Guy ready to start win streak
For the second weekend in a row, the Utah State Aggies will try to beat a team for the second year in a row.
Last year, the Aggies beat Idaho 14-7 at home, but the last two times Utah State traveled to Moscow, Idaho, they didn’t leave with a win.
After their first win of the season, the Aggies will be looking to improve on their play.
“They’re very capable,” Utah State Head Coach Brent Guy said of Idaho. “We’re going to have to play much better than we did to beat them on the road.”
Since the first game, Guy has been preaching: First, making it a fourth-quarter game and second, winning the fourth quarter.
Utah State’s performance did lead to some positives for the coaching staff.
“The kids still believed they could win the football game and were able to fight through the adversity,” Guy said. “The big thing for us is to win the fourth quarter, which obviously, we didn’t do in the Utah game and we did [against UNLV].”
After committing 12 penalties for 136 yards, the Aggies will have to focus on the game to get through a road game without shooting themselves in the foot.
“We got to get rid of those ignorant penalties,” Aggie cornerback Jarrett Bush said. “If those happen we’re going to struggle. We’re the underdog anyways and those penalties aren’t going to help at all.”
The Vandals will be a tough opponent at home since they have started off their season 0-4. Their closest loss was at UNLV by a late field goal, 34-31.
Last weekend, the Vandals kicked off their conference season with a 24-0 loss to Hawaii at home.
“They’ll be hungry,” Bush said, “and trying to get a win somewhere. They’re probably thinking on their schedule, ‘OK, Utah State – that’s a win.’ We’re going to try to not let that happen.”
The Vandals have averaged 55 yards rushing and 218 yards passing this season.
“They want to run the football,” Guy said. “The basic philosophy is they want to be able to run it and haven’t been able to and were very good throwing the football against UNLV.”
Sophomore running back Rolly Lumbala will probably get the start as Antwaun Sherman has a high ankle sprain and may not play at all. Lumbala was called “a pretty heavy running back” by Bush.
To deal with his size, Bush said the defensive backs will have to come up and make the tackle instead of waiting for him.
The Aggies will be looking to improve on their running game, which didn’t perform as well against UNLV as it had against Utah.
The Aggies rushed for 163 yards against the Utes but could only find 61 yards on the ground against the Rebels.
Ryan Bohm is USU’s leading rusher with 77 yards on the ground this season. Leon Jackson III is second with 75 yards.
One positive for the Aggies is their turnover margin.
“We’re leading the WAC right now in turnover margin,” Guy said, “which is the proudest stat we have right now as a team. Teams that are in the plus in turnover margin have a great chance of being winning teams.”
-krn@cc.usu.edu