COLUMN: The eerie similarities between Aggie football and basketball
The world of USU athletics was turned upside down this season. USU football reached a bowl game for the first time in years and men’s basketball experienced an inarguable down year.
But that wasn’t what stuck out in my mind, as the men’s basketball team failed to close out another close game. The eerie similarity of the football and men’s basketball teams stood out in my mind, despite different expectations.
For Aggie football, this was supposed to be the year the program finally turned around. There was enough talent for the Aggies to make some noise and finish above .500 on the season. But the rocky start to the season put those possibilities in question.
USU just couldn’t seem to finish close games with losses to Auburn (42-38), Colorado State (35-34 2OT) and Brigham Young (27-24) early in the season. Then, midway through the season, USU suddenly figured out how to win close games.
True freshman quarterback Chuckie Keeton went down in the first half against Hawaii, but junior quarterback Adam Kennedy stepped up to lead the Aggies in a comeback victory which began a five-game winning streak.
Each game USU won was by one score or less and required the Aggies to shut their opponents down in the final minutes of the game. USU outlasted Idaho in overtime (49-42) and came up with big defensive stops at home against San Jose State (34-33) and Nevada (21-17).
The Aggies seemed poised to get their first-ever bowl game win since 1993 heading into the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. However, USU’s difficulty to finish close games throughout the season showed up again, and the last-second 24-23 loss to the Ohio Bobcats seemed to summarize USU’s rollercoaster season.
After graduating the winningest class in USU men’s basketball history, USU head coach Stew Morrill knew his Aggies were in store for a possible down year with the possibility of not finishing much better than above .500.
USU started the season off by defeating in-state rival BYU before Murphy’s Law seemed to take effect for the Aggies. Senior forward Brady Jardine had a freak accident, which turned into a career-ending injury.
Prior to the loss of Jardine, USU lost Junior College All-American junior forward Antonio Bumpus before he ever saw minutes as an Aggie after spending a year on the bench as a redshirt. Freshman forward Steven Thornton left the team before the WAC season began as well – forcing USU to pull the redshirt of sophomore Danny Berger. The loss of the two players caused problems at the three position for USU all season long.
Coach Morrill warned Aggie fans and others that a season would come where there wouldn’t be 23 wins and a trip to postseason play after the WAC tournament. After USU fell to University of California, Santa Barbara, during the BracketBusters at home, the possibility of an unprecedented losing season seemed very well.
Somehow USU figured out how to win its final three games of the season and secure a fourth seed in the WAC Tournament in Las Vegas. Louisiana Tech put an end to USU’s run, but the Aggies had guaranteed themselves a winning record with their three-game winning streak to end the season.
USU’s hope for a postseason tournament came in the form of little-known and much less glamorous CollegeInsider.com Tournament. The Aggies ran the table, winning four straight games to reach the championship game before everything that had made Aggie men’s basketball so difficult and frustrating to watch – the opposite of what they did to reach the final game – came back in a three-point loss to the Mercer Bears of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
The USU football and basketball teams eerily both had frustrating seasons, which came back to full circle in big-time games. It’s not likely to reoccur next season, but, if it does, here is to a less frustrating and a more dominating season.
– Tyler Huskinson is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism. He is also a freelance writer for several publications. Follow his Twitter feed @TDHuskiSports or send any comments to ty.d.hus@aggiemail.usu.edu.