Aggies prep to take on Huskies
After a loss to in-state rival Utah last week, the Aggies are back on the road to take on another PAC-12 opponent on Saturday — Washington.
“I’m very proud of our players’ efforts,” said USU head coach Matt Wells. “I thought they fought until the bitter end. Quite honestly, I think we just ran out of time. That’s the way I felt and I know our players felt like that. I thought they competed their tails off until the bitter end.”
Washington comes into the game with a 1-1 record on the heels of a 49-0 blowout win over Sacramento State. In the first game UW lost to Boise State 16-13.
The Huskies have a young squad and 10 true freshmen have already played for the team this season. Another nine redshirt freshmen have also been on the field.
Leading Washington will be true freshman quarterback Jake Browning. Browning enrolled at the University of Washington in January and took over for Cyler Miles who was forced to retire from football due to a chronic hip injury.
After passing for 326 yards and two touchdowns last week, Browning jumped to the No. 2 spot in school history for most yards by a freshman; Jake Locker is the only one with more at 336 yards.
“The kid has got a great future ahead of him,” Wells said. “He’s got arm strength and you see accuracy. You know the kid has got toughness and grit, or he wouldn’t have won the job in training camp. I think there’s a couple of things I can assume about him and be pretty spot on, but I can see the physical skills on tape and he’s a very talented kid.”
Starting at the running back spot for the Huskies is Dwayne Washington, a 6-foot-2 226-pound back that was the team’s leading rusher last season. Backing up Washington is Myles Gaskin, another freshman who led the team in rushing last week. Gaskin had 146 yards and three touchdowns against sacramento state.
UW has a whole host of experienced wide receivers that will look to contribute in the receiving game.
“It’s another Pac-12 opponent on the road,” Wells said. “We’re very early into this process, but you see a team with some young skill guys on offense that have made a lot of plays. The quarterback, the tailback and the receiver all had really good games on Saturday against Sacramento State.”
Utah State will get back last season’s leading receiver, Hunter Sharp, after he was suspended for the first two games. Joining Sharp in returning to the field will be offensive lineman Tyshon Mosley and cornerback Bryant Hayes.
Mosley will make an immediate impact on the offensive line to help protect Aggie quarterback Chuckie Keeton.
“With Southern Utah, it was more just not being in sync because really, the offensive line is all about playing all five men together,” said offensive lineman Ben Wysocki, who started in Mosley’s place. “That’s the key to the game. We just dialed in (against Utah) and we knew all our assignments cold. We got after it and let it loose on game day.”
Keeton took some hits in the game against Utah but bounced back and played the entire game.
“Chuckie Keeton’s performance was one of the gutsier performances I’ve seen out of him,” Wells said. “He was just a warrior down to the very end and gives your team a chance to win every time he’s in there. We checked him after every series and he kept getting cleared to go in. Of course, he wasn’t going to come out … He’s a winner.”
Defensively, Utah State will attempt to continue where it left off against Utah. The Aggies rank No. 15 in the nation as a defense, allowing 245 total yards per game.
“They’re a Pac-12 team,” said defensive lineman David Moala. “You know they’re going to be loaded with talent … Washington will be another big game for us. We’ve got to get back to the fundamentals of football. If you can’t tackle as a defense, you’re not going to win very many ballgames.”
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