Homecoming no cure for woeful Ag football
Jamario Thomas rushed for a North Texas school-record 272 yards on 38 attempts Saturday as they beat Utah State in its Homecoming game 31-23.
“This is about the toughest one I’ve ever been a part of,” head coach Mick Dennehy said. “I feel horrible for the kids. I think they fought their guts out. But back to work on Monday, that’s all I can say right now.”
Utah State scored a touchdown on its opening drive for the first time this season. The scoring drive lasted 11 plays for 80 yards and took up over five minutes of the first quarter. During that series, the Aggies completed their second longest play of the season when Travis Cox connected with Tony Pennyman for 51 yards. Cox scored the touchdown on a quarterback draw after two unsuccessful rushing tries.
North Texas scored 24 points off Aggie turnovers, four interceptions and two fumbles, all were committed by Cox.
“Travis didn’t play early in the game like he is capable of playing,” Dennehy said. “I think he is a very good competitor and I think he came back and competed very well. He made a lot of awful good plays tonight. He can’t throw it and catch it as well. The first pick, that wasn’t his fault, Ray Hicks should have caught the ball.”
Those six turnovers equal the amount of turnovers the Aggies tallied in the previous three games combined.
One fumble was on the North Texas 1-yard line and bounced all the way to the back of the end zone before TJ Covington picked it up and returned it 100 yards for a touchdown.
“He really didn’t know whether he got hit or not,” Dennehy said. “I think he kind of reached out to get the ball over the end zone and as he went to grab it, he just lost hold of it.”
The fumble return for North Texas marks the fourth time this season that an Aggie opponent has scored a defensive touchdown.
“I just feel like more than anything else the one team in our league, that competes and does a good job of not making mistakes that absolutely kill them … is North Texas,” Dennehy said. “That’s why they win. We’ve harped on that all week. As well as we did most things tonight, we made too many mistakes.”
During the first quarter, the Aggie defense held Thomas to only 9 yards on four attempts for a 2.2 average.
But, that was the first quarter.
After that, North Texas exploited the Ags suspect run defense by running the ball more than 80 percent of the time and ending up with 259 net rushing yards on 48 attempts for a 5.3 average. The Aggies only tallied 124 rushing yards on 36 attempts for a 3.4 average.
“I figured especially with the way the game was going that we needed to saddle him [Jamario Thomas] up and ride him,” North Texas Head Coach Darrell Dickey said.
The Aggies were 2-0 when scoring first until Saturday.
One of those scores in the first half was a 71-yard punt return for a touchdown by Kevin Robinson. He was then ejected from the game because of his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
“Kevin is starting to make some plays that are unbelievable,” Dennehy said. “He’s certainly capable. All I saw was they tried to get him out of bounds down there and he dived over the endzone trying to score a touchdown. Man, I’m going to have to look at that on film. That’s a tough way to lose a player.”
Dennehy said he didn’t think Robinson was trying to celebrate.
Jerome Dennis and Jarrett Bush came in to take over returning duties for the Aggies after Robinson was ejected and both were able to break a few big ones.
Bush returned three punts for 38 yards and Dennis broke a 60-yard kickoff return.
“Coach [Jeff] Choate is doing a great job with the kids,” Dennehy said. “I think they have a lot of confidence in that area. You know, Kevin has kind of emerged as our punt returner, but I thought Jarrett Bush went in and did a pretty dang good job after Kevin left. And, Jerome has been a pretty good kick returner for a long time around here for. That why they didn’t kick to us for the most part.”
This was the fifth game in the seven-game series these two teams have participated in that has been decided by eight points or less.
“It’s a funny game. It’s a funny, funny game,” Dennehy said. “Sometimes you just wonder, ‘what do you have to do.'”
-kcaustin@cc.usu.edu