Football rolls with win over UTSA
Nine games down, three to go.
It’s been an unprecedented run for the Utah State football team over the past season-and-a-half, and the Aggies kept rolling Saturday with a 48-17 demolition of the University of Texas-San Antonio.
“Overall, it was a great victory for us to go on the road and play well,” said USU head coach Gary Andersen. “UTSA is a youthful, exciting football team. They play hard and physical, and there is no quit in them. That is a credit to the players and a credit to their coaching staff.”
The win made it eight straight wins in the Western Athletic Conference for USU, who will depart for the Mountain West Conference next season. Whether the Aggies win the WAC this season or not, it’s hard not to argue they’re certainly leaving with a bang.
And while it wasn’t exactly a balanced offensive attack Saturday – 128 rushing yards and 394 passing yards – the Aggies did what they had to do to move the ball and put points on the board.
“It was their mindset to stop the run, so we had to look for something else,” Andersen said.
That something else came in the form of sophomore quarterback Chuckie Keeton hitting 12 different receivers while throwing for 340 yards and three touchdowns in the first three quarters before giving way to the second and third team players to finish it out.
Senior running back Kerwynn Williams rushed for 90 yards despite the Roadrunners focus on shutting down the run and was a major factor in opening the passing lanes. With UTSA crowding the box to slow Williams, the 5-foot-8 Las Vegas, Nev., native caught three passes for 68 yards and kept the defense honest.
“To make plays, we knew we were going to have to spit the ball out sideways if they stopped our run game,” Andersen said. “That was a big part of it. The offense executed that side of taking what’s there and that’s important. Defensively, I thought we were solid.”
The Aggie defense held its opponent to 20 points or less for the eighth time in nine games this season. Senior cornerback Will Davis tallied his second interception in as many weeks and nearly came away with a second in the end zone before it was ruled a simultaneous catch for one of UTSA’s two touchdowns.
The awards kept coming as a result of the strong outing by the Aggies. Keeton was named WAC Offensive Player of the Week for the third time this season for his performance against the Roadrunners and USU garnered four votes in the USA Today Coaches poll.
Statistically the Aggies rank sixth in scoring defe
nse, having held opponents to 14.22 points per game. They are 11th in rushing defense, allowing 96 yards per game and 19th in total defense, giving up 319 yards per game.
On offense, the Aggies boast a 38th ranked passing attack, are 48th in rushing and 50th in scoring.
To top it all off, Andersen is now the eighth winningest coach in school history in just his fourth season with 22 wins, something he credits to the team.
“I think it’s all about the players,” Andersen said. “That will never be any different for me. They are the ones who are making the plays, executing and putting in the practice time to get themselves where they need to be.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @CurtisLundstrom