‘The Aggie way’

Utah State relied on its defense Saturday to secure a 21-6 win over UTEP in the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.

“As a head coach, I’m very very proud of the culture of that locker room,” said Matt Wells, who coached the Aggies to double digit wins for the second time in program history. “These kids today they showed it. We just rise up and find a way. Those are the kind of things you can’t coach. My hat’s off to our players, they earned this win, I’m proud to be their coach.”

The Aggies held the Miners’ No. 32 ranked rushing offense in the country to 149 yards on 46 attempts and ran for 279 yards themselves. It was a team effort from the Aggies, who had five players that rushed for at least 30 yards. UTEP sophomore Aaron Jones averaged 112 yards per game on the season but was held in check for 88 yards on 25 carries.

“They had too much penetration up front,” said UTEP senior quarterback Jameill Showers. “That was pretty much the story of the game. We just didn’t play very well on offense.”

Utah State senior safety Brian Suite was the games leading tackler with 10. Defensive MVP Zach Vigil had nine tackles, a pass break-up and a quarterback hurry. Linebacker Nick Vigil played both sides of the ball, he tallied seven tackles for the defense and eight carries for 34 yards plus a touchdown on offense.

“To be able to go out and get 10 wins senior year is pretty special,” said Zach Vigil, who had a team leading 154 tackles on the season. “This senior class was resilient, it’s a very proud honor to be associated with that.”

Freshman quarterback Kent Myers led Utah State in rushing with 70 yards, the majority of his yards came on a 48-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. That score was the lone touchdown of the first half and USU wouldn’t trail again.

“We knew coming in to this game that Utah State made big plays,” said Jimmy Musgrave, junior linebacker for UTEP. “I felt like we were playing good the whole game, we played solid but we allowed too many big plays that kept them alive. We just made lots of little mistakes.”

During the second quarter Myers was repeatedly pressured and hit leading to an interception, and a lost fumble. After the fumble, Myers was taken to the locker room to be checked for a concussion but would later return to the game.

“It’s a part of college football,” said Myers, who was voted the offensive MVP following the game. “Even if I was hurt, I was going to go back in anyways to send my seniors out right. Regardless, I was going to come out and play hard.”

In Myers’ absence, wide receiver Ronald Butler checked in at quarterback, marking the fifth quarterback to be used by Utah State this season. Butler took his first play at quarterback for a 61-yard rush, putting Utah State in scoring position with less than 30 seconds till the half. Senior Nick Diaz made the first attempt but UTEP called a timeout and Diaz missed the second, ending the first half.

In what was a defensive battle, the UTEP defense held Utah State to a season low 68 yards passing, while totaling four sacks, eight tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and an interception.

“I thought the defense competed hard all year,” said UTEP head coach Sean Kugler. “The kids played their hearts out. I thought the defense was out there hitting and competing the entire game.”

The senior class for USU is the winningest in Utah State history, the bowl victory gave them 37 wins.

“From Zach (Vigil) to Kevin Whimpey to BJ (Larsen), (Brian) Suite, Frankie Sutera, Joe Hill, those guys have been tremendous leaders,” Wells said. “It continues to get passed down to each class. You’ve got to continue to teach young kids when they come in, what it is, how it is, how we do it the Aggie way.”

— kalen.s.taylor@aggiemail.usu.edu

Twitter: @kalen_taylor