Don’t give up on Aggie football
The Aggies are now three games into the season. It’s hard to imagine the first three weeks going any worse.
The Aggies still have not beat a division one team, they also have been outscored by a margin of 67 to 30 all season. In fact, their offense is barely beating their defense and special teams.
Yes, it’s been a rough few weeks on the gridiron, but Aggie football now has a bye week. After the bye is conference play. So here is the good, the bad and the ugly about USU’s situation.
The good: The good part about the Aggies’ situation is that they have not lost a game to a conference opponent. USU will go into week five with an unblemished conference record. If they focus on that, then this season can still be successful. There is a real chance the Aggies can win the Mountain West. There is a real chance that even if they don’t, they will end up with a good record and a good bowl game.
The bad: Remember how jazzed everyone was when ESPN predicted that USU would go to the Fiesta Bowl? That just seems like so long ago. Here is the bad: USU is not going to be playing in the Fiesta Bowl. If they do, someone please rub this in my face — frankly, I’d be thrilled. The Aggies didn’t get their win against a power five opponent in their two chances this year — that’s the bad. They don’t appear as good as everyone was expecting.
The ugly: Just the first three games in general were ugly. The offense is struggling to find the end zone, the defense got gashed in the passing game, and some key players — Chuckie Keeton and Brandon Swindall — clearly aren’t fully healthy. There has been just a lot of ugly so far this season.
The takeaway is that USU now gets a bye. They get arguably their best offensive lineman back after that bye — Tyshon Mosely. Hunter Sharp looked good in his first game back. The run defense is still dominant. Deshane Hines also comes back, which should help the pass defense.
Things could get better. Then again, they could get a whole lot worse. The Aggies could theoretically still win the Mountain West. They also could not even make a bowl. Regardless, I’d like to ask the fan base not to do what has so often happened in the past few years and lose interest when a rough patch hits. Wait it out. That was a tougher two-game stretch than USU is used to.
The most important part of the season is still ahead. In short, this season is not decided. For better or worse.
— Jeffrey is a senior majoring in journalism. Feel free to email him at dahdahjm@gmail.com or on twitter @dahdahjeff.