Taking Bobcats’ temperature
The Utah State football team will face the Ohio Bobcats in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl Dec. 17 at 3:30 p.m. in Boise, Idaho.
The Bobcats are 9-4 on the season, including a 20-point win over the Western Athletic Conference’s New Mexico State at the beginning of the season.
Ohio also blew a 20-point lead in the second half of the Mid-American Conference Championship game, to lose by three to Northern Illinois.
USU head coach Gary Andersen said because of Ohio head coach Frank Solich’s ties with Nebraska, where he helped win three national championships as an assistant coach, the Bobcats will have good coaching.
“I know they are going to be well coached,” Andersen said. “Anybody who follows college football is well aware of his past, and what he has been able to do as a head football coach is very special. It will be a very good football team we are playing. They are used to going to bowl games, and they are used to winning.”
The Bobcats are quarterbacked by sophomore Tyler Tettleton. The Oklahoma native has thrown for more than 3000 yards with a 63.6 percent completion rate and 26 touchdowns this season, but threw three interceptions in the loss to NIU.
Ohio has three receivers with five or more touchdowns, and senior running back Donte Harden is 61 yards away from breaking the 1000-yard mark this season.
The high-powered offense should be a good challenge for the USU defense, led by senior linebacker Bobby Wagner, which allows 4.9 yards per play.
Wagner said he has watched some film on Ohio’s offense.
“Their offense is pretty good,” Wagner said. “I’m excited to play them. I’m excited to be in the first bowl game we’ve had for a long time. I’m excited for all the events that will take place.”
Ohio’s defense allows roughly 350 yards of total offense per game. Aggie running back Robert Turbin said Utah State will run the ball anyway.
“We’ve got a lot of tough-minded guys at the running back spot and on the O-Line,” Turbin said. “It’s tough when they know you’re going to run the ball. We kind of have the mindset that it doesn’t matter who we play, and whether they know we’re going to run the ball or not, we still want to run the football.”
Turbin promised students and fans during halftime of a basketball game Nov. 30 that Utah State will win the bowl. A good running game against the Bobcats will be essential for the Aggies to make Turbin’s promise true.
“Yes, maybe I shouldn’t have said it that way,” Turbin said. “I usually don’t guarantee those kind of things. I said it because I’m confident. I’m confident in this team. I’m confident in our fans — more so than any other fans in college football.
“I want to bring home a trophy just for our fans. I want them to be confident in us, too. And if we lose, well, then I guess I’m an idiot. If we win, I’m not. I’m willing to take that risk.”
For the seniors on the USU football team, the bowl game will be the last time they wear an Aggie uniform.
“I don’t think it’s fully hit me yet,” senior lineman Funaki Asisi said. “From what I do feel, it feels great. It’s a feeling of accomplishment. It makes you appreciate all the hard work. Even though we had heartbreakers and stuff like that this year, it’s worth it now.”
Wide receiver Eric Moats is another who will play his last game in Boise, Idaho.
“It’s kind of weird when you say ‘last game,'” Moats said. “This is kind of all over my head at the moment, but it’s been great. I love all the guys on the team and I’m really happy that I ended up coming here. It’s been all worth it now that we got that bowl game.”
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu