Hawaii won’t be a vacation for Aggies
Hawaii is the Utah State football team’s destination this weekend, but forget about it being any kind of vacation.
If the Aggies replicate last week’s debacle on special teams this Saturday in Hawaii, things could possibly get even uglier than last year’s 63-10 loss to the Warriors in Logan.
Kickoff is at 10 p.m. Mountain Standard Time and will be televised on KJZZ (Comcast Channel 14).
“Special teams has always been something that we’ve been bragging about for quite a while,” USU Head Coach Brent Guy said. “But we dropped a lot of spots in a lot of places (last week at Utah) … It cost us dearly. We are going to have to change some guys around. We just missed tackles.”
Against the University of Utah, the Aggies allowed the Utes to net 135 yards on punt returns, one of which was taken back 75 yards for a touchdown. The Utes also averaged 23 yards on each kickoff return.
“We watched the tape over and over, we were in great position,” Aggie wide receiver/returner Kevin Robinson said. “(Utah) just made a little hesitation, and it froze us a little bit and enough for him to get by us. I know because I do punt returns too and I saw him come at me, and just the slightest little move can throw off everything. We were in good position.”
Giving an opponent that kind of field position won’t help the Aggies snap their 10-game road losing streak-especially against the Warriors of Hawaii.
The Warriors (5-0 for the first time since 1981) are currently ranked higher than they ever have been in their history: 15th in the USA Today poll and 16th by the Associated Press. They also boast a Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Colt Brennan. Even after throwing five interceptions last week in a 48-20 win at Idaho, Brennan is second in the nation in total offense (415.8 yards per game) and ninth in pass efficiency.
Guy said he will use the example of those five interceptions Brennan threw last week as a motivating factor for the defense to cause turnovers.
“What scares me more than anything is their offense,” Guy said. “Obviously, they’re scoring over 60 points both times they’ve been home on the island and over 40 in games off the island. That’s the thing that scares me the most about going and playing this football game, is the potential that their offense has.”
Aside from last week, the Warriors’ victories include Northern Colorado (63-6), Louisiana Tech (45-44 in overtime), the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (49-14), and Charleston Southern (66-10).
“We’ve got to get back to what we do best on special teams,” Guy said. “That is to get ourselves field position and make them play a long field and not a short field like Utah was able to do in the second quarter when they got all those points.”
THE SERIES
The Aggies lead the all-time series against the Warriors, 4-3. Playing games at Hawaii’s Aloha Stadium USU is 2-2.
The Aggies’ most recent victory was in 1966 when they came away with a 48-0 win.
-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu