Can USU gridders improve vs. tough WAC competition?
Utah State is on the cusp of the most exciting and promising season in a lot of autumns. Out of the last 25 squads of Aggies to trot out onto the gridiron, 23 have failed to achieve a winning season. The lowly Ags haven’t reached the postseason since 1997. Last year, they finished 3-7 for the third straight year, well out of the money in the WAC.
Yet there are reasons for guarded optimism in Logan. For once it appears football is more than a miserable diversion to pass the time for fans waiting for basketball. USU is now comfortably settled in to the WAC.
Thanks to the generosity of donors like the Laub family, ground has been broken on a new north end zone complex, the first stage in an ambitious plan to bring EL Romney stadium into the 21st century.
With the promise of lucrative payouts from WAC-affiliated bowl games on the horizon, the facilities being massively upgraded and the best coaching staff in memory in place, USU’s football program has never been in better shape and an era of success seems to be right around the corner. But could the improving circumstances affect the win/loss column as soon as this season? In-depth analysis can help give us an idea.
Last year, Head Coach Brent Guy inherited a team of players recruited to play in Mick Dennehy’s pitch-and-catch offense. In Dennehy’s spread, offensive linemen were generally dropping back on their heels to protect the passing quarterback. In the first year of running Offensive Coordinator Mike Santiago’s physical running attack, the players struggled with the drastically different new scheme and USU didn’t run the ball well. A running back led the team in rushing just twice all year as quarterback Leon Jackson III was by far the most effective runner.
Guy has been shuffling guys around in the backfield, and it looks like last year’s best running back, sophomore Ryan Bohm, will be switching spots with Lynwood Johnson, moving to fullback while Johnson moves to tailback.
-graham@cc.usu.edu