USU Football preview: Air Force
LOGAN — Utah State Football will celebrate homecoming as they host Air Force for their second conference matchup of the year.
After an impressive 10-3 season for the Falcons, they are off to a solid start in 2022 at 4-1. The lone loss, coming to Mountain West opponent Wyoming, has been the only blemish on the Falcons this season. Tying with the Aggies for first place in the Mountain Division last season, they are projected to finish second in the Mountain Division this season with 10 first-place votes, behind Boise State’s 14 first-place votes.
Returning their leading passer, and their top five rushers from last season, the Falcons’ triple-option offense will be in full effect in 2022. Quarterback Haaziq Daniels, the captain of the offense, threw for 1,184 yards last season with seven touchdowns and three interceptions last season. The Falcons, as a team, rushed for 4,267 total yards in 2021 with 44 touchdowns. That was almost 600 yards ahead of the next team on the leaderboard. Daniels has only attempted 35 passes this season. But the eye-opening stat is his 374 passing yards on 17 completions which equals a 176.0 quarterback rating.
Running back Brad Roberts, was the leading rusher for Air Force last year with 1,356 yards on 299 attempts and 13 touchdowns. The 5’11” back has continued his pace with 91 carries totaling 573 yards with seven touchdowns, leading the team in total touchdowns and rushing yards this season.
The most fascinating unit of the Air Force team is the offensive line. College football analyst, Phil Steele, ranked Air Force’s offensive line as No. 16 in the country next season. With an average weight of 284 and an average height of six-foot-three, the Air Force starting offensive line unit is the key to their rushing game success. Up to this point in the season, the Falcons’ offensive line has only allowed four sacks, which will create a test for the Aggie defense which has seven total sacks on the year.
The Aggies and Falcons had a shootout last year in Colorado Springs. Air Force was up 11 points with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Aggies stormed back and won 49-45. The game ended up being the tiebreaker between the teams for the Mountain Division last year.
In late September, the NCAA announced that the Air Force football program committed recruiting violations during the coronavirus dead period in 2020. Their penalties included a two year probation, a fine, a reduction of 46 official visits for the program in the next two seasons, a reduction to the football squad size by 10 players for four seasons and a reduction of 44 evaluation days this year.
Some hefty violations committed by Air Force could daunt their program for seasons to come, which could influence them this season to win it all before it gets rough.
Utah State has only beaten the Falcons twice since 2015. However, with the Aggies currently sitting at 1-4 on the year, a win in this divisional matchup could create additional chaos to the Mountain West Conference standings — which are already up in the air — for the rest of the season.
“Playing against a team that’s so capable talent-wise,” Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun said about the Aggies. “It will be a really good environment to play in.”
Air Force and USU kickoff at 5 p.m. on Aggie Radio 92.3 FM and Fox Sports 1. The game will be at Maverik Stadium where the Aggies look to make it two in a row against Air Force in what many fans are calling the most anticipated home game of the 2022 season.
Featured image by Sam Warner from the BYU game.