Aggie football becomes post-season eligible with win over NMSU
When was the last time the Utah State football team won a bowl game?
Some would immediately think back to last season against Ohio in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, but it wasn’t a win. At least not in the technical sense.
But for this year’s Aggie squad, moral victories aren’t good enough. Seeking their first bowl victory since 1993, the Aggies will settle for nothing less than a conference championship and a bowl victory.
And thanks to a 41-7 shellacking of the red-clad New Mexico State Aggies, Utah State is bowl eligible for the second straight season.
“I’ll be honest with you, it does feel great to be bowl eligible, to be 6-2, and to win in a convincing manner at a home, that was a great accomplishment for the kids,” USU head coach Gary Andersen said. “I thought we executed extremely well on offense with the opportunity that we were given. I was really proud. I thought defensively it was not our best game. The kids take a lot of pride in the way they play defense. They scored seven points, but we’ve got some things to clean up.”
The USU football team is out to prove that it’s better than its 1-5 all-time bowl record indicates, and the Aggies are doing it on both sides of the ball.
On defense, the Aggies are ranked in the top 21 in the country in four different statistical categories: Sacks per game (4th), scoring defense (7th), rushing defense (13th) and total defense (21).
While the defense has bent at times, it rarely breaks. In fact, the only thing the defense hasn’t done this season is score points itself.
On the season, the defense is holding opponents to a 32.86 percent conversion rate on third down – ranked 21st in the country – and are 11th nationally, having given up points on 16 of 25 opponent drives inside the redzone.
Against New Mexico State, USU allowed 321 yards of total offense – a yard below its season average – and forced two turnovers. Senior cornerback Will Davis picked up his first career interception to end an NMSU scoring threat and was one broken tackle away from going the distance to score.
“It was long overdue,” Davis said of the interception. “Since Colorado State, fans would tweet me, ‘I feel it this time,’ and I couldn’t get it, but today it felt great for me and I know it felt great to the fans. I thank God for this opportunity and this time I definitely took advantage of it. When I got it I just went. I didn’t know where I was going I was just running.”
Offensively, the Aggies rank in the top 50 in the country in four categories: passing efficiency (26th), passing offense (47th), rushing offense (46th), and total offense (47th).
Sophomore quarterback Chuckie Keeton was named America First Credit Union Utah State Student-Athlete of the Week for his performance against New Mexico State. Keeton accounted for four touchdowns – two on the ground and two through the air – while racking up 338 all-purpose yards en route to the win.
A balanced offensive attack resulted in four different Aggies accumulating at least 39 yards rushing. Devonte Glover-Wright and Kelvin Lee finished with 39 and 46 yards respectively, while Keeton and Kerwynn Williams each finished with more than 80 yards on the ground.
Williams added 94 yards receiving, and Chuck Jacobs also finished with 94 yards through the air as the Aggie offense ran past the New Mexico State defense – sometimes without them knowing, as was the case on Keeton’s 76-yard scamper in the first quarter.
“It was funny,” Keeton said. “They were playing man and I was reading the defensive end and I knew they weren’t keying in on me as much as Kerwynn, and as soon as I started running I saw the corner stay locked on with Travis Reynolds and I ran behind him. The corner kind of paved the way. I was just happy to get into the end zone.”
What it all adds up to is the Aggies are 6-2 and bowl eligible, and it’s only October. For the second time in as many seasons, Aggie nation is guaranteed to see its team playing into December.
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @curtislundstrom