Devante Mays leads blowout over Weber State in home opener
Devante Mays had his day.
Three touchdowns, 18 carries and a 11.6 average.
And somewhere along the way to a 45-6 victory over Weber State the senior running back set his career-record for yards in a game with 208 – the most yardage since Kerwynn Williams back in 2012.
“I just want to keep getting the ball,” Mays said. “I want to accomplish my goal of over 1,500 yards. To get that I’ve got to keep pounding every down and every play. It’s something that I want.”
But postgame, Mays simply wasn’t interested in talking about his performance. He summed up his record game with one word – good. Instead, Mays continually redirected praise onto his offensive line, his quarterback, his coaches and most importantly, his family.
Mays got the game started on the second play of the game for the Aggies. He took a direct snap from the Wildcat formation, turned the corner, trucked a defender and powered in for an 18-yard score. In the very next drive, in much the same way, Mays took his carry, this time from quarterback Kent Myers, and rushed outside for a repeat 18-yard touchdown — marking his fourth career multi-game touchdown as an Aggie.
From there, he wasn’t done.
After producing 61 yards on five carries in his previous drive and already totaling over 100 yards, Mays showed he had an extra gear by taking the first handoff of the second quarter for 66-yards and his third touchdown of the night.
“I think Devante has a very bright future here,” said Matt Wells, Utah State’s head coach. “Time will tell where he ranks all-time here.”
Mays’ first negative play from scrimmage didn’t happen until early in the third quarter. However, with a sizeable 31-6 lead, Mays’ day was done. Instead, the rest of the Aggie backfield saw a share of the time behind the starting offensive line.
First out of the pen was LaJuan Hunt. The junior running back capped off a 70-yard drive with a nine-yard touchdown to give the Aggies the first score of the second half. Tonny Lindsey was the next back out of the stable for Utah State and he did the most with his touches. After helping to drive the Aggies 54 yards, Lindsey took it the rest of the way in on a 35-yard touchdown scamper.
Finishing the day was sophomore Justen Hervey. In one play, late in the fourth, Hervey showed his breakaway speed on an 80-yard touchdown – untouched.
“We got four guys that can play,” Wells said.
In total, the Aggie running backs accounted for 428 of the 528 total yards on offense. The remaining 100 yards came from the arm of Myers. The junior signal-caller went 11-17, mostly finding tight end Wyatt Houston (36 yards) and true freshman Rayshad Lewis (26 yards). Zach Van Leeuwen soaked up both of his two targets for another 28 yards.
Myers opponents Jadrian Clark and running back Treshawn Garrett did their best to help lead the Wildcat offense. Clark finished his day 15-27 for 137 yards and an interception while Garrett notched 96 yards on 22 carries and had the only touchdown of the day for Weber State.
Redshirt junior safety Dallin Leavitt, along with the other newcomers on defense for the Aggies, had a very nice showing against the Big Sky opponent. Linebackers Alex Huerta, Brock Carmen, Derek Larsen and Justuse Te’i all played their part, adding 18 tackles and two sacks – one from Carmen and the other from Te’i.
As a whole, the defense held Weber State to 245 yards of total offense, 108 on the ground and 137 through the air.
Mays said the Aggies will hope to use this win and build for a road game against PAC-12 opponent USC on September 10 at 12 p.m