A complete game the goal
This season for the USU football team has been a lot like the theme-park game Whack-a-Mole.
As one problem has been solved, another has quickly popped up to replace it.
Early in the season it was the inability to finish teams off in the fourth quarter.
More recently against Nevada and Louisiana Tech, the issue was a wayward third quarter.
It shifted to the first quarter last week against Fresno State.
It’s safe to say the Aggies are both looking for and in need of a complete game Saturday at Romney Stadium versus the 19th-ranked Boise State Broncos (8-1, 5-0 in Western Athletic Conference).
“I think it’s fair to say (the Broncos) are a team that believes they are going to win every week, no matter who they play,” Aggie Head Coach Brent Guy said of the Broncos. “We’ve got a great challenge on our hands … because they’re a team that will jump out and can jump on you fast if you make mistakes.”
The Aggies are 1-43 against ranked teams, including a 1-6 record at Romney Stadium.
Though they lost to the Washington Huskies, 24-10, in the second game of the season, the Broncos have been unstoppable since. BSU is averaging 49 points in WAC games and 44 overall for the season.
The Broncos’ most lopsided WAC games have been on their blue home turf-including a 42-7 win over San Jose State last week, as well as a 58-0 thumping of the New Mexico State Aggies Oct. 7.
“We start and have some good momentum and then if we lose it, we can’t gain it back until we get another spark,” Guy said of the Aggies’ struggles. “(The Broncos) just keep on plugging away and know that something good is going to happen, offensively, defensively or (special) teams. I think that’s always been part of the magic that they’ve had since they’ve started winning all those conference titles consecutively all the years that they have.”
As always, the Aggies will need explosive plays and point production from special teams to have a chance. To be more specific, wide receiver/return specialist Kevin Robinson needs to have the ball in his hands as much as possible.
Robinson leads the WAC and is second in the nation in all-purpose yards per game (210.7). His punt-return average is also first in the WAC and third in the country (19.5). On kickoffs he is third in conference and 14th nationwide (29.4).
What can the Aggies do to ensure he has the ball more of the time?
“I don’t know,” Robinson said. “It seems like we’ve tried everything else in the book. I don’t know if I’d have to throw or what. We’re working on a lot of things. Defenses are doing a great job of scheming me out and trying to make sure I don’t get the ball in my hands. There’s really not too much more we could do. We’ve tried to do everything possible. You’ve got to give credit to the defenses.”
Guy said another key area for USU is winning the turnover margin-something they did in the loss to Fresno State. The Broncos lost the turnover margin when the Huskies beat them.
“That was a critical part of that game,” Guy said. “So we’ve just got to focus on starting fast and not turning the ball over and creating some turnovers to shorten the field-not letting them make big plays on special teams, which is what got San Jose State in trouble last week.”
SENIOR DAY FOR 15 AGGIES
This is the group of players Guy inherited in 2005.
They include wide receiver and return specialist Kevin Robinson, quarterback Leon Jackson III, offensive guards Pace Jorgensen and Shawn Murphy and defensive end Frank Maile.
For most it is their fourth year on the team. That means they have seen-at most-only seven wins in that time span.
“This is probably as difficult of a situation as you can be placed in as a senior, especially with the way that last season ended and the way that this season has gone,” Guy said. “We’ve had a lot of tough losses, heartbreaking losses where we’ve had fourth quarter leads, and they’ve been able to sustain with the rest of the team because of the way that they play.”
Robinson, the Aggies’ most explosive player, agreed.
“It hasn’t been the plan that we wanted, and we haven’t had the years that we’ve wanted,” Robinson said. “We say we’re going to do something and we didn’t, but you can’t get mad at us for not fighting every single game and giving it our all.”
-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu