Aggie football runs through final scrimmage
Battling the downpour of rain, the Utah State football team went through 60 plays Monday in its final scrimmage before the annual spring football game Saturday.
Third-year head coach Gary Andersen said that he and his staff saw exactly what they wanted out of the practice that focused primarily on red zone situations, hoping to see what his team was capable of on both sides of the ball when the pressure was on.
“Playmakers usually show up in that situation,” Andersen said. “You’ve got to get them in those spots to understand that defensively you’ve got to make a special play.”
One player making several of those plays was sophomore linebacker Jake Doughty, who has found himself running with the first team during the spring because of senior linebackers Bobby Wagner and Kyle Gallagher being held out of practices. Doughty led the defense Monday with seven tackles and one tackle for loss, and said that one of the biggest things the defense had been aiming to do was to get everything crisper and perfect all the little things in bringing the entire defensive unit together.
“I feel like this team is quite a bit closer,” Doughty said of this year’s defense compared to the past two seasons. “We’re all working really well together so hopefully it pays off as soon as the season starts.”
Because of the poor conditions, the majority of the offensive production came from the ground game where sophomore running back Robert Marshall led the way for USU with eight carries for 38 yards and two touchdowns.
Despite the rain adding a level of difficulty to the offense, Marshall said the goal for them was to aim for something positive on every play.
Marshall said, “Some plays were a bust, but I think we bounced back pretty well and were able to move the ball like we wanted to.”
Along with Marshall, the offense got production out of the backfield from junior Joey DeMartino, who racked up 37 yards on just three carries and junior Kerwynn Williams who carried the ball eight times for 34 yards. Williams also had one catch for six yards.
Under center for the offense featured just two faces rather than the three who have been in competition for the starting quarterback position this spring. Junior Adam Kennedy and freshman Alex Hart each took snaps Monday while sophomore Jeremy Higgins was the odd man out of the mix. The battle is far from over though, as Andersen said it’s still a very cloudy picture as to who is going to establish themselves as the go-to guy.
“We’re far from naming a starter at this point,” Andersen said. “I don’t really foresee that taking place as we go through spring football.”
Neither quarterback did much to help their case Monday either. Kennedy connected on just 3-of-10 passes for 33 yards, while Hart completed two of his nine pass attempts for 17 yards.
On special teams, freshman running back Joe Hill continued his impressive spring by returning a punt for a touchdown. Hill’s overall play this spring earned him special mention, along with wide receiver Travis Reynolds, as players who have especially stood out as guys who might be called upon in crunch time of games.
Overall, Andersen said the separation between starters and back-ups has, for the most part, started to become more clear as spring practices near their end. He, along with the rest of the coaching staff, are looking for the 11 best players on each side of the football, and then working to identify who the next guys in line are as well.
“I think we’re starting to understand who those kids are and I think the kids are starting to understand who those kids are,” Andersen said of his likely starters. “I think our kids could sit down and put together a depth chart and be right with us as a coaching staff.”
Spring football will officially wrap up Saturday with the annual spring football game, which will be held at 2 p.m. in Romney Stadium.
–matt.sonn@aggiemail.usu.edu