Frisco Bowl will be one last hurrah for Utah State football
Tonight the Utah State Aggies will push for one final win against Kent State in the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl. This last hurrah of the season will be the final of several Aggies’ careers for USU. Fifteen seniors will call Friday’s game their final at Utah State. One other man will also play his last in Aggie blue: junior quarterback Jordan Love.
These 60 minutes will help shape the view of a very up-and-down 2019 season. While several preseason goals, such as a Mountain West Championship, were far from met, a win would give USU just its fifth eight-win season since 1974. Being able to call this a disappointing season is almost a compliment to the program, a program many of these seniors helped revive.
The narrative of finishing the season off right for the seniors, plus Love, dominated Thursday’s press conference.
“The whole football team is playing for the seniors because it is their last opportunity,” USU head coach Gary Andersen said. “Whether it is their last day of fall camp or it’s their last rep of the first game they played in in the season, it’s their last time. I want as many as those opportunities to be valuable experiences and fun memories for those seniors as much as possible.”
“I could say that each senior is very excited,” senior edge rusher Tipa Galeai said. “No matter (if they’re) third-string first-string. Whoever it is we’re all excited to get this last win.”
Having one final game is an opportunity this team earned, but to win they’ll have to show-out a little better than most of the rest of the season. Though plenty of strengths are present with Utah State, plenty of weaknesses are just as prevalent. Most notable among the Aggies’ offensive failings is turnovers, of which USU has 23 this season.
“We’ve been just okay in that category, which is probably being just a little bit nice,” Andersen said regarding turnovers. “When you see our numbers, we’re in the minus area for turnovers this season and that’s not where you want to be.”
According to NCAA.com statistics, Utah State is exactly even in turnover margin with 23 giveaways and 23 takeaways.
Love, in particular, with his recent declaration for the NFL Draft will likely want a solid outing at the least to bolster his leap into the ranks of the NFL. Plenty has been said and noted of how Love has followed up a record-shattering 2018 campaign with a flaccid 2019 showing. He has managed barely over half the touchdown passes he did last year (17 this year, down from 32) and is only a short jump away from tripling his 2018 interception total (six) with 16 so far this year.
Despite having one of the best quarterback careers, Love has not had the greatest of bowl game performances. His postseason debut saw him set a record for pass attempts (44), but he completed only 25 of those, a mediocre 56.8 percent not helped by the 5.8 yards per pass Love achieved with only 254 yards on a record-setting number of attempts. His 359 passing yards the following year in the New Mexico Bowl jump off the page. Less so was his 48.8 completion percentage — Love’s third-worst percentage in any career game where he threw at least 20 passes.
If the Aggies’ star quarterback reverts to the level of his lesser bowl game performances, not all hope will be lost. USU’s opponent has struggled to slow down the run pretty much all season. Kent State ranks 127th among 130 teams in per game run defense, allowing a little under 250 yards per game on the ground.
With that weakness just waiting to be exploited, USU could turn to senior Gerold Bright, who needs just 62 yards to surpass his 2018 rushing total.
Andersen didn’t seem convinced that Kent State has a lackluster run defense. He elaborated on how he felt neither team has quite the degree of weakness against the run that fans and media suggest.
“When you play the schedules that we play and the opponents that we play – these guys had Wisconsin, Auburn, Arizona State, Things can get really skewed,” Andersen said. “I think what you need to do when you talk about those things is break down our conference and see how we did. That’s what I do. I dive into the convergence and when the playing field is leveled out a little bit, it gives you those opportunities to see how they’re playing about common opponents in their conference. So, I don’t see the holes that many people think they may see when they get into that situation. I don’t see it on either side in some of the stats that are out there on defense.”
Regardless, with a forecast predicting a coin flip’s chance of rain, Utah State may have to turn to the run more, a la Colorado State.
Speaking of defending against the run, Utah State has been very up and down in that area of the game as well — mostly down with all due respect to Andersen’s above comments. The Aggies only rank marginally better in the NCAA in run defense.
Five teams this year have rushed for 225 yards or more on the Aggies. The only time Utah State came away with a victory in those five instances was against lowly New Mexico in the regular season finale. Consequently, USU’s run defense ranks 103rd among 130 qualified FBS teams.
To make matters even worse, the Aggies will still be missing the considerable services of All-Conference and All-American linebacker, David Woodward. Although even with the junior, who recently declared for the NFL Draft, Utah State struggled to stop teams, especially in the ground game.
Perhaps the one strength of this iteration of the Utah State defense is an area it’s shone in for several years: forcing turnovers. USU ranks 12th in the country in forced turnovers with 23 takeaways this season; 12 of those have come way of recovered fumbles, ranking ninth nationwide.
That proclivity for turnovers will face a tough test against the Golden Flashes who rank seventh in the NCAA in giveaways. Only 11 times this season has the ball unintentionally fallen out of the grasp of Kent State and into the hands of its opponent.
Should Utah State come away ahead in the turnover battle, victory could almost be assured. Plenty of other factors will also play into how Utah State could win this game. How well Love plays and the ability of Utah State to stop the three-headed run attack of Kent State are two areas that could swing hard in either direction, dictating victory or crushing defeat depending on which side fate dictates. But tonight the whole team will hope they can push Utah State to one last victorious march through the streets of Frisco.