Rush hour at Romney
Robert Turbin’s performance Saturday was unique for the current USU football program.
Turbin’s was the kind of day that made the athletic media relations staff take a closer look at the program’s history books.
In the Aggies’ 42-17 win at Romney Stadium, the USU redshirt freshman running back ran for team-high 123 yards on 15 carries, giving the Aggies some of the best stats they’ve had in nine seasons.
Turbin became the first Aggie to go over 100 yards on the ground since 2006.
His 49-yard run in the third quarter was the longest run USU has had since 2005.
Overall, it was the team’s most rushing yards since a 1999 game at Nevada.
Why didn’t the same thing happen during the first three games of this season?
“We weren’t getting a lot of push up front and running backs weren’t getting good reads,” Turbin said. ” [Today] we got a good push up front and were able to keep our feet moving.”
But it wasn’t just Turbin.
The team totaled 356 rushing yards on the day. That’s right, 356 yards.
Sophomore quarterback Diondre Borel gathered 93 of them, senior tailback Curtis Marsh 69, freshman running backs Marquis Butler 51, Derrick Cumbee 18, Ronald Scott six and senior quarterback Sean Setzer four.
“We won this game because we played as a team,” Turbin said. “We just kept fighting and playing.”
Through the first three games, the Aggies had a combined 226 yards on the ground.
Though the Vandal defense was without defensive leader and strong safety Shiloh Keo for the second half, Aggie head coach Brent Guy said the Aggies’ rushing performance was acceptable.
“I don’t care who you’re playing, that’s running the football,” Guy said. “I know our fans are sick of me talking about (the running game) and it not happening.”
The first big run of the day came from Borel, five minutes into the second quarter. On a second-and-2 from the Idaho 33, Borel kept the ball and ran 33 yards for a touchdown to tie the game. By halftime, the Aggies accumulated 153 yards rushing.
Turbin’s 49-yarder came next, and three plays later Borel connected with tight end Jeremy Mitchell for a 15-yard touchdown pass.
Three minutes into the fourth quarter came the nail-in-the-Idaho-coffin run from Marsh. He took a pitch from Borel 41 yards down the sideline for a touchdown and a 35-17 lead.
“We worked on the play all week with Diondre running the option play and getting it to the edge,” Guy said. “Coach Dickey talked to him at halftime and said we are going to go back to it when we get in it and get it kicked. Just get the ball to the edge, make the guy take you, kick it to the edge and Curtis will out-run them, which is exactly what he did right after the turnover. I felt like it was that moment that we took total control of the football game.”
The running game was an obvious complement to the passing game, giving the Aggies the balance they have been seeking. The team passed for 224 yards (Borel 191, Setzer 33).
“I think we have the ability to rush and balance things out,” Guy said. “The teams that can be balanced win a lot of football games. We don’t want to be a running team, we don’t want to be a passing team – we want to be balanced.”
The next opportunity to do so will be Oct. 3 against No. 14 BYU – a game Guy said will be “a great challenge.”
But until then, the Aggies are No. 1 in the Western Athletic Conference standings.
“We’ve got two weeks we can sit at the top,” Guy said.
-samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu