USU vs Idaho State by the numbers

596 – The number of total yards by the USU offense

In just the second game of his tenure as Utah State’s offensive coordinator, David Yost and the Aggie offense had a performance to remember. The team was clicking early and often, putting up numbers which many people couldn’t even reach in a game of Madden, including 392 yards in the first half alone. Behind 341 passing yards and 255 rushing yards, last night’s showing goes down as the 12th greatest offensive yardage showing in Utah State history.

2 – The number of incompletions by Aggie QB Kent Myers

Much of the offseason chatter surrounding the USU football team involved the quarterback position, and Kent Myers certainly doesn’t have a shortage of doubters. But after a lackluster 3-interception game against Wisconsin last week, Myers was nothing short of spectacular in the second game of his senior year. He completed 24 of the 26 throws he made for 323 yards and two touchdowns. Tack on 85 rushing yards and two touchdowns on the ground, and that won’t be a game Myers will forget anytime soon.

But what about the two incompletions that he threw? One was a back corner-of-the-endzone lob to Jordan Nathan which was complete but a couple of inches out of bounds, the other was a pass which hit Carson Terrell in the hands but was tipped into the air for an Idaho State interception.

30 – The number of USU players who recorded at least one tackle

Yes, you read that right. 30. Perhaps the greatest perk of playing an FCS-level opponent early on in the season is that you get to put in a bunch of guys who won’t regularly see a ton of playing time. A 38-6 halftime lead allowed Aggie coaches to experiment with lineups and rotations, and much of the second half was played by second and third string guys on each side of the ball for USU. There’s an old coaching adage which says one hour of in-game experience is worth 100 hours of practice, and if that’s true, who knows when that could pay off for Utah State.

13 – The number of USU players who caught a pass

For all the grumbling about David Yost and the “new-look” Aggie offense following Saturday’s loss at Wisconsin, they sure earned themselves a lot of praise against Idaho State. Now, I know what you’re thinking, obviously Idaho State and Wisconsin are on a very, very different level. I get that (see below.) But this performance showed Utah State fans that when clicking, this is a VERY capable offense with a lot of different players who can step up. Led by Ron’quavion Tarver’s seemingly effortless seven catches for 75 yards, 13 Aggie players, including three different tight ends, made receptions for USU.

27 – The number of consecutive Idaho State losses against FBS opponents

I hate to end this column on a down note, but I feel like it would be irresponsible to throw all of these impressive numbers out there and not bring things back down to Earth at least a little bit. Let’s not get things twisted, Idaho State is a really bad football team. Picked to finish 13th (aka last) in the Big Sky conference, they haven’t had a victory over an FBS team since the year 2000. Anybody wanna take a guess who that was against? Yep, that’s right, the Bengals defeated Utah State 27-24 at what was then known as Romney Stadium 17 years ago. Here is perhaps the most ridiculous number I found in all of this. The average score of ISU’s losses throughout the FBS losing streak? 51-13. Sound familiar?

I guess what I’m saying with all of this, is we still don’t know much about this Aggie football team. But at least we’re not UNLV, who recently lost to 45-point underdog Howard at home. The Aggies came out, took care of business, and we’ll learn a whole lot more about them next weekend against Wake Forest.

jadencrockettjohnson@gmail.com

Twitter: @jadenjohns0n