USU attendance sets new records
History was made Saturday.
Even though the Utah State University football team suffered a 23-3 defeat at the hands of the University of Utah, there was good news.
For the first time in school history, the home game was a sellout prior to kickoff. The official announcement came Friday, along with the news of 500 standing-room-only tickets available for $17 each.
Utah State Athletics director Rance Pugmire said the sellout was expected and hopefully the same thing will happen as the Aggies host BYU on Oct. 4.
The attendance of 30,757 is the first stepping stone in breaking records this season. Last year, the Aggies averaged a record 21,784 fans, without the help of Utah or BYU home games.
Saturday’s game did not hold the record for the largest attendance ever though. In 1996, 33,119 fans packed Romney Stadium to see the Cougars crush the Aggies 45-17.
Player of the game
Marty Johnson, Ute running back
Injured last season against the Aggies, Johnson ran for a career-high 176 yards on 30 carries. He also scored two touchdowns.
“The guy’s a player without question,” said USU Head Coach Mick Dennehy. “He’s a darn good football player.”
Tradition
Saturday’s matchup with the Utes marked the ninth time in 14 years the Aggies opened the season against Utah. Last season, the Aggies faced the same fate as they fell 23-19 at Rice Eccles Stadium.
Tradition will continue next season as the Aggies play their first game of the year in Salt Lake.
Coloring the field
David Fiefia became the first Aggie in six years to start at running back whose name was not a color.
Fiefia follows Demario Brown, Melvin Blue and Emmett White in the position.
He didn’t fare as well as anticipated though. Fiefia lost a fumble on a kickoff return, carried the ball for minus 4 yards, twice.
Where is he now?
Speaking of White, the 5-foot-11 tailback out of Ogden is still putting on his helmet and lacing up his shoes for football.
White attended Saturday’s game, watching from the sidelines.
A member of the British Columbia Lions, he is in town until his busted ribs heal.
If White had any advice for this year’s squad it would be to establish a running game, he said.
“I know they can,” White said. “They just have to find that person. A main key person they can go to and then they’ll keep that one person in the game the whole time.”
Racking up the numbers
Aggie quarterback Jose Fuentes needed only 15 completions to break the school career record of 473 and 174 yards to pass No. 3 Eric Hipple with career passing yardage.
Fuentes finished with exactly 174 yards and completed 18 of 37 passes.
Quotable
“If we get something positive out of this I think it’s that maybe we aren’t as good as we think we are. If we are going to achieve anything out of it we need to keep our heads up.”
– Utah State Head Coach Mick Dennehy
“Everything we saw, we had expected. We just couldn’t execute when we had opportunities. When they were confused, we weren’t able to execute.”
– Utah State wide receiver Kevin Curtis
Independent Standings
W L PF PA Streak
South Florida 1 0 51 10 W1
Notre Dame 1 0 22 0 W1
Navy 1 0 38 7 W1
Troy State 0 1 16 31 L1
Utah State 0 1 3 23 L1
Connecticut 0 1 16 24 L1
Looking ahead
The Aggies will travel to Lincoln, Neb. to take on the Cornhuskers. Ranked ninth on the AP poll and eighth on the USA Today poll as of Aug. 26, Nebraska leads the series 6-0 with all six meetings coming in Lincoln.
The last time the teams matched up was in 1991 when the Aggies lost 59-28.
“We don’t have a choice,” Dennehy said. “We have known for several years now that we were going to line up against Utah on Aug. 31 and Nebraska the next week. We knew coming out of the chutes that we had a couple of very, very big challenges in front of us.”