Aggies subdue Bengals on day of upsets
On the same day in which No. 13 ranked Virginia Tech went down at home to James Madison and three other Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools fell to teams from the ‘lesser’ Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), Utah State head coach Gary Andersen had every reason to fear the Idaho State Bengals.
And for the first 14 minutes and 24 seconds of Saturday night’s home opener, so did the 18,347 fans in attendance at Merlin Olsen Field and Romney Stadium. That was, until a 27-yard Kerwynn Williams touchdown run ignited a firestorm of second- and third-quarter Aggie points to lead Utah State to an easy 38-17 win over the Bengals, evening USU’s record at 1-1 going into the start of conference play next week.
“When you’re watching the (other college football) games all day long, sitting around in a hotel room, it is a point of emphasis, for sure,” Andersen said of the day’s upsets, which he used as an example to his team as to why the Aggies couldn’t overlook the Idaho State (1-1).
“With Idaho State, with what they have done in the past coming in here, we knew our football team couldn’t take anyone lightly,” he said.
Despite Andersen’s warning, USU certainly started out the game like a team which was taking its opponent lightly. Thanks to an opening kickoff return of 53 yards by ISU’s Tavoy Moore, the Bengals were set up in good field position for their first drive, capitalizing seven plays later when kicker Brendon Garcia connected on a 36-yard field goal.
The Aggies were slow to respond to ISU’s initial 3-0 lead. While the USU offense posted several big gains in the game’s first few minutes, penalties and missed execution – including a 30-yard field goal missed by kicker Peter Caldwell – kept USU behind until the end of the first quarter. Thanks to Williams’ TD run, however, the Aggies took their first lead of the game, and never looked back.
Awakened by Williams’ scamper – the first rushing touchdown in his USU career – the Aggie defense responded by posting two quarters of shutout play against the overwhelmed Bengal offense. A week after rushing for 221 yards against Montana Western, the ISU running game hit a brick wall against USU’s defense, with linebacker Bobby Wagner leading the way for USU with 10 tackles, including one for a loss and half a sack.
“We stepped up as a defense,” Wagner said. “Last week, we struggled against the run game, but tonight we played extremely well again their run and their pass.”
It didn’t take long for the USU pass defense to step up in a big way, with safety Rajric Coleman coming up with a second-quarter interception after teammate Curtis March deflected the ball into his hands. Coleman’s pick gave USU’s offense a short field, which Aggie signal caller Diondre Borel quickly took advantage of. Running USU’s zone-read offense like a basketball point guard, Borel capped off a seven-play, 50-yard drive when he raced into the corner of the endzone to put USU up 14-3.
Borel missed only five passes on the evening while also connecting for a touchdown to receiver Eric Moats, and threw no interceptions. On the ground, Borel was his usual quick-footed self, avoiding oncoming rushers and buying valuable time by scrambling in the pocket. Indeed, it was truly a historic performance for the senior quarterback, who eclipsed the 5,000-yard career passing mark with a 13-yard pass to Dontel Watkins in the second quarter. Borel became just the seventh Aggie quarterback in history to surpass 5000 yards passing in his career with the completion.
“Diondre, I thought, was solid in this football game,” Andersen said. “It seems like every game Diondre is getting an award, but he deserves everything he gets.”
One of the reasons Borel was so effective in the game was because the players around him played so well. A week after struggling to establish a consistent rushing game against Oklahoma, the Aggie running backs bounced back against ISU, combining for a total of 275 total rushing yards on the evening. Seniors Michael Smith (86 yards) and Derrvin Speight (75 yards, 1 TD) both ran the ball 12 times, while Kerwynn Williams and newcomer Joey DeMartino came off the bench to combine for seven carries for 71 yards and two scores.
According to Borel, USU’s ability to establish a dominant rushing presence made all the difference in the game.
“It was big thing for us,” he said. “One of our goals was to get 300 yards rushing this game. We didn’t quite get it but we did a much better job rushing the ball tonight.”
Andersen was especially pleased with his stable of running backs, who are stepping in for injured star Robert Turbin.
“We have got the extra-effort yards, the yards after contact in this game,” Andersen said. “Kerwynn (Williams) is an explosive young man, and he makes some big plays consistently. Michael Smith came in and did a very nice job as well.”
USU continued to dominate the game into the third quarter, receiving scores from Derrvin Speight and receiver Eric Moats, who showed tremendous concentration and hands to haul in a 15-yard Borel touchdown toss.
The fourth quarter was a bit of a different story for USU though, as the second-team offense and defense took the field. Struggling in the later stages of the game, USU yielded two late touchdowns to ISU, both of which were set up by offensive turnovers.
“We’ve got to get our second team on the same page,” Wagner said. “You never know when someone might go down, and a (second team player) will have to go in. We can’t let the second team off the hook.”
Aside from getting the second team up to speed, Andersen singled out USU’s penalties as a element his team will have to improve upon before next week’s game against Fresno State.
“Execution I would say, was not where it needs to be,” Andersen said. “What I would call ignorant penalties, we had a couple of those, and I am not real happy with that.”
Despite the second team’s struggles and the penalties, Andersen was just happy to get the win – especially given the circumstances that played out in many other FBS vs. FCS matchups across the country, and especially given the way in which the Aggies began the game.
“It is great to get a victory. Anytime in a division one football game, it is good to get a victory. We have a long ways to go as a football team. We will look forward to getting back together to work as a staff and Monday as a football team.”
– adamnettina@gmail.com
CAPTION: AGGIE RUNNINGBACK JOEY DEMARTINO tries to break a tackle by former Utah State linebacker Jake Hutton. DeMartino carried the ball three times for 38 yards late in Saturday’s game, including his first career touchdown early in the fourth quarter to put the Aggies ahead 38-3. TODD JONES photo