USU football team ready for UNLV
Two weeks and one game late, the Utah State Aggies will open their home season at Romney Stadium this Saturday against the UNLV Rebels.
The Ags will be looking for their 100th win at Romney Stadium all-time and will be looking to even up their win-loss record at 1-1.
While Saturday will be just the second game for the Aggies, the Rebels will play their fourth game this season. UNLV is 1-2 with a win over Idaho and their two losses to New Mexico and Nevada.
With two more games to look at, Utah State Head Coach Brent Guy has a better idea of what UNLV is doing – whereas the Rebels’ Head Coach Mike Sanford is a little more in the dark.
“It is a little bit weird, in that we have played three games and they have played one,” Sanford said. “You have to look at the improvement of [Nevada] from game one to game two. There is going to be a similar thing happening with Utah State.”
As for the Aggies’ scouting, Guy said the Rebels did a better job against Nevada not allowing big plays thanks to a change in their philosophy.
“They aren’t giving up big plays, which had happened,” Guy said. “Idaho threw for 390 yards on them. They are playing more zone and are mixing it up more.”
Guy especially noticed the clock management Nevada used to start off the game as they marched down the field using a lot of the clock in the first quarter. The Ags had a similar drive at the end of the first quarter against Utah, which resulted in their lone touchdown but also chewed up more than 10 minutes of the first quarter.
As far as defense goes, Guy said UNLV has an attack like Utah’s since their coach was Utah’s offensive coordinator last year.
The main difference is the Rebels’ tight end Greg Estandia, a 6-foot-8-inch, 255 pounder, who is second on the team in receiving with 102 yards and two touchdowns.
The Rebels will probably try to take advantage of mismatches because of the height difference, Guy said.
Estandia is four inches taller than anyone on the Aggie defense, whose tallest defender is 6-4.
This far into the young season, the Aggies are leading the Western Athletic Conference in rushing with 163 yards a game. Boise State is second at 159 yards per game.
A key to the rushing success is the revamped offensive line which has a run-first mentality when they line up.
“We love to run block,” starting tackle Donald Penn said of the offensive line. “It felt real good being able to get out there and run the ball more. Knowing that was our first option, to run and not to stand back and pass. “Now that we’ve got teams on their toes, they don’t know if we’re going to have our quarterback running it or our runningback. It has opened up our offense.”
Along with the home opener and the new coaching staff, there will be another new wrinkle on Saturday, the Aggie Walk.
The Aggies will walk from the Champ Room past the ‘Meet the Challenge’ bull and then into the locker room at Romney Stadium.
Guy said the walk will take place two hours and five minutes before the game.
“We hope the fans will be there and it will turn into something bigger,” Guy said. “We’re not going to stop and visit and chat or sign autographs. We’ll react to the fans, but I want the players to be focused that we’re walking down to defend our ground at Romney Stadium.”
The walk will allow the players to see a little more game atmosphere and be able to focus on the game, Guy said.
With the young team, focusing on defending the home field and meeting the challenge will be the focus for the walk.
Also planned for Saturday is the football team’s rendition of the fight song with the band – win or lose – after the game.
The football team has been singing the fight song before women’s home soccer games during breaks in practice to pump up the soccer fans.