Broncos upend Aggies in 50-14 blowout in Boise
The million-dollar question of the week was how Boise State was going to come back from last Friday night’s historic loss to Nevada.
It didn’t take long for Boise State to answer the question, as Derrell Acrey picked off Diondre Borel on the game’s first play from scrimmage to set the tone as Boise State (11-1, 7-1 WAC) rolled over Utah State (4-8, 2-6 WAC) to capture a share of the Western Athletic Conference title.
In taking down Utah State 50-14 on senior day, the Broncos not only concluded their third-straight season with 11 wins or more, but made a strong case that last week’s meltdown, which saw kicker Kyle Brotzman miss a chance to defeat Nevada in regulation, was little more than fluke. For the Aggies, the loss concludes a disappointing season dominated more by news of injuries than wins, and wraps up a decade of losses to the Broncos, who will transition to the Mountain West Conference next season.
Utah State struggled from the get-go with the Broncos, managing just 41 passing yards against the Bronco defense. Aggie signal caller Borel, who finished a mere 4-of-15 on the afternoon, threw two interceptions, including Acrey’s on the game’s first play.
“That was awesome,” said Boise State running back Jeremy Avery of the early swing in momentum. “That is how you start the game off. From there it was like ‘let’s go.'”
It didn’t take long for Boise to build off of Acrey’s touchdown. Only a few minutes after the 31-yard interception return, Boise State’s offense struck when quarterback Kellen Moore hit tight end Kyle Efaw in the back of the endzone. A subsequent two-point conversion gave the Broncos a 15-0 lead just halfway through the first quarter.
“When you’re playing Boise, or any very, very good football team, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out you can’t go down 15-nothing,” said Utah State head coach Gary Andersen, whose team ends the season 4-8 for the second consecutive year.
Andersen’s Aggies fought back later in the first quarter when running back Kerwynn Williams converted a fourth-and-one by taking an off-tackle run play 40 yards for a touchdown. Williams spearheaded a 250-yard rushing day for the USU offense, capping off a career day by rushing for 147 yards and a touchdown on just 19 carries. The sophomore, filling in after senior Derrvin Speight went down early in the first quarter with injury, also set new WAC and NCAA kick-return yards records in the game, finishing with 1,444 kickoff return yards on the season.
Andersen said the Aggies need more players like Williams if the team is to final get over the hump of losing and finish a season above .500.
“We need more young men – not just athletically – in the program that have the fight, the want-to, the consistency you get out of Kerwynn,” Andersen said. “That extra edge you have in a tremendous competitor, Kerwynn Williams brings to the table every day. Not just game day, he brings it in practice every single day.”
Williams was pleased with his performance and his new record, but unhappy with the circumstances under which they came. Knowing Speight’s final Aggie football game was over just minutes after it began wasn’t the way in which Williams envisioned having his coming out party.
“I’d rather it had been the different way – especially it being Derrvin’s last game as an Aggie – I’d rather it had been the other way around where he had an amazing day,” Williams said.
While the USU offense may have cut the lead to eight in the first quarter, the Aggie defense was hard pressed to slow down the high flying Bronco offense for much of the afternoon. Following Williams’ touchdown, Moore efficiently moved the Boise offense down the field in eight plays, again connecting with tight end Kyle Efaw for a touchdown. Moore finished the day a mistake-free 24-of-34 while throwing for 237 yards and three scores. For the junior quarterback, who is expected to be one of the finalists for the Heisman trophy when they are announced Monday, the win goes a long way to showing skeptics that Boise State’s loss to Nevada was an anomaly.
“(This game) was all about rebounding coming off a bad loss,” Moore said. “We had to prove we can keep this thing rolling. We can’t be down forever. It was just an opportunity to rebound and play some good football.”
Boise State’s defense, fresh off its worst performance of the season against the Wolf Pack, rebounded as well, overwhelming the USU offense line and causing Aggie quarterback Borel to run for his life in the pocket. The Aggies failed to move the ball effectively against the first string Bronco defense, and only managed 30 yards in the second quarter against the swarming Bronco defense.
“We can’t protect,” Andersen said. “When you can’t protect, any quarterback in the country can’t throw the football. If you can’t protect, you have no chance of throwing the ball down the field.”
Andersen called Boise’s defense “tremendous” and also pointed to USU’s inability to convert consistently on third downs as a reason for falling behind early. The Aggies converted only five of 16 third down attempts.
“We fought, continued to battle, but we didn’t execute on third down on offense. We didn’t execute on third down on defense good enough,” he said.
The win was the final WAC game the Broncos will play before moving on to the MWC next season. And while teams like Utah State likely won’t miss what has become a near certain loss when playing Boise State every year, the Broncos will miss their conference success. Boise State departs the conference with a 75-5 record against WAC foes, including a perfect 40-0 against WAC teams on the ‘smurf turf’ of Bronco stadium.
– adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu