Won’t be easy to catch the Ducks
From here on out the climb for the USU football team is all uphill.
Four of the remaining teams on the schedule are currently in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. One of those is Saturday’s opponent: the No. 18 Oregon Ducks of the powerhouse Pac-10.
Even so, the Aggies still expect great things.
“Our goal is to win six games this year, and while it’s disappointing to lose Saturday, we can still get our six wins and get to a bowl game,” said USU junior defensive end Darby Golden. “We just need to put [the UNLV] loss behind us and keep getting better and get ready for the rest of the season, starting this Saturday with Oregon.”
The Ducks are coming off a 44-10 home victory over the Washington Huskies. The Ducks pulled away from their visitors with a 30-point second-half performance. The Ducks also limited the Huskies to 242 yards of total offense.
For the Aggies to have a chance at victory, head coach Brent Guy knows his team can’t produce the same old mistakes.
“It is a very hard place for an offensive team to go into and execute,” Guy said of Oregon’s 54,000-seat Autzen Stadium. “It will be a challenge for our offense because of the type of environment that they have and they are as impressive an Oregon team as I have seen. I don’t think I played against an Oregon team with as much talent offensively and defensively and even in the return game.”
Among the Ducks’ offensive threats is senior running back Jeremiah Johnson. Hindered by a knee injury in 2007, Johnson collected 124 yards on 15 carries against the Huskies.
Oregon sophomore quarterback Justin Roper was knocked out of the game in the first quarter with a concussion. Before being taken out, Roper had tallied 114 yards passing and one touchdown. Backup Jeremiah Masoli came in and completed 9-of-17 passes for 126 yards and two touchdowns.
Getting pressure on the quarterback will be a must for the USU defense. The Aggies allowed UNLV to tally 353 yards of total offense (221 passing, 123 rushing) and had only one sack.
“We want to have more sacks,” Golden said. “We got one, but we want to have more. We want to get pressure on the quarterback but we always want to get better. We’re never satisfied.”
Setzer and Borel to share time all season
Because both quarterbacks played well against UNLV, Guy couldn’t say who will start Saturday, but he did say both will see action.
“We will wait and see how we do in practice this week, and announce somebody before the end of the week,” Guy said. “Both of those guys are still going to play and we are going to need both of those guys all through the year. We are going to have two different styles of play but when they are on both of them play well.”
Audible USU offense in Autzen?
Guy said the crowd noise from Autzen Stadium’s 54,000 fans will be another key factor for his team.
He said he will try to prepare the team Friday in Oregon.
“The only way to do it is practice with the noise,” Guy said. “We will come into the stadium with the offense and just turn the speakers on for the offensive team and practice with noise. These people know how to disrupt an offense. What I mean by that is they won’t start yelling until you approach the line of scrimmage and they’ll stand up and scream and as soon as the play is over they stop.”
—samuel.hislop@aggiemail.usu.edu