Ags to tangle with ‘boys
It may seem like déjà vu all over again for the Aggies – another week, another Mountain West Conference opponent.
At least a few things are sure to be different this time around.
The venue. Utah State will be traveling to Laramie, Wyo., to take on the University of Wyoming Cowboys.
The day and time. The game will be a Saturday afternoon affair, with kickoff at noon on Sept. 8.
The outcome? There are never any guarantees that will be different.
And the momentum Wyoming carries into this weekend’s game, after easily handling the University of Virginia 23-3 in the Cowboys’ home opener, could make it even more difficult for the Aggies to avoid that feeling of déjà vu.
“(The Cowboys) were real impressive against Virginia,” Head Coach Brent Guy said. “They’re a typical Wyoming team. They played really hard on defense, they played real tough. They’ve got a high-tempo offense. I think more than anything they capitalized on their opportunities and scored points.”
The Cowboy defense looked very solid, holding Virginia to only five first downs and 110 total yards on offense, including a measly seven yards on the ground.
No one should be surprised, though. Wyoming’s defense was ranked ninth in the nation in total defense last year and is No. 2 after game one of the 2007 campaign.
For Utah State to avoid a performance like the one Virginia turned in, Guy said they have to pick up blitzes, establish a running game and try to control the ball on offense with a balanced attack.
“If we can run the ball, obviously, better than Virginia did, we’ll have a better chance of throwing the football too,” he said.
Aggie senior wide receiver Kevin Robinson said the key for the Aggie offense is execution.
“If we run our plays and execute them, we can play with anyone,” he said.
Making that task difficult will be the Cowboys’ 3-4 defense, which is lead by a strong, experienced linebacking corps and features senior corners Michael Medina and Julius Stinson lurking in the secondary. Stinson is coming off a two-interception game against Virginia.
Robinson is excited about the challenge of facing Medina and Stinson.
“They’ve got some good corners. We’ve got good receivers. So it should be a good match-up,” he said.
Wyoming’s offense also turned in a good performance last week. They racked up 471 total yards, with 218 of those coming from the Cowboys’ ground attack.
In the backfield, Wyoming uses a thunder-and-lightning approach, with Wynel Seldon – a 214-pound junior – providing the thunder to 182-pound junior Devin Moore’s lightning.
Along with sophomore quarterback Karsten Sween, the Cowboys’ offense was able to control the ball for 40 minutes and run 88 plays to Virginia’s 46.
Stopping the running game and Wyoming’s ability to control the ball will be important for the Aggie defense, Guy said.
That won’t be accomplished by any smoke and mirrors, though. Junior linebacker Jake Hutton said the Aggies won’t do anything different, just focus on wrapping up and eliminating the big plays that plagued the defense in the second half against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
After that less-than-perfect second half in last Thursday’s 23-16 home loss to UNLV, the Aggie offense and defense have been focusing this week on playing a full 60 minutes.
“We played a real good first half,” Guy said. “We’ve just got to put together and play two halves … We know that we’re going to play a lot of tight football games. We’ve got to get to the fourth quarter with an opportunity to win the game and then make the plays. We didn’t do that last week in the fourth quarter, and we got beat in the fourth quarter.”
Late game woes also plagued the Aggies in their last meeting with the Cowboys. In the season opener last year in Laramie, Utah State was within striking distance going into the last quarter and ended up losing the game 38-7.
“We’ve talked about (last year’s game) as a team,” Hutton said. “It’s the same with UNLV. We lost in the fourth quarter. So we’ve been stressing playing all four quarters.”
Other players are motivated by last year’s game for different reasons.
“Last year the receiving group didn’t do so well, and (Wyoming) thought they got the best of us,” Robinson said. “So this year we’re going to come in and show them that wasn’t us.”
As a team, the Aggies are looking to come out and show that their loss to UNLV wasn’t them either.
“We got upset last week at home, and our deal is, we’re going to try to go upset them at home,” Guy said. “They played really well against an ACC team and set a record for home attendance, so we’ve got to go in there and prove that we can upset somebody because we get to play a lot of games on the road. “So now we’re going to be the spoiler, and that’s the way we look at it.”
– da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu
Quick Facts:
-USU has beaten Wyoming more than any other team – 34 times – but the Aggies have lost their last three games against the Cowboys.
-The Aggies lead the series 34-23. The series started 105 years ago with a Utah State win in Logan.
-USU hasn’t had a lot of luck against current Cowboys Head Coach Joe Glenn, and the Aggies are 0-2 going into Saturday’s game.
– There are no players from Wyoming on Utah State’s roster and no players from Utah on the Cowboys’ roster.
– As if the hostile atmosphere and hot opponent aren’t enough, the Aggies will also have to battle Mother Nature. At 7,220 feet above sea level, the Cowboys’ Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium sits at the highest altitude of any stadium in Division-I. But while Utah State is no stranger to a little altitude – Romney Stadium sits at 4,534 feet – there is still almost a 3,000-foot difference.
– Their high altitude home has been good to Wyoming lately. The Cowboys haven’t lost a home game since Sept. 23, 2006.
– Listen to the USU-Wyoming game on KVNU 610 AM or KLZX 95.9 FM in Logan.
– The game will also be televised on the mtn at http://themtn.cstv.com/