Aggies blast Pokes
Bulls riding Cowboys?
That’s what it looked like as Chuckie Keeton threw five touchdown passes to help Utah State beat Wyoming in an offensive rout, 63-19, Saturday night.
The true-freshman from Houston threw for a season-high 213 yards before being pulled in the third quarter.
“We just wanted to put up as many points as we could,” Keeton said. “We just had to go out there and execute, and it worked out.”
Keeton now has 12 touchdowns on the season and leads the Western Athletic Conference in passing efficiency with a rating of 157.0.
“Winning is fun,” said USU head coach Gary Andersen. “That is the No. 1 thing I can say. Our motto this week was to find a way to win the game.”
The Aggies found themselves in a hole early when Wyoming freshman quarterback Brett Smith capped off the 77-yard opening drive with a two-yard run for the first score of the game, making the score 6-0 after a failed two-point conversion attempt.
“It was great,” said Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen, of the early advantage. “We went down on our first drive and scored a touchdown. We took the ball, and we thought that we could move down the field and score.”
Six seconds later, Utah State’s Kerwynn Williams let Wyoming kicker Daniel Sullivan’s kickoff bounce past him into the end zone, where James Caraway grabbed it and scored a touchdown. Sullivan missed the extra point to make it 12-0 Cowboys before USU had even touched the ball, with just over 12 minutes to go in the first quarter
“The first thing that came to my mind was ‘Kerwynn, what are you thinking?'” said USU running back Robert Turbin, about the play. “You’ve just got to keep playing, there are going to be ups and downs in a quarter. We just had to get that first drive in and gained some momentum, and got the crowd in it, and we just keep rolling from there.”
Turbin had 132 yards and two touchdowns in the game.
After the second Cowboy touchdown, Sullivan again kicked off to Williams, but this time the junior returner took the ball 50 yards to the Wyoming 34-yard line. Turbin punched the ball in from the one just 1:42 later, pulling the Aggies within five, 12-7.
Utah State forced Wyoming to go three-and-out on the next possession and the Aggies scored just over two minutes later on a 53-yard pass from Keeton to running back Michael Smith, to give USU the lead, 14-12.
Smith had 104 offensive yards and three touchdowns in the game.
“The game was a plus,” said the 5-foot-9 senior. “We got the victory. We did a lot of good things on offense, on defense and on special teams and running the ball. The offensive line was great in protecting the quarterback and run blocking. They were making us holes everywhere, and it makes running the ball much easier for us. We didn’t have to break so many tackles, we could just run for daylight. I am excited for this victory.”
From then on Wyoming could not stop the Big Blue scoring machine. The Aggies scored a touchdown on each of their first eight drives while racking the score up to 56-19, with 7:08 remaining in the third quarter.
Backup quarterback Adam Kennedy came on for Keeton as the Aggies began another drive, with 4:10 to go in the third. The junior transfer from San Joaquin Delta College went 2-3 for 17 yards in cleanup duty.
With just over four minutes to go in the game, USU freshman defensive lineman Tevita Vaifoou recovered a Smith fumble and returned the ball seven yards to the Wyoming 9-yard line. Aggie running back Robert Marshall took three attempts at the end zone, scoring from the four on his third try to make it 63-19.
Senior linebacker Bobby Wagner said the Aggies didn’t do anything different to get the win from any of the other games in the season.
“I think we played good overall,” Wagner said. “I think it was a good win, with some big plays. That’s why we won. This definitely helps our confidence for conference play. You definitely want to be on a winning streak going into conference. We are headed in the right direction right now.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu