USU to take plunge into Sooner Nation
Appalachian State did it on the road to Michigan a few weeks ago.
Can the USU football team do the almost unimaginable this week and defeat the No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium?
The degree of difficulty for such an accomplishment was increased this week with the loss of senior defensive end Ben Childs to a broken leg and senior safety Antonio Taylor to a season-long suspension.
The Sooners are 2-0 with convincing wins over North Texas (79-10) and the Atlantic Coast Conference powerhouse Miami Hurricanes (51-13).
“We’ve got to go and play what is about as talented of a team as I’ve seen in a long time,” Aggie Head Coach Brent Guy said. “When I was in the Pac-10, USC was one of the most powerful teams. I think Oklahoma is like those teams.”
The Aggies (0-2) will try not to get too caught up in the atmosphere of such a major football program that boasts such stats as these: OU owns seven national championships, has made 40 bowl appearances with 24 victories, is the most successful college football program since World War II, and has produced 142 All-Americans.
On top of that, 85,000-plus fans will be present to make things even more challenging for the already-struggling Aggies.
Aggie junior linebacker Jake Hutton spoke about the experience he had his freshman year (2005) competing at Alabama.
“We all went in and looked around the stadium and gave it oohs and ahhs because we weren’t used to that kind of thing, and then they came out and scored 14 quick,” Hutton said. “After that we started shutting them down. We need to not give (Oklahoma) as much respect and think so high of them. I think we’ve just got to stick to our assignments and be gap sound.”
This year redshirt freshman quarterback Sam Bradford is leading the Sooner offense. Through two games he has zero interceptions and eight incomplete passes. Against the Hurricanes, Bradford tied a school record with five touchdown passes. He also racked up 205 yards passing and has 568 for the season. Bradford leads the NCAA in passing efficiency.
The OU defense gave up only 139 yards of total offense to the Hurricanes. That same defense leads the nation in tackles for loss per game, averaging 13.
There is no question the Aggies will have great obstacles to overcome on both sides of the ball to make the score respectable.
USU will look to improve on third-down conversions, an area they went 0-13 in against Wyoming last week.
“We’ve got to get that extra yard,” Guy said. “I don’t think it’s a matter of not calling the right plays, it’s a matter of we’ve got to get one more yard. We’ve got to run over the guy or make the guy miss or block the guy one yard better.”
Aggie Quarterback Leon Jackson is showing significant strides of improvement through two games. He collected 147 passing yards against Wyoming, which was his highest number since November of 2005 when he threw for 372 yards vs. Louisiana Tech.
The Aggie running game, anchored by Curtis Marsh and Aaron Lesue, has been equally good. The 137 yards gained against Wyoming was the highest since Nov. 3 of 2006.
“This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” Guy said. “You may not ever get to play a team ranked this high again, so what are you going to do with it? That will be the challenge we face.”
Kickoff is 1:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on KJZZ.
-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu