Borel, Speight lead USU to second straight win at SJSU
Two weeks ago, Utah State couldn’t make the plays to finish a second-half comeback attempt against Nevada. On Saturday night, the Aggies proved they could make the necessary plays to not only complete a comeback, but to stop one, as the team came back in dramatic fashion to defeat San Jose State 38-34 in Spartan Stadium.
Led by senior running back Derrvin Speight’s 125 yards rushing, the Aggies (4-6, 2-4 WAC) came back from an early 10-0 hole to the Spartans (1-9, 0-5 WAC), in the process winning their first road game of the 2010 season. The win, which gives the Aggies their first set of back-to-back wins since 2007, didn’t come easy, however, and saw plenty of lead changes and last-second heroics before Utah State came out on top.
“(It) was a crazy game, that’s for sure,” said USU head coach Gary Andersen. “The kids fought like crazy – both teams fought like crazy, there’s no question.”
After a back-and-forth second half, Utah State, which out-gained San Jose State in total yards 520-449, needed a 15-yard Speight scamper to take a 38-34 lead with just 34 seconds left. But the Aggies weren’t done providing plenty of drama. San Jose State quarterback Jordan Le Secla drove his team the length of the field before throwing an interception to USU freshman cornerback Nevin Lawson to seal the game.
For Lawson, who struggled defending Spartan receiver Noel Grigsby for much of the game, getting the edge on San Jose’s best receiver could not have come at a better time.
“I was in the end zone and I knew he was trying to run a post corner on me,” said Lawson, who gave up a touchdown on San Jose State’s second-to-last possession. “So I got on top of him and looked for the ball and went up and grabbed it.”
Lawson said, “I feel good, I did it for the team. Thiis is my first pick and it came at the right moment.”
While the high-scoring affair went back-and-forth during the second half, the first quarter bagan on a down note for USU, which was looking to overcome a tendency to fall behind early in the game this year.
The Spartans got the scoring started after a six-play, 75-yard drive was capped by a three-yard Brandon Rutley touchdown run, with the drive highlighted by a 48-yard catch-and-run from La Secla to Grigsby. The Spartan receiver and quarterback hooked up seven times on the evening, both having career performances. According to senior Le Secla, Grigsby’s 185-yard receiving performance was just another day at the offense.
“What he did tonight was nothing special,” La Secla said. “He was able to get open and make plays, just like he always does.”
Grigsby wasn’t the only player to make plays, however, as quarterback Diondre Borel a balanced USU offense responded. After falling behind 10-0, The Aggies took advantage of receiver Xavier Martin’s 41-yard circus catch to set up a Derrvin Speight touchdown run which cut the lead to 10-7.
On USU’s next possession, Borel (20-29, 259 yards, one touchdown) found Dontel Watkins for a touchdown to give the Aggies their first lead of the game. From there the scoring slowed until the second half, when a punishing commitment to the run game helped spark USU to keep pace with a furious Spartan passing attack. The renewed emphasis on the running game – which contributed to Speight’s second consecutive 100-yard rushing game – didn’t come by accident.
“We’ve been trying to get that going the last couple of weeks,” said Andersen, who added that the loss of tight end Kellen Bartlett to injury has forced the team to scale back its passing attack. “Our offensive line – obviously, when you run the ball like that – was physical at the point of attack and we were able to get downhill, and I thought the backs ran extremely hard.”
“It was a point of emphasis to keep the ball on the ground,” Andersen said. “When you’re playing against an offense that is clicking, which both offenses were, the more you can run the ball and run time off the clock the better off you are.”
Numerous Aggie runners got in on the action. Backup power back Robert Marshall rumbled for 54 yards on 12 carries, while Kerwynn Williams chipped in 46 yards, including a 37-yard third quarter touchdown run. But the real star was Speight, who after an injury-plagued career at USU has finally emerged as the Aggies’ go-to player in the clutch.
“I’ve been putting in a lot of work and my offensive line has been blocking their tails off,” Speight said. “This feels really good.”
After a back-and-forth third and fourth quarter, USU found itself behind with 5:25 left to play. Borel engineered a methodical 67-yard drive in 12 plays, highlighted by a 20-yard pass to Dontel Watkins when the Aggies faced a pivotal second-and-20. From there it was all Speight, whose 15-yard score proved to be the play that got the monkey of road losses off of USU’s back.
For San Jose State, the loss is the second straight which came down to the wire. The Spartans lost to New Mexico State on the final play of the game two weeks ago, but another moral victory isn’t what first year head coach Mike MacIntyre was in search of.
“The last two games have been gut-wrenching,” MacIntyre said. “We’ve been beaten right there on the last play of the game. We had a chance, but couldn’t come away with it in the end.”
The Spartans may not have been able to make the plays to win, but after a season of disappointments, USU’s fourth win shows that the Aggies are starting to find out what it takes to get over the hump.
“When you’re where we’re at we know every game is going to go down to the wire,” Andersen said. “We know it’s going to be a fight. These kids came in at halftime and fought in the third and fourth quarters just like they did in the first and second. There’s a lot of grit in them and a lot of fight and fire and I’m proud of them.”
After putting together the first winning streak of the Andersen era, the Aggies will look to make it three straight next weekend, when they take on Idaho at home at 1 p.m. For a young team that has had to grow up quickly, the game will provide another opportunity to not only see and believe victory, but to seize it.
“We’re young, this is a football team that’s fighting its tail off, and every game is going to be difficult to win,” Andersen said. “Hopefully, when you win like this, it allows you to be able to take another step in the right direction.”
– adam.nettina@aggiemail.usu.edu