Hearts broken: Utah State falls to Boise State 33-24
Utah State fell short in their bid to host the Mountain West title game, losing 33-24 to Boise State on Saturday night. The loss brings USU to 10-2 on the season.
“There’s a lot of hurt and there’s a lot of heartache,” head coach Matt Wells said. “Nothing I could have said (in the locker room) in that moment probably took any sting away. But we’ve had a good year. It’s been a very good year. We’ve got another one left and we’ve got a chance to win eleven which would the tie school record.”
The Aggies started quickly, going 75 yards for a touchdown on their opening possession, capped by an nine-yard touchdown pass from Jordan Love to Jalen Greene. USU was unable to take advantage of two straight three-and-outs from Boise State to expand the lead. BSU eventually took a 10-7 lead following a 2-yard TD run from Alex Mattison and a 23-yard field goal from Haden Hoggarth. Utah State never regained the lead.
After a 12-yard touchdown pass from Love to Ron’quavion Tarver cut the lead to 17-14, USU’s defense forced a missed field goal from Boise State to send the Aggies into the locker room down by only three points.
The teams traded field goals in the second half, before the Broncos extended the lead to 26-17 with a 1-yard TD pass from Brett Rypien to Garrett Collingham. With less than four minutes to play, Gerold Bright sparked the Aggies back to life with an 83-yard touchdown reception that pulled USU to within two points of Boise State. Utah State never regained possession, however, as the Broncos pieced together a six-play, 75-yard drive ending with a one-yard TD run by Mattison with four seconds remaining to seal the victory for BSU.
“I hurt for those players,” Wells said. “I hurt for them and the level of investment that they’ve put into this program and how hard they’ve played and how well they’ve played. They left everything out there and the biggest thing was ‘no regrets,” and I feel that that’s probably the case… They don’t regret anything. They left it out there.”
The loss officially eliminated Utah State from the MW title game, one of the chief goals the team has had since spring camp.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can say to console and I think (Coach Wells) understands that,” Chase Christiansen said. “I’m just proud that’s he’s our coach. I wouldn’t trade the group of guys that we have together. I wouldn’t trade him for the world even though the ending isn’t what we wanted.”
Utah State struggled to maintain a rushing attack, managing only 62 yards rushing on 19 carries. Darwin Thompson led USU with 61 yards on 11 carries.
“We hold each other to a standard to play great and win a one-on-one battles at every opportunity we can,” Bright said. “We fell short of that… We have high expectations and we would never lower ourselves for anything.”
Love finished with 363 yards on 29-of-47 passing with three touchdowns and one interception. It was Love’s sixth 300+ yard passing game of the season.
The win slotted Boise State into the Mountain West title game, with the Broncos also hosting the contest next week versus Fresno State. At 10-2, Utah State will receive a bowl invitation, though the location of the bowl may be determined by the results of next week’s title game.
“I mean it’s tough, but I’m a very optimistic person,” Bright said. “We still have great opportunities ahead of us. We fell short (of winning the MW), yes. We have one more game to go out and display how great we are. And I do believe we are a great team and we’re going to do our best to win again.”
Utah State’s next game is yet unknown, though will likely be announced in the days following the completion of next week’s MW title game.