Offense looks for first TD against Vandals
After going 0-4 against a tough pre-season slate of opponents, the USU Aggies will be looking to put their struggles behind them and get on track against the University of Idaho Vandals Saturday afternoon in Romney Stadium. The 1:05 p.m. game is the Aggies WAC opener.
Last year USU opened their WAC season at the Vandal’s Kibbie Dome in Moscow, Idaho, and lost a heartbreaker that kept the home team undefeated in the rivalry’s last five contests. USU quarterback Leon Jackson III was leading the Ags on a drive with the score 20-13 for the Vandals when he was intercepted with :35 seconds remaining in the game and Mike Anderson took it back for a touchdown to make the final score 27-13.
USU Head Coach Brent Guy said the biggest factor in the game will be converting third downs.
“Third downs will be the most critical part of the game and whoever does the best job at getting into third and short or third and medium situations and converting those will be able to control the football game,” Guy said.
USU’s offense has been shut out through 16 consecutive quarters for the first time since 1937. Perhaps the visit from the Vandals, who are giving up 36.2 points per game and allowing their opposition to convert 42 percent of third downs, comes at just the right time for Jackson and his teammates.
Idaho has played a difficult non-conference schedule of their own. They won their home opener 27-24 against the division 1AA Idaho State Bengals of the Big Sky conference. Their three losses came against Oregon State, Washington State and Michigan State, with the Vandals putting up a valiant fight in their 27-17 loss to the Spartans.
USU’s Jake Hutton, who played his high school ball for Pocatello’s Highland High, moved back to his outside linebacker position to make room for juco transfer sophomore Derek Cumbee in the middle against BYU. Cumbee was impressive, leading the Aggies with 11 tackles.
Cumbee, Hutton and outside linebacker Devon Hall will be tested by the Vandal’s rushing attack, which features three talented runners: Jayson Bird, Brian Flowers and Rolly Lumbala. Flowers leads in total yards with 176, while Flowers has a nice 4.5 yards-per-carry average. Lumbala has carried it only 12 times but scored two touchdowns.
If USU’s defense can handle the Idaho rushers, the game could be USU’s to lose because Idaho’s starting quarterback Steve Wichman owns a 47.2 completion percentage that doesn’t scare anyone. Guy said he thought the defense performed well against BYU although the consistency is still lacking.
“We had as many tackles for loss against BYU as we’ve had against any football team we’ve played this year. We also had a goal-line stand at the end of the first half, so I thought there were some areas we executed well,” Guy said.
The man calling the plays for the Aggies on Saturday won’t be Mike Santiago for the first time since 2004. Santiago resigned on Sunday after the BYU game and the interim offensive coordinator will be Greg Stevens. Guy has talked about simplifying the game plan, saying, “When we go out against Idaho on Saturday we don’t want anything in the gameplan that’s still confusing when we practice on Thursday.”
Having a back like Marcus Cross to hand off to helps make any offensive coordinator’s job simpler. Cross has rushed for 326 tough yards to date and is the best runner to wear the blue and white since Emmett White played here. Cross had 103 yards against Arkansas and gouged BYU for 127.