Weber State shocks USU Football 35-7

LOGAN — Utah State Football suffered their first loss to Weber State since 1978 on Saturday 35-7. It’s the Aggies’ first loss to an FCS opponent since Idaho State beat the Aggies in the 2000 season. 

“Disappointing,” head coach Blake Anderson said. “We got outcoached. We got outplayed. It’s that simple.”

Weber State dominated nearly every facet of the game. 

The Wildcats outrushed the Aggies 199 to 126 with Weber State running back Josh Davis leading the charge. He had 94 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown. Fellow RB Damon Bankston was less efficient with 53 yards on 18 carries. 

Through the air, Wildcat quarterback Bronson Barron tallied 202 yards and two touchdowns. He was also good with his feet, scrambling for 37 yards on five carries. 

Despite giving up 35 points, the Aggie defense had some highs. 

Safety Hunter Reynolds, cornerback Michael Anyanwu and defensive tackle Phillip Paea each had an interception. Linebacker AJ Vongphachanh led the Aggies in tackles with 11, one of them was a tackle-for-loss. Fellow LB MJ Tafisi tied for second in total tackles with 10, and he led the team in tackles-for-loss with two.

Special teams was the silver lining for the Aggies. Their only touchdown came on a kickoff return by wide receiver Terrell Vaughn. It was the first of his career. 

“It felt great,” Vaughn said. “I want to help my team win in any way I can.”

On offense, things were about as bad as they can be for the Aggies. In fact, the Utah State offense has not scored in eight quarters after getting shut out by No. 1 Alabama and now Weber State.

USU struggled to get any flow on offense despite tallying 18 first downs. They were two of 15 on third-down conversions and one of four on fourth downs. 

The rushing attack was limited to 126 yards with running back Calvin Tyler Jr. the team leader. He finished with 64 yards on 18 carries for an average of 3.6. 

It was an especially bleak day for quarterback Logan Bonner. He finished with three interceptions and 120 yards on 31 attempts. 

The crowd and USU fans on social media wanted Bonner out of the game in the third quarter so badly that they booed his return to the field. Anderson said a lot of the crowd “showed their true colors” when they turned on Bonner. 

“It’s just really easy to sit in the stands and boo,” Anderson said. “There’s plenty of blame on that sideline to go around, not just one guy.”

Many fans in the stands wanted backup QB Cooper Legas to replace Bonner. That ended up happening but not until the fourth quarter. Anderson was clear that he won’t “be swayed by people in the crowd” on coaching decisions. 

Legas’s first pass was an interception and in his next drive, the offense came up short on fourth down resulting in a turnover on downs. Legas finished with 37 yards on four completions.

After the loss, USU has a crucial bye week where they will have a chance to reset and clean things up. 

“It comes at a good time. We got to find who we are,” Anderson said. “We’ve been talking about finding consistency and we just don’t have any yet.”

In the past after a bad loss like this, Anderson has seen teams react in different ways. 

“I’ve seen teams respond in the right way, galvanize, pull together and start winning games and start really doing the little things that get you over the hump,” Anderson said. “I’ve had teams in this type of game that didn’t go the way you want that fracture and just fall further apart.”

Anderson finished by saying, “adversity gets you to find out exactly who you are.” 

The Aggies have 14 days to find out who they are and build the consistency they need before they take on UNLV in their conference opener on Sept. 24. 

Featured image by Heidi Bingham.