One is the loneliest number?
Study the schedules from the past 20 years of Aggie football and you find something very important: No. 1 is a big deal.
In only three of those 20 seasons have the Aggies won the first game.
It’s a critical number when coupled with the fact that all three of those campaigns were winning ones, and in two of them USU qualified for bowl games.
Come Thursday at 6:05 p.m., the Aggies will be given another opportunity to snag that first game when the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Runnin’ Rebels come to town.
“We’ve got to win the first one,” USU Head Coach Brent Guy said. “It’s a home opener. You look at the history of this school in the past two decades, with season opening wins has a huge impact on the outcome of that team. It’s pretty dramatic when you look at the history of it. That’s something we’re going to talk about. We’ve got a great opportunity to play at home. Our focus is on the first game.”
The circumstances are looking good for the Aggies — at least on paper. Of the seven games the program has won over the past three years, two of those victories have come against the Runnin’ Rebels. UNVL is 5-12 all time against USU. Plus, USU hasn’t had a season opener at Romney Stadium since 2002 (a 23-3 loss to the University of Utah).
The Rebels are coming off a 2006 season that was similar to USU’s. UNLV finished 2-10 overall and 0-6 in road games.
Notable changes in their roster include Travis Dixon, a red-shirt freshman, who will be the Rebels’ starter at quarterback. Dixon is the fourth different quarterback for the team in as many seasons. Dixon replaces returning starter Rocky Hinds, who has been slow in recovering from an off-season knee injury.
USU is returning a quarterback who has experience, as well as all 11 defensive starters. But, the Aggies still haven’t won a game since Oct. 7 of last year.
USU was picked in the preseason coaches’ poll to finish eighth in the Western Athletic Conference. What are the feelings of team members on the chance of being the surprise WAC team that the San Jose State Spartans were a season ago?
“There’s no reason we can’t,” said sophomore linebacker and 2006 Western Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year Paul Igboeli. “We lace up our shoes the same way Boise State, Nevada, Louisiana Tech and everybody else does. All we have to do is go out and compete. In high school, my team was picked dead last and finished first. The only thing you want to do is go out there and prove you’re better than they think you are.”
In an effort to boost team morale during the off-season, the Aggie coaching staff gave each player a white card with blue Block A on it. Why?
“When we win the Old Main hill is blue,” senior starting tailback Aaron Lesue said. “That’s a symbol for us. We want to be on the same page. That’s important to us. The thing is, I don’t think (winning) was as important last year to a lot of the players, but this year it is because we’re getting a little older. We’re a lot more mature. We have a lot more seniors this year and guys that want to win.”
Since the end of last season, Guy has been straightforward and serious about what a win in Game 1 of ’07 will mean for the remainder of the year, as well as what measures the team will take to get it. During Monday’s press conference, his tone was no different.
“If we need to put in a freshman at the end of the game because of an injury, we will do whatever we have to in order to win this football game,” Guy said.
– samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu