Dennehy, Aggies set for Clemson Saturday
The Utah State football team, reeling from its big home loss to North Texas, is hoping to upset the 1-4 Clemson on Saturday in the Tiger’s Homecoming game.
Clemson comes into Saturday’s game with the second hardest schedule in the country – its only win coming in double overtime over Wake Forest.
“We have not seen Clemson play a whole ball game on film,” Utah State Head Coach Mick Dennehy said. “They may be as talented a team physically as we are going to play against.”
The four losses Clemson has suffered were against Virginia, Florida State, Texas A&M and Georgia Tech.
The 2-4 Aggies have lost to North Texas, Troy, Utah and Alabama while beating only Idaho and UNLV.
“Looking back at the [North Texas] game on film, I feel that our kids competed,” Dennehy said. “But, it is the little things that end up being reasons why you do not win, including catching the ball and holding onto the ball.”
Aggie quarterback Travis Cox is looking to improve on his six turnover performance last week.
“Everybody looks at Cox and has a tendency to point a finger,” Dennehy said. “However, what everyone fails to realize is that Cox led us down the field three or four times after the turnover in the end zone.”
This game marks the first ever meeting between these two teams and Saturday will be the first time Utah State has traveled to the state of South Carolina to play a football game.
The game against Clemson starts the first of four straight road games for the Aggies. This will be the Aggies’ longest road trip of the season. The next time the Aggies will be playing in Logan is Nov. 20 when they take on New Mexico State.
Utah State has a 0-2 record all-time against Atlantic Coast Conference teams, losing to Florida State 17-8 in 1975 and 17-16 at Miami in 1978.
“Anytime we go back east and play one of the big teams, it is a big game,” linebacker Jared Johnstun said. “It is a chance we can show people we can still play ball, even though a Sun Belt title may be out of the question. Clemson has great players on offense, which is expected from a team in the ACC.”
Saturday’s game will be played at Memorial Stadium, a venue with a maximum capacity of 81,473.
“It should be similar to the Alabama game, being that the game will be played in a large stadium,” wide receiver and punt returner Kevin Robinson said. “It should be an exciting game to play in.”
Going into this week’s game, Kevin Robinson is leading the nation in punt return average while the Aggies lead the team in punt returns.
USU has had four different player record five or more catches in a game this season.
Raymond Hicks, Rod McNeal, Kevin Robinson have all accomplished that feat twice, while Tony Pennyman has done it three times.
Along with those players Cox has completed a pass to at least seven different players for 11 straight games. He has also thrown a touchdown pass in his last seven games and 17 of the last 18.
In the past five years all under coach Dennehy the Aggies have faced eight nationally ranked teams. This season alone, they have faced No. 13 at the time Utah and Alabama. Clemson was a top 20 preseason team. Saturday, the game between the Aggies and the Tigers begins 11 a.m. Mountain Standard time.
-kcaustin@cc.usu.edu