Aggies down Lobos, clinch second straight winning season
Utah State rolled to its seventh win of the season, topping the New Mexico Lobos 38-25 at Dreamstyle Stadium in the Land of Enchantment.
With win number seven comes the confirmation of a winning season, regardless of the result of the Aggies’ eventual bowl game. It’s the second consecutive winning season for the football team and sixth since 2011. Head coach Gary Andersen has led three of those winning campaigns, the first two — 2011 and 2012 — coming in his first stint as coach of the Aggies. If you exclude Andersen’s first run at USU, he’s just the second coach since 1973 to post a record above .500 in his debut season.
“It feels great,” senior defensive back DJ Williams said on 92.3 KBLU LP Logan and 1280 The Zone about sealing an above-.500 record. “It feels good to go out with the senior like this, the program is going in the right direction, I really believe that.”
In the first half, Utah State feasted on three consecutive Lobo turnovers in the second quarter. The Aggies scored 14 points in the final 1:07 of the half thanks to New Mexico coughing up the ball on its own 13 and 29-yard lines. Those turnovers set up a Gerold Bright one-yard TD run and a Jordan Love 16-yard TD strike to Derek Wright. Those two touchdowns capped off a 24-point second quarter that had USU up 31-6 at the break.
Utah State quarterback Jordan Love (10) throws against New Mexico during the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2019 in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
Coming out of halftime, New Mexico showed signs of life. They took the second-half kickoff and drove 75 yards down the field for a touchdown. On the ensuing USU drive Love threw his only interception of the game, leading to a 69-yard touchdown drive that drew the Lobos within two scores 31-18. However, Utah State responded with a 14-play, 77-yard touchdown drive, the longest drive of the game by number of plays. Love ended that series with a 10-yard toss to Siaosi Mariner for the six points.
Despite the decisive response from Utah State, the Lobos still made something of the game, driving home a fourth touchdown to draw within two scores again. But Williams dashed New Mexico’s hopes with two minutes left to play by intercepting Trae Hall for the second time that day.
Four of DJ Williams' six career interceptions have come at Dreamstyle Stadium.
— Jason Walker (@thejwalk67) December 1, 2019
After the game, Williams detailed that game-sealing interception on The Zone.
“The play before I told coach O, I said ‘let me play 10 yards (off the line of scrimmage) and jump the hitch. I know they’re about to throw the hitch route.'” Williams said. “And I did, I played 10 yards and just jumped the hitch. That’s just IQ, honestly, I just knew it was about to come.”
Though Utah State had its highest point total of conference play, it came via the second-lowest total yards in conference play (368). Only against Air Force (128) did the Aggies gain fewer yards in a conference game.
Gerold Bright factored heavily into the offensive production USU did produce, running for 113 yards and a touchdown, his eighth career 100-yard game and seventh in the last two seasons. That rushing total led the Aggies to 196 yards on the ground which is the fourth-highest ground total by the team this season and third-most in conference play.
“My mindset was to be a dog,” Bright told The Zone of his play, “have a chip on my shoulder, fight ’til I had no fight left in me and get my teammates all I could give so we could go to a special bowl game.
Behind Bright, Jaylen Warren had 40 rushing yards. Love and Jordan Nathan each had 26 yards with Nathan converting an 11-yard rush for a touchdown.
Love finished with his lowest passing total (172) since the disastrous Air Force game, but he had three touchdowns to just one interception. The junior now has more TDs (17) than INTs (16) this season, the first time since September that Love has been able to say that. Love eclipsed 3,000 yards on the season, finishing the game with 3,085 and becoming just the second quarterback all-time at USU to have multiple 3,000-yard campaigns,; Jose Fuentes being the other. With just 16 more yards, Love would pass Fuentes’ junior-season passing record of 3,100 yards and he would then own the freshman, sophomore and junior season passing records. Love’s sophomore passing total (3,567) is currently the overall single-season record).