Ags gear up for Troy
After a big win last week against UNLV, the Utah State football team is hoping to improve its 2-2 record against Troy on Saturday.
The Trojans are coming into this game with an identical 2-2 record but are 0-1 in conference while the Aggies are 1-0.
This will mark the third meeting between these two teams. The visiting team has won each game. Last season the Trojans won 23-14 in Logan and in 2002, the Aggies won in overtime 19-16 while playing at Troy.
“They have many of the same faces they had a year ago,” head coach Mick Dennehy said. “They are an extremely veteran football team, which will be returning a lot of starters.”
A win for Utah State would give the team its best five game start since 1982 when they also started 3-2. A win would also give them as many wins in the first five games of this season as they had all of last season going 3-9.
Travis Cox has thrown a touchdown in 15 of his last 16 games. The last time Cox didn’t throw a touchdown pass was last season when he suffered a year-ending injury against the same Troy State team he is facing up against Saturday.
“It was a crazy deal,” Cox said about getting injured last season. “I felt like I was just getting in the hang of everything and what they were doing to us defensively. We were starting to click a lot more. I was anxious to get back out there (after halftime) and get the t eam rolling and get some more points on the board. It was a disappointing thing so I can’t wait to get out there.”
Cox has also connected with at least seven different receivers in the previous nine games.
“This is probably one of the biggest games that I will have played in or been a part of since I have been here,” Cox said. “I am really looking forward to going down there. They have represented our league pretty well when they beat Missouri and Marshall. I am excited to go down there and play them. It will be a good challenge for us. If we can win this game, it will set up our season really nice, so I am looking forward to it.”
Kevin Robinson entered last week’s game against UNLV No. 1 in the country for freshman receiving yards and receptions per game but with only one catch with 8 yards, he dropped to third and fourth respectively.
He needs just 48 yards to take second place for receiving yards by an Aggie freshman passing Chris Stallworth who had 289 yards.
Utah State’s defense has recorded at least one interception in the past three games when the five games before that they hadn’t picked off one of the opponents passes.
Along with those interceptions, there has been one player for the Aggies with 10 or more tackles in a game all season and seven straight games dating back to last season.
“Defensively,” Dennehy said, “we are going to have to do a great job of holding up against a very good offensive line. They have a tremendous, big, strong running back that’s athletic. It creates big plays when you don’t have to throw on passing situations.”
Robert Watts was honored with Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Week because of his two interceptions he had against UNLV and the return for touchdown on one of the interceptions.
“Robert has struggled a little bit thus far and he has been frustrated,” Dennehy said. “However, I thought he played very well Saturday. It has been one of those things where he’s been either hot or cold. He was extremely hot on Saturday. He had those two picks and was involved in a lot of their run game. He played closer to his capabilities, which we need him to do every week.”
Ben Chaet, the Aggies’ punter and place kicker won Sun Belt Special Teams Player of the Week. Chaet using the unconventional rugby style kick for the majority of his punts, has become the team leader in punts and field goals made.
“Throughout the season if we have had one constant it has been Ben,” Dennehy said. “He has performed very well. It kind of looks silly and it kind of looks stupid sometimes of what we’re asking him to do. But he’s a very good athlete who has done his job and done everything we have asked of him. He has played extremely well at this point in time. For him to go in and kick three field goals and for him to place the ball punting wise, like he did on Saturday, really helped us win the game.”
-kcaustin@cc.usu.edu