Battle in the Bayou
The Utah State football team heads to the bayou this Saturday to face the No. 13 Louisiana State University Tiger at 7 p.m. in Baton Rouge.
The Aggies, coming off a 23-19 loss to the University of Utah last weekend, hope to be a more formidable opponent for the Tigers than the University of Tulane was. Tulane lost at LSU, 48-17, in the first game of the season for both teams.
Aggie head coach, Mick Dennehy said he knows that his team has a big challenge ahead of them.
“Obviously, we have our work cut out for us,” Dennehy said. “I think our objectives this week are twofold. We have got to work very, very hard to become as good as a football team as we can be. The setting in which we are going to go into is big-time college football. I want to make sure our kids enjoy that. On the other hand, they need to be plugged in and focused that they are playing football, basically, as well as they can play.
“They [LSU] are an awful fun team to watch,” he said. “Everything that we have read about them in the preseason, I think their fans have a real reason to be fired up,” he said.
Offensively, the Aggies hope to improve on last week’s performance against Utah. They were only able to score 19 points. Dennehy said that in the Utah game they were trying to make too many big plays instead of just getting the first downs they needed to keep the ball.
“In general terms, if we learned one thing coming out of the Utah game, is that if we are going to get better and we are going to become the offensive football team that I think we can become, then we have to go back and not put so much pressure on some of the kids, in terms of making big plays,” Dennehy said.
A large part of the Aggies success offensively Saturday will be on the shoulders of star tailback Emmitt White, quarterback Jose Fuentes and the offensive line, which will have to hold back a ferocious LSU defense led by safety Ryan Clark and linebacker Trev Faulk.
The Aggies defense, which played well against Utah, will be equally challenged by an explosive Tigers offense led by quarterback Rohan Davey and wide receiver Josh Reed.
Utah State expects an LSU crowd similar to the one that came to watch their season opener against Tulane, where over 91,000 fans were on-hand to set a new attendance record. Although LSU is sure to be a challenge, the Aggies have no plans to back down.
Dennehy said that his team’s success comes down to one thing: A comemon effort.
“What it all boils down to is the essence of the game,” he said. “It is only those 11 guys on each side of field. That is what we will strive for this week.”