COLUMN: Aggies need to compete Saturday to make ‘rivalry’
Saturday’s match-up between the football teams of USU and the University of Utah will be the 108th meeting between these “rivals.”
One hundred and eight years is a really long time—long enough to make it the 12th-longest rivalry in college football. In fact, it’s even longer than the “Holy War” between Utah and BYU.
With the testimony of recent years before us, the word “rivalry” needs to be amended in connection with the Aggie-Ute series—at least for now. Instead of a rivalry, let’s just label this year’s game as a good option for Saturday evening entertainment in Logan.
Sure, the dictionary defines a rivalry as “competition for the same objective or for superiority,” but by this interpretation, every game a team ever played could be termed a rivalry. Teams always play to win.
In modern sports parlance, however, rivalry has a deeper meaning. It is competition, specifically between two teams that are generally equally matched. Their games are, as the aforementioned definition states, competitive, and the winner not usually a given.
The Utes lead this series 75-28-4—a 47-game advantage for the U of U. Interestingly, BYU only leads its series with the Aggies, 41-33-3, but that’s another story for another day.
The Aggies haven’t defeated the U since 1997, a span of 10 long seasons. The scores from those years mostly indicate a severe lack of competition in the series:
2007: Utes 38, Aggies 14. The Aggies began this game hot, but later became frozen by the falling snow.
2006: Utes 48, Aggies 0. This was one of the most difficult times to be an Aggie in Romney Stadium.
2005: Utes 31, Aggies 7.
2004: Utes 48, Aggies 6. Granted, the Utes were ranked No. 15 at the time.
2003: Utes 40, Aggies 20.
2002: Utes 23, Aggies 3.
2001: Utes 23, Aggies 19. Yes, an exception to the point.
2000: Utes 35, Aggies 14.
1999: Utes 38, Aggies 18.
1998: Utes 20, Aggies 12. Another exception.
Total: Utes 344, Aggies 113.
There are no secrets here—the Utes have the Aggies’ number, and they have it locked in a very tight vault. It’s astonishing the Aggies have only scored 20 points on their nemesis one time in 10 seasons; the Utes have put up 30 or more points in seven of those games.
Remember: this column is written by an Aggie writer, even an Aggie fan, but not an Aggie football player. You won’t find members of the team agreeing with me, which is good. The players are excited, as they should be. Who wouldn’t want to play a ranked opponent at home?
“I can’t wait for this game every year,” said USU senior wide receiver Otis Nelson, a native of West Valley City, Utah. “It’s always a fun game to play.”
Even with the effort and preparation the 2008 Aggies surely put into each game, a change in the pattern of the past 10 years is just too difficult to fathom—especially for anybody that was a witness to the Utes’ 42-21 thumping of UNLV at Rice-Eccles Stadium last Saturday. That’s the same UNLV team the Aggies could only score 17 points on.
Don’t get me wrong. This year’s game still generates excitement for me (that is, unless the No. 22 Utes stampede into Romney and go up 14-0 in the first quarter), and the possibility of a precious victory is still there. Wins are always there—somewhere—waiting patiently to be found. But Brent Guy’s teams have only been able to find six of them over the past three seasons.
I hope I am wrong with the following, but here it is: expect a 42-17 Ute victory. Expect Brian Johnson to put up the same kind of numbers he did against UNLV: he passed for 183 yards and two touchdowns; he rushed for 80 yards—including a 56-yard scamper for a touchdown. The Utes do not have the speed of Oregon, so do not expect a 688-yard game on offense.
Nobody knows who the starter will be at quarterback for the Aggies, but it is known that both sophomore Diondre Borel and senior Sean Setzer will play. The Ute defense clogged UNLV’s offense, holding them to a mere 83 yards of total offense in the second half. They pressured UNLV quarterback Omar Clayton into frustrating situations, and that pressure will be a thorn in the side of Setzer when he enters the game.
The key for the Aggies to compete is simple: It will be Borel’s ability to scramble and stay calm in the pocket—coupled with better catching from his receivers—and the defense’s depth preventing an opponent from marching down the field at will.
May the Aggies pull a miracle, but I don’t see it happening Saturday evening.
Sammy Hislop is a senior majoring in public relations. Comments can be sent to him at samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu