns.
The Wolf Pack (2-1 in WAC, 4-3) won for the third time in their last four games. They had 523 yards of total offense, including 284 rushing, led by running back Vai Taua’s 122 and a touchdown. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick was 10-of-20 passing for 197 and had 48 yards rushing on six carries with two touchdown.
The Aggies fell behind 13-0 about two minutes into the second quarter. Their first score came with 2:20 left in the half – a 16-yard pass to Nelson.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, the Wolf Pack struck again on the next possession. It only took 1:16 for Nevada to go 68 yards in six plays to get a 20-7 advantage.
The Aggies were given just over a minute to find the end zone again before the half.
USU drove 63 yards thanks to three first downs (all the result of pass plays). It was the final play of the half that Guy said killed the Aggies. Instead of running out of bounds to stop the clock, Borel tried to outrun a score of Wolf Pack defenders, but came up 17 yards short of the end zone. Going out of bounds, Guy said, would have given the Aggies a shot at a field goal.
“It’s not high school anymore,” Guy said. “You’re not going to outrun that many guys. The odds are not very good. We need three points going into the half. That’s not what you do in that situation, (and Borel) was very upset because of some of the stuff that happened. I’ve got to keep coaching them on these situations. They have to understand what we have to do to stay in the ballgame.”
The Fresno State Bulldogs come to Logan Saturday for Homecoming.
“We’ve got to get back to full strength,” Guy said. “We’ll work hard and coach them up.”
Game notes
Borel was sacked five times for a loss of 52 yards; the Aggie defense did not record a sack.
The Aggies were 6-of-20 on third-down conversions; the Wolf Pack was 5-of-12.
The Aggies punted nine times; the Wolf Pack punted thrice.
–samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu