Red, yellow, blue and fighting white
Red zone defense, yellow flags and a blue and white home-field advantage led the Aggies to a 34-20 victory over the Arkansas State Red Wolves.
The Aggies defeated the Arkansas State Red Wolves 34-20 Friday night at Maverik Stadium.
The primary colors worked in their favor to bring the victory.
The red zone and Red Wolves worked mostly in Utah State’s favor as the defense dominated when the ball was within goal and Arkansas State scuffled several times with the Aggies on the field.
“Once they’re in the red zone, we know we’re not going to let the run the ball in,” said linebacker Brock Carmen. “That’s kind of our motto.”
The Aggies held the Red Wolves to only field goals within the red zone and no third down conversions.
It wasn’t three minutes into the game before scuffles began between the Aggies and the Red Wolves.
A-State’s Khari Lain threw punches at Utah State’s junior cornerback Jalen Davis after the Red Wolves were forced to punt two minutes after the start of their first drive.
Later, Utah State’s Anthony Williams was flagged for retaliating against an A-State player after a potentially late hit against Davis.
Football plays gradually turned into heated fights throughout the remainder of the game but, fortunately, the Aggies were on the receiving end for the most part.
“They’re a scrappy team, they like to talk,” said junior quarterback Kent Myers. “We just played it smart and let them get all the flags they can get.”
Roughness continued until as late as six minutes into the fourth quarter when both offensive and defensive false starts were called at the six yard line as the Red Wolves attempted to score their third touchdown of the game. A-State’s lineman Austin Moreton taunted noseguard Travis Seefeldt after he was flagged for the defensive false start.
Head coach Matt Wells was proud of his team for how they handled the heated moments.
“I was proud of our guys for holding their composure,and knowing how to play between the whistles,” Wells said.
The personal fouls called on A-State led to many other debacles, but those were not even half of the night’s penalties called against the Red Wolves.
Yellow flags worked in Utah State’s favor in the first half as A-State had more penalty yards than yards of offense — 95-92 — en route to a 24-0 Aggie lead.
Two crucial penalties given to Utah State changed the momentum slightly, Carmen said. But the penalties that worked in the Aggies’ favor was a result of smart plays and being able to get in their heads, Myers said.
A total of 18 penalties in the game for the Red Wolves compared to Utah State’s six handed the Aggies 129 total yards in the game.
Coming off of last week’s loss in the Los Angeles Coliseum, where there was little blue in a sea of red and gold, being back at Maverik Stadium was an obvious help to the Aggies in the game.
The Aggie blue end zones welcomed four touchdowns from their home team and the ‘fighting white’ defense carried the team through a less-than-ideal second half.
Two of the four Utah State touchdowns came from junior running back Tonny Lindsey Jr.
“I think Tonny did a nice job of stepping up,” Wells said, noting Lindsey had come in for several plays due to Devante Mays’ absence. “He didn’t do more than he needed to. He ran with good vision.”
Carmen had a career high of 12 tackles against the Red Wolves. Carmen, along with Wells and Myers, said playing at Maverik Stadium in front of the home crowd always leads them to accomplish big things.
“More than anything it was just a blast playing out there in front of our home fans,” Carmen said. “You know you’ve got your team and your crowd behind you no matter what. We knew it was going to work out how we wanted it to.”
Wells said the student section they played for tonight is second-to-none in the Mountain West Conference and looks forward to filling the stadium next week for the first conference game against Air Force on Saturday.
The game against Air Force will be at Maverik Stadium on Saturday at 8 p.m. and can be viewed from home on ESPNU.