Utes coach: “We will have our hands full”
Utah State is one day away from taking on No. 24 Utah, just a week after scraping out a 12-9 victory over Southern Utah.
“Not all is lost and the sky is not falling by any means,” said head coach Matt Wells. “There is improvement to be made in every position meeting room on offense. It’s been addressed and it will continue to be addressed. We’ll work really hard as coaches and players to make it better this week.”
Starting running back LaJuan Hunt says the offense needs to play better as one unit.
“That’s a big thing that coach Heupel gets on us about,” Hunt said. “Playing as one unit, and we didn’t do that … Looking ahead to Utah, they have some big, physical guys that can really fly around and get to the ball, similar to our defense. It’s just going to be a matter of coming out and being more physical and outplaying them.”
Against Southern Utah, USU piled up 158 rush yards, 80 coming from Hunt and another 51 from junior running back Devante Mays.
“Lightning and thunder,” Hunt said of Mays. “He’s thunder and I’m lightning.”
The Utes are coming off a 24-17 home victory over Michigan. Coach Kyle Whittingham said that the team is focused on cutting out mistakes in order to beat Utah State.
“We’re positive we’re going to see a whole different Utah State team than the one that showed up on film,” Whittingham said. “They’ve played us exceptionally well so we are fully aware that we will have our hands full Friday night.”
The top performers in Utah State’s game last week came on the defensive side of the ball. USU allowed under three yards per carry from the SUU rushing attack.
Utah State’s run defense will be tested against Devontae Booker. Last season, Booker had over 1,800 yards of total offense and averaged more than 100 rush yards per game. Booker scored 12 touchdowns.
“They have a very big offensive line, and they’re athletic,” said USU linebacker Kyler Fackrell. “Their running back is one of the best running backs in the nation. Travis Wilson is deceptively fast and he gets a lot of running yards. He’s able to pull the ball and they have a lot of designed plays for him to run.”
The Utes senior quarterback Travis Wilson runs the offense. Wilson played 13 games in 2014 and threw for over 2,000 yards with 18 touchdowns and only five interceptions. He rushed for over 300 yards and scored five touchdowns on the ground.
“A lot of it was Booker and Wilson in this last game,” Fackrell said. “They have a lot of threats and a lot of athletes at receiver, too. We’re going to have to play well in all areas and we’re going to have to fly to the ball and get more than one person at the point attack when we’re tackling them because they’re big, physical players.”
Wells complimented Utah and acknowledged that the team is well-coached.
“Those guys are really good,” Wells said. “With Kyle Whittingham-coached teams, you have a lot of respect before you even turn the tape on in terms of special teams, what they do to prepare and their in-game adjustments. It’s always been a factor with his teams. They’re extremely well-coached on special teams, they always are, and they’ve got very good players in a very good scheme.”
The game between the Utes and the Aggies will mark 112 times that the two teams have met, the longest rivalry in USU history. Utah State is 29-78-4 overall in the series. The Aggies haven’t won a game in Salt Lake since 1997.
“It’s been a heck of a rivalry. It’s been very competitive,” Whittingham said. “I can tell you that, especially as of late. Our guys look forward to it. Like I said earlier, we better be at our best if we’re going to have a chance to win this football game.”
— kalen.s.taylor@gmail.com
Twitter: @kalen_taylor