Bright carried the ball and the Aggies for a homecoming win
Through three games of 2019, Utah State senior running back, Gerold Bright, had lost his starting role.
Again.
In 2018, Darwin Thompson surpassed Bright when the latter inherited the starting role with the departure of Lajuan Hunt at the end of the 2017 season but lost it when the former excelled in the lead rushing role. When Thompson left for the NFL, Bright once again succeeded the top rusher headed into the next season.
But, lo and behold, incoming junior college transfer, Jaylen Warren, stepped in and immediately clicked with the offense, rushing for 320 yards and four touchdowns in the first three games for Utah State. In that same span, Bright handled the ball a comparatively measly 24 times for 122 yards (67 of those were in a blowout win against Stony Brook).
Bright rarely failed to perform when his number was called and usually excelled, totaling 1,555 yards from scrimmage and 17 touchdowns between the 2017 and 2018 season. Yet the Aggies never seemed to truly rely on his services, either having another player starting ahead of him or leaning on the arm of Jordan Love.
That changed on Saturday against Colorado State. Indeed, Utah State relied on Bright to produce yards against the Rams in a way the team hadn’t relied on a running back in nearly 20 years.
Despite facing a 1-3 team that had a defense giving up 49.3 points to FBS teams, Utah State found itself struggling to move the ball. The Aggies came in with the fifth-ranked passing offense in the nation led by a strong NFL prospect QB in Love, yet could not move the ball that way. Not only that, but Warren had been taken out of the game due to injury.
So the offense leaned on a man they’d never fully relied on before.
“After Jaylen was out it was the G-Bright show,” head coach Gary Andersen said. “He’s trained for this, he’s worked for this moment. He wants that ball in his hands in those certain situations.”
Bright carried the ball 36 times for the Aggies, gaining 176 yards. That was more yards and carries than all of Colorado State’s runners combined on the night and more yards and carries than Bright had accumulated to that point in the season.
The only player to finish with as many rushes in a single game this millennium for Utah State is Emmett White, who ran 38 times for 233 yards in a 2001 win over Weber State.
It was the kind of game Bright said is “a confidence booster” for his season.
Through Week 5 of the NCAA season, 20 players have accounted for 23 performances of at least 179 rushing yards. Every one of those runners reached their total with the help of at least one rush of 20 yards or more, 17 of them with a run of 50 yards or more. Bright never ran for more than 15 yards on any one of his 36 carriers.
“When you have 179 yards and your longest run is 15 yards,” Andersen said, “that doesn’t happen very often. There’s a lot of grinding yards in the 179 yards.”
It was unusual, especially for Bright, who thrived at times on big plays to gain his yards last year. He had touchdowns of 51, 70 and 83 yards last season, the last one being a catch and not a rushing attempt.
“I love those breakaway runs,”Bright said. “That’s pretty much my goal is to be explosive. I haven’t had a long touchdown run this season yet like I did last year and it’s got me a little mad.”
“But,” Bright added a moment later, “we got the W, so I really don’t care.