Aggies look to go bowling against Wolfpack
Utah State will look to snap a two-game losing streak on Saturday against Nevada at home in Maverik Stadium.
Nevada has won three of its last four games and gained bowl eligibility with a 37-34 win over San Jose State last week in Reno. The Wolfpack have posted a 6-4 record to this point in the season and are 4-2 in the MW.
Following a disappointing 35-28 loss on the road to the Air Force Academy last week, USU is looking for a way to save its season that once had hopes of a Mountain West Championship. The Aggies are now 5-5 on the season and 4-3 in MW play.
“That was a tough loss. It’s two weeks in a row that the game has gone down to the wire, really in the last possession of the ballgame, and we haven’t come out victorious either time,” said Utah State head coach Matt Wells. “If we find a couple of plays here and there, around four or five in the last two weekends, we’re sitting here with a pretty good season, too.”
USU must win at least one of their remaining games to become bowl eligible for the fifth consecutive season.
“We want to be in a bowl game — there’s no question about that,” Wells said. “We’ve lost the last two weeks and we can’t go back and change that. But we can control our attitude, our effort and our mindset and give everything we’ve got to this program for the next two weeks as coaches, first of all, and then as players.”
Following a marquee victory over Boise State on Oct. 16, the Aggies have done the opposite of the Wolfpack and dropped three of their last four games.
“I don’t think our preparation has been less and it hasn’t been any less focused,” Wells said. “We’ve had two games on the road where we didn’t make enough plays, either at the end of the game or some series in the middle of the game. We’ve made those plays in the last couple of years, but we didn’t make them this time.”
Nevada is a veteran team, led on offense by junior wide receiver Hasaan Henderson with 608 receiving yards on the season.
“I see a quarterback that’s got two really good receivers,” Wells said. “Hasaan Henderson is a long and lanky receiver that catches the ball out in front of his body. He is very talented.”
On defense, the Wolfpack are also experienced and strong.
“I see a front seven with all seniors, and they’re very experienced,” Wells said. “They’ve played a lot of football on defense for Nevada. Those four defensive lineman, collectively as a group, are as an aggressive upfield defensive line as we’ve seen since maybe in the middle of the year.”
Saturday’s game will begin at 1:30 p.m. in Maverick Stadium.
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