Dennis looks for 12th man on field
One small step for Jerome Dennis, one huge leap for Utah State University football.
Despite the heartbreaking 35-34 loss Friday to BYU at Romney Stadium, Dennis was positive following the game.
And he had reason to be.
Seconds before the buzzer sounded to end the first half of play, Dennis intercepted the ball and ran in for a 75-yard touchdown.
“My coaches put me in the position where I can go up and make the play, make the catch and after that I just had to rely on my blockers in front of me,” he said.
Dennis said he and a Cougar were both going up for the ball and the Aggie grabbed it with one hand and ran.
He said he saw the right side of the field open and utilized his speed to get into the endzone.
Dennis’ touchdown gave USU a 34-7 lead at halftime.
Teammate Mike Rosencrans said the play fired up the team going into halftime.
“We lost, which is a hard loss, but we still took at step forward, a huge step forward,” Dennis said. “This is the first game we ever game together as a whole, like a heart. We just all came together. We came and we played our hearts out. Sometimes things don’t fall your way, but we made a huge step.”
Dennis said the team said prayers at halftime and following the game.
He said they thanked the Lord win or lose and the team needs to continue that spirit.
“We’ve got to keep that 12th man in there – God,” he said. “We’ve got to get him in there to help keep our hearts together.”
Spectrum Seats
Prior to kickoff Friday, Utah State University announced it would open the Spectrum for fans to watch the game on the new video board.
Not many took the university up on its offer. During the second quarter, about 30 occupied the building, some of whom were workers.
The lack of fans was not a disappointment to Rance Pugmire, Athletics director.
“The reason why we did it mostly was because if the weather turned bad, students could go over and watch the rest of the game without having to rush home,” Pugmire said. “They could just hustle over to the Spectrum.”
He said although the building was opened to the public, the main intention was to allow students a place to go.
Aside from watching the game, Pugmire said it also gave fans an opportunity to view the new scoreboard.
“It is everything we expected and more,” he said of the new video and scoreboard. “Until we saw it up there and turned it on, we had no idea how nice it was going to be.”
Need a ticket?
Scalpers were seen in front of Romney Stadium trying to sell tickets to those who needed some prior to Friday’s game. Halfway through the second half though, the men were still standing in front of the gates attempting to get rid of their tickets.
One man said he was dropping the price of the tickets throughout the game because if he didn’t sell them he would be out even more money.
The location of the seats were for remains a mystery because not an empty chair or bench spot could be found open as numerous fans surrounded the outer rim of the lower bowl.
Quotables
“It’s a pretty dang bitter pill to swallow. BYU did everything [it] had to do to get back into the game.”
– Utah State Head Coach Mick Dennehy
“We talked about it at halftime and I said if I’m going to give [Bret] Engemann a shot, I have to give him a real shot. If we lose, we lose but at least I will know he can come back. I felt like he was under a lot of pressure and he was trying to do great things early but he was a little off.”
– BYU Head Coach Gary Crowton on his decision to stay with starting quarterback Engemann going into the second half of play.
Independent standings
W L PA PF Streak
Notre Dame 5 0 123 64 W1
South Florida 3 1 129 106 W1
Connecticut 2 4 126 149 L2
Troy State 2 4 142 162 W1
Navy 1 4 121 212 L1
Utah State 1 5 133 246 L2
By the numbers
30,343 – Friday’s attendance. It marked the fifth-largest
crowd at Romney Stadium.
380 – Yards of total offense in the first half by Utah State. It
was more than USU had gained in the entire games
against Utah (162), Nebraska (321) and Iowa (244)
earlier in the season.
42 – Interception yards by Chris Cooley on the final play of
the first quarter. The longest of his career, it led to a
Richard Watson TD to start the second quarter.
34 – Points scored by Utah State in the first half. It was the
most points by USU in a half this season. The Aggies
recorded 28 first-half points against ISU Sept. 14.
7 – BYU points at halftime.
5 – Aggies who scored in the first 30 minutes of play.
4 – Consecutive scoring runs the Cougars scored on in the
second half.
1 – Times Utah State has won the coin toss in the last five
games.
0 – Points scored by Utah State in the second half.
-juag@cc.usu.edu