Aggie Football grinds out win over UConn 31-20
LOGAN — Utah State Football rang in the 2022 season with a victory over UConn 31-20. The Aggies overcame a double-digit deficit to win for the seventh time in the Blake Anderson era.
“It’s a win,” said head coach Blake Anderson. “That’s the best thing that I can say. Definitely not a polished win by any means. We’ve got a lot of things to work on.”
The Aggies struggled with missed tackles and setting the edge early on defense. That allowed UConn running back Nathan Carter to rush for 198 yards with 147 of those yards coming in the first half alone. Carter’s rushing helped UConn get off to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
“We started out just missing too many tackles,” cornerback Ajani Carter said. “That’s football. We’ve got to be able to tackle. When you don’t tackle stuff like that happens — 14-0.”
For the offense, turnovers and miscommunication were their main problems. The Aggies fumbled twice and had a turnover on downs.
Despite the things USU needs to improve on in practice, the Aggies made adjustments and had several key contributors that pushed them past the Huskies.
Running back Calvin Tyler Jr. recorded career highs in rushing attempts and yards with 162 yards on 33 carries. Tyler was assisted in the run game by freshman running back Robert Briggs who was impressive in his Aggie debut. He tallied 85 yards on 10 carries with a 23-yard touchdown run.
Through the air, quarterback Logan Bonner was able to accrue 281 yards and three touchdowns while avoiding any interceptions. Transfer wide receiver Brian Cobbs picked up his first Aggie touchdown and 78 yards to lead USU in receiving. Wide receiver Justin McGriff also impressed with a toe-tapping 14-yard touchdown reception to give the Aggies their first lead. He finished with 53 yards on three receptions.
Transfer linebacker MJ Tafisi shined on defense. He totaled a career-high 10 tackles, two of them being tackles-for-loss. Fellow linebackers AJ Vongphachanh and Kaleo Neves tied for second in total tackles with cornerback Ajani Carter with seven.
The defense was also able to force three Huskie turnovers. Safety Hunter Reynolds picked off quarterback Zion Turner and Ajani Carter forced a fumble by stripping the ball away from running back Nathan Carter in the open field. To ice the game, safety Ike Larsen, a former Sky View Bobcat, intercepted Turner with 4:46 left in the game.
To start things out, USU was slow out of the gate on offense with their first four drives ending in two punts, a fumble and a turnover on downs.
After the turnover on downs, Ajani Carter tracked down Nathan Carter and forced a fumble to get USU the ball back. The turnover was crucial as the Huskies were already up 14-0 and driving down the field.
With the ball back, the Aggie offense put together their first scoring drive through the air with a 30-yard reception by wide receiver Terrel Vaughn and a career-first, 11-yard touchdown reception by wide receiver Kyle Van Leeuwen.
On the next USU drive, Briggs broke free to tie the game at 14 with his first career touchdown from 23 yards out. On the next drive, Utah State scored through the air when Bonner found McGriff in the corner of the endzone to take their first lead. The final Aggie drive of the first half ended with a 45-yard field goal by kicker Connor Coles.
During the same stretch, the Aggie defense was able to adjust to the run and shut down UConn’s offense, forcing them to punt four straight times.
“I do think the staff and players did a good job of making adjustments in-game,” Anderson said. “We got better as the game went on.”
The well-adjusted Aggies took a 24-14 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, both offenses were sluggish and there were four straight punts. On their third drive of the half, UConn was able to kick a 47-yard field goal to score for the first time in 18 minutes. After an Aggie fumble, the Huskies were able to score on an impressive 54-yard field goal by kicker Noe Ruelas to cut the Aggie lead down to four points, 24-20.
With a dwindling lead, Tyler Jr. said USU’s offense knew they needed to take things into their own hands.
“Let’s go score,” Tyler said about their mentality during the drive. “Let’s be the ones to end this game.”
And that’s what the Aggies did. They marched 75 yards down the field in 13 plays ending with Bonner finding Cobbs from 11 yards out for the receiver’s third career touchdown, his first since putting on Aggie blue.
The Huskies’ final drive ended when Larsen picked off Turner. The turnover allowed the Aggies to run out the final 4:46 left on the clock to pick up a week zero victory 31-20.
The win came with over 19,500 Aggie fans at Maverik Stadium. The crowd and student section provided an advantage that Anderson worked hard to build. Earlier in the week, he even gave out tickets and attended a USU HURD event to try and increase attendance for the season opener.
“I don’t know if they understand how big of an impact they have,” Anderson said. “These (players) work hard. If you come out and it’s dead in the stadium they feel it. But when you come out and there’s energy in the stadium it lifts you up. So it is a huge advantage.”
The Aggies face the No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide next week. The game will be broadcast live on Aggie Radio 92.3 and on the SEC Network at 5:30 p.m. MDT.
Featured image by Bailey Rigby.