Senior Cox reaches 3,000 yards passing
USU quarterback Travis Cox reached the 3,000-yard passing mark in his career with a 13-yard pass to Lawrence Lovelace in the first quarter.
“I didn’t even know about it,” Cox said. “I don’t really care about stats. That’s why I’m really glad we got a win.”
Cox was not pleased with his performance in his milestone game.
“That was the worst game I’ve ever played in the 13 years I’ve been playing football,” Cox said. “I’m just so glad that we got a win.”
Cox now has 3,190 passing yards in his career, leaving him 208 yards short of 10th best all-time for a USU quarterback.
It wasn’t pretty, but …
The Aggies committed five turnovers Saturday, but only had three penalties called against them.
“This group listens pretty good and [not committing penalties] is one thing that we really emphasize and we’ve really stressed,” Head Coach Mick Dennehy said. “We didn’t really take ourselves out of the game.”
Idaho was called for seven penalties, including a critical false state in the closing minutes when it was inside the USU 10-yard line.
“Any yardage that you can gain in a football game whether it be in the area of penalties, whether it be offensively or defensively or special teams wise – I thought perhaps that was the difference in the game tonight,” Dennehy said.
Idaho totaled 102 penalty yards to 35 against USU.
Aggies defended new turf
Saturday’s game marked the first game the Aggies played on the new artificial turf that was installed over the summer.
“It’s just a faster turf,” said Aggie field-goal-blocker Ronald Tupea. “I like grass a lot better, personally. It’s just a natural feeling, I guess you could say.”
By the numbers
20,117 – In attendance Saturday
3,190 – Career passing yards by Travis Cox
10 – Straight years there has been a defender with the last name of Fiefia on the Aggie defense
4 – Straight games it had been since USU intercepted a pass until Cornelius Lamb picked off an Idaho pass in the first quarter
3 – Consecutive offensive plays that the Aggies turned the ball over in the second quarter.
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu