Football faces bye week

With six games left and six games lost, a bye week probably couldn’t have come at a better time for the USU football team.

The Aggies won’t be in action this weekend, giving the team an opportunity to refresh from a time-consuming trip to Hawaii and regroup for the second half of the 2007 schedule.

“When you come back east, it’s always a little bit harder to recover and get your body clock set and back up to speed,” USU Head Coach Brent Guy said.

The Aggies have six games remaining – three at home, three on the road. None of those teams are nationally ranked. What’s more, the current combined record of the remaining six opponents for USU is 14-18, compared to a 23-12 combined mark from the first six teams the Aggies played. That included two Top-25 teams on the road.

“(The players) are frustrated like all of us,” Guy said. “I know our fans are too, but we’ve still got a lot of energy and hope for this season because of the remainder of the schedule. With the break that we have now and having three of the remaining games at home and three on the road, which is our best percentage in a while, they’re excited to play the rest of the games.”

The next two games for USU will be at Romney Stadium against the University of Nevada Wolf Pack (Oct. 20) and the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (Oct. 27).

PASSING GAME EVOLVING

USU collected 247 passing yards vs. Hawaii, a season high. That included a 77-yard touchdown pass from Leon Jackson III to wide receiver Kevin Robinson.

Why did the Aggies decide to put the ball in the air more than in previous outings?

“You’ve got to get the look from the defense in order to throw it down field,” Guy said. “(Hawaii) gave us the looks to get it down the field.”

Guy said another factor was the production from the running game. The Aggies tallied 123 yards on the ground. Running back Derrvin Speight had 71 of those and Jackson 55.

“We’ll continue to do stuff like that and take shots down the field,” Guy said. “We hit our shots this time, and that’s what makes it look better.”

DIONDRE BOREL AT WIDE RECEIVER

Aggie freshman Diondre Borel, listed as a quarterback on the roster, was used as a wideout at Hawaii.

Guy said this is because right now sophomore Jase McCormick and junior Sean Setzer are next in line behind Jackson.

“(Borel) can catch the ball very well, and more than anything, he’s a good open-field runner,” Guy said. “We decided that this is an easy position to play, with catching some nice easy throws where he doesn’t have to adjust to a lot of the routes or do a lot of different things, just get him the football and get him some game experience.

“He adds another dimension out there of a guy that can make somebody miss in space, like Kevin (Robinson) can.”

-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu