Column: Already legendary, the 2021 Aggies left no doubts with LA Bowl win

Throughout the 2021 season, Utah State evaporated betting lines, embarrassed analytic gurus and proved they were among the top college football teams on the west coast. 

The Aggies won five games while they were underdogs in the sports books, including victories over Washington State, Air Force and nationally-ranked San Diego State in the Mountain West Championship game. 

But no matter how many games they won, decision-makers on a national level were never impressed. If USU earned a cookie, the national pundits and poll voters told them to get a glass of milk. 

If the conference champion Aggies, who were predicted to win just 3.5 games to start the season, wanted to finish the season ranked in the final AP Poll,  there was more the 10-3 squad had to do. 

And on Saturday night’s ABC showcased game at the new SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Utah State laid down a performance that will surely force college football to give them the recognition they deserve. 

Led by third-string quarterback Cooper Legas, who entered the game in the second quarter after Logan Bonner injured his knee, the Aggies outplayed 6.5 point-favorite Oregon State on both sides of scrimmage in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl in route to an emphatic 24-13 win.

Capping off what Blake Anderson dubbed “the best season in Utah State history,” the win tied the single-season program record with 11 wins. It’s the first time USU has ever beaten two Power 5 opponents in the same season, and its their first time winning a Mountain West Championship. 

Trapping the Beavers was the final feather in the cap. 

Oregon State, a 7-5 Pac-12 school that beat Rose Bowl-bound Utah, boasted an offensive line that was finalists for the Joe Moore Award and First Team All-Pac-12 rusher B.J. Baylor. The Beaver offense averaged 212.4 rushing yards per game and had given up just 10 sacks all season. 

The USU defense demolished them. Defensive end Nick Heninger posted two career highs with three sacks and five tackles for loss. The team added an interception and a fumble recovery while holding the Beavers to 152 rushing yards and one touchdown. 

Offensively, Utah State was put in a vulnerable situation early, with Bonner going out and second-string quarterback Andrew Peasley inactive for the game due to injury. So in came Legas. His first play in the game he called an audible and threw his first college pass 62-yards downfield to Deven Thompkins for the touchdown. 

For the rest of the game, the Aggie offense was able to operate to near its full capacity. Legas finished 11-of-20 passing for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Former Beaver running back Calvin Tyler Jr. rushed for 120 yards and a touchdown and Thompkins had 115 reception yards.

Containing one of the most lethal rushing attacks nationally while racking up 383 yards of offense under the direction of a green-horned quarterback? 

Tough to make a better statement than that. 

The USU Football team lifts third-string quarterback Cooper Legas in the air in celebration postgame.

“We’re out of games man,” Anderson joked postgame, insinuating there was nothing left to prove. “…You know, you don’t go from 1-5 to 10-3 and a championship, you just don’t do that. It doesn’t happen. But there was an opportunity to finish, to really finish and finish strong and finish well, with a Power 5 victory.” 

With the win in tow, Anderson feels like they’ve earned some glory. 

“There’s no way we shouldn’t finish in the top 25. With an 11-3 record and two Power 5 wins and a conference title. And to me, that is finishing that last sentence of this group’s legacy,” he said. 

Inside the program, the ultimate goal was to win the conference championship, and that had already been accomplished. Anderson told his team leading up to the bowl game that “win or lose, it’s not going to change their legacy.”

But from an external perspective, the bowl game mattered as much, if not more than the win over the 11-2 Aztecs. Dominating a Pac-12 team on network television primetime — when there were no other noteworthy games going on — felt necessary for the Aggies to receive proper recognition for their historic season. 

Because even after winning the MW championship, people weren’t satisfied. 

After USU curb-stomped SDSU 46-13, the Aztecs remained in the CFP rankings, while Utah State was exempt. The committee cited COVID-19 issues in the SDSU program for the decision, even though just one Aztec starter didn’t play in the championship game. 

In Bill Connelly’s Dec. 5 SP+ rankings, he ranked the Aggies NO. 78 — behind five other MW teams. USU was omitted from the AP and Coaches poll top 25’s as well. 

Now, none of that matters. In the final game for at least 16 Aggie players, they played in their conferences’ signature bowl game, on one of TV’s signature networks in one of football’s signature venues, and put up a performance that left no doubts. 

“Look at us now,” said Heninger. “I don’t think we’re underdogs now.”