Utah State football position previews: Defense and special teams
Front 7
Of the eight lost starters on defense, six were from the Aggies’ front seven. That means no more Nick Vigil, Kyler Fackrell, LT Filiaga, Torrey Green, Jordan Nielsen and David Moala. Behind them, four other depth players were also lost, which means experience is now at a premium.
However, the return of veteran nose guard Travis Seefeldt, who missed 2015 after a bad car accident, and senior end Ricky Ali’fua, will help alleviate the effects of the turnovers up front. Having the two All-Mountain West Preseason Honorees on the roster, along with fellow senior end Siua Taufa and junior end Ian Togiai gives the Aggies a couple of game-proven players on the line.
Behind those starters, the depth chart still has a bit more experience in senior end Edmund Faimalo and and sophomore nose guard Gasetoto Schuster. Look for them to make plays in some meaningful rotational package minutes.
The real concern for the Aggies is behind the line. During the entirety of Matt Wells’ tenure at Utah State, the Aggies’ have had some strong linebacking groups — and last year’s group was particularly skilled.
This season, Wells will have to replace 264 tackles — 43 of which came from behind the line of scrimmage — 11 sacks and five takeaways. He will have to do so with just three of the 10 linebackers who registered a stat last year. Sophomore Chasen Andersen, son of former Aggie head coach Gary Andersen, is the only one who hit double-digit tackles.
Lining up at the two inside linebacker positions will be returning senior Anthony Williams and junior Alex Huerta. Both of whom have had very strong camps and look ready to replace some of that lost production.
Out on the edge will be senior Brock Carmen and sophomore Derek Larsen. The pass-rushing duo has limited experience with the Aggies, but has earned the praise of Wells in both spring ball and fall camp.
A young nucleus waits behind this year’s starting ‘backers. Leki Uasike, Europa Mataia, Joe Riggins, Kevin Meitzenheimer, Dalton Baker, Chase Christiansen, Logan Lee and Justus Te’i will all fight to see some time of the field in order to ready themselves for next season.
Secondary
Utah State’s secondary is easily the defense’s most experienced position group.
The Aggie’s return two of their starters in the secondary, safety Devin Centers and junior cornerback Jalen Davis. The duo ranks first and second in total starts among returning defensive players with the only other remaining defensive starter being end Ricky Ali’ifua.
In Davis’ two seasons in Logan, he has started all 26 games that he has appeared in. He has recorded 111 tackles, five interceptions and forced two fumbles. He was the first true freshmen to start a season opener for Utah State and set a record for most interceptions by a true freshman (two) against Idaho State. In 2015 the California native continued to impress, contributing to a pass defense that ranked 14th in the nation.
Centers played in all 13 games last year, starting in eight of them. The senior safety has developed into a vocal leader for the Aggies’ defense, and with eight new starters this season that defense will look to Centers for veteran leadership.
Utah State is also returning several role players from last year with senior cornerback Daniel Gray and junior safety Dallin Leavitt eager to step in as starters.
Gray, a transfer from Tennessee, has started nine games in his career — two in 2015 — during his tenure at Utah State. Gray is an explosive corner with excellent speed and good size at 5’10” and 185 pounds.
Leavitt, a transfer student but from BYU, will look to replace hard-hitting safety Marwin Evans. Evans had the third most tackles for the Aggies last season (73), including ten tackles for loss and two sacks. Leavitt started four of the 11 games he played in as a sophomore at BYU. Against Texas, he had seven tackles with two of those being for a loss.
Filling out the cornerback rotation, the Aggies will have junior Wesley Bailey and senior Jentz Painter. Bailey is a big, physical corner while Painter has the quickness to cover smaller slot receivers.
All projected starters for the secondary have posted at least five starts in their careers, the most of any position group on the defense.
Special Teams
The Aggies will see both new and old talent on special teams this year, and most will be vying for starting positions.
Utah State returns three special team members from last season including senior placekickers Jake Thompson and Brock Warren, as well as sophomore punter Aaron Dalton.
Dalton, a sophomore out of Bountiful, Utah, ranked ninth in the Mountain West and and 61st nationally with a 41.3-yard punting average last season. His shining moment came in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl against the Akron Zips last season when he booted a 69-yarder, setting a bowl game record.
Thompson, Warren and redshirt freshman Dominik Eberle will all fight for the spot as the Aggies’ top kicker.
Thompson has kicked off a total of 219 times for the Aggies, averaging 62.7 yards with 106 total touchbacks in his first three years at Utah State.
Warren, a senior out of Hyde Park, Utah, knocked down 8-of-11 field goals and went 39-of-41 on extra points last year.
Eberle excelled at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California, earning all Bay-League as a junior and senior and Special Teams Player of the Year.
Although there was some struggle with the special teams unit last year — three missed field goals against BYU in a 51-28 home loss comes to mind — the unit did manage to tie two school records, with an average kick return of 25.6 yards and netting 429 yards off of punt returns.
There will be three new additions to special teams this year including junior Emmett Odegard, freshman Daniel Anderson and freshman Brandon Pada in attempts to replace graduated Salanoa Galea’i who has been Utah State’s long-snapper for two seasons.
Hailing from Greenwich, Connecticut, Odegard is a two-star long snapper and previously played at the University of Massachusetts. Anderson is from Springhill, Tennessee and attended Summit high school while Pada is from Grendale, Arizona and attended Mountain Ridge high school.
Along with these newcomers, Stacey Collins has been named Utah State’s new special teams coordinator. Collins has spent the past four seasons as head coach and special teams coordinator at South Dakota school of Mines. He led them to winning records in 2013 (6-4) and 2015 (6-5) and recorded 16 wins to become the sixth-winningest coach in program history. Collins will replace Dave Ungerer, who is set to join Fresno State’s coaching team staff as the special teams coordinator. Ungerer had 28 years of experience, including three seasons with the Aggies.