After Utah State’s 48-0 loss to USC, Aggies’ interim head coach, Nate Dreiling, along with quarterback Bryson Barnes, spoke about the teams’ toughness and willingness to play hard no matter what numbers were on the scoreboard. Those words rang a bit hollow, not in the sense they were being dishonest but more in that it seemed a bit pathetic that a team fighting its hardest to the end couldn’t even turn the tide slightly in garbage time. The Trojans’ backup offense scored multiple touchdowns and their reserve defense still pitched a shutout in the handful of possessions it saw on the field against largely Utah State starters. Playing hard is nice and all but that work needs to pay off with on-field results or fans won’t care. It seems Utah State understood that and made significant improvements when going up against a comparable opponent to No. 11 USC — the No. 12 ranked University of Utah. Though the end result, a 38-21 loss will not go down as a positive in the record books, that score alone already screams volumes about the improvements from a 48-0 loss. The verdict right now from Dreiling is “we’re getting closer, but we’re still