At the end of Saturday’s post-game press conference for Nate Dreiling, the interim head coach was asked a question about a small part of Utah State’s 49-28 loss to Washington State. It was a loss that ended the Aggies’ hopes at a bowl game and pushes them into the wrong end of recent history as the 2024 USU football team will be one of just three squads to not finish with at least six wins.
But with one question, Dreiling got to smile as he spoke about the final snap for the team on offense. It didn’t change the game. It certainly didn’t change the season. It didn’t even impact whether the Aggies covered the spread. What it did change was the demeanor of a few players and coaches. That play was the first career carry of running back Derrick Jameson.
Jameson hadn’t sunk his cleats into a football field during a game since his high school days, surely a tough adjustment for a guy who was a finalist for Mr. Football in Minnesota his senior season. In two years at Iowa Central Community College, he didn’t log any appearances, and through 10 weeks at Utah State, Jameson didn’t record any snaps in any capacity.
Until Saturday.
When Washington State pulled ahead by 28 points yet again in the fourth quarter, the coaches pulled Herschel Turner out of the game. Turner, a true freshman, was only starting due to an epidemic in the running back depth chart — Davon Booth transferred in the offseason, Robert Briggs broke his leg and Rahsul Faison was limited to a mere handful of snaps due to knee inflammation. Jameson was essentially the last man left once Turner was kept on the sideline.
Petras threw passes on the first two plays of what was ultimately the final offensive possession for Utah State, setting up 3rd & 9. The Aggies went conservative and just handed it to Jameson. His first official carry in an organized football game since 2021.
He ran it 72 yards for a touchdown.
.@JrJameson goes 72 yards to PAY DIRT!#AggiesAllTheWay pic.twitter.com/C0rcTgSO2e
— USU Football (@USUFootball) November 10, 2024
One could qualify this run by calling it a “garbage time” rep against a team no longer trying, whereas most of the Aggie starters were still on the field.
You could do that, but why would you?
Instead, Dreiling took the chance to celebrate a great moment for one of his players.
“I told the team after the game, we’re not going to get what we wanted to get at the end of the season. But we’re still going to have special moments and we’re going to celebrate those special moments,” Dreiling said. “That was cool for (Jameson) and he was fired up. And that just goes show man, the O-line is still working their butts off. Down 21 points in the cold rain at 1:30 (a.m.) our time. So a very special moments for (Jameson) and cool for this team.”
Jameson got to be the poster child for this week’s edition “next-man-up” at Utah State. The Aggies have been forced to be the ultimate example this with more than a dozen stars, starters and key rotation players out due to injury across the offense and defense. USU faithful are way too used to learning a new set of names each week as new player step into roles vacated because of injury. The Week 1 depth chart might as well be thrown in the garbage since half of those guys won’t appear on the field again. Heck, a lot of the guys on the field now weren’t even listed on the two-deep depth chart in fall camp or for the season opener.
There are a litany of guys who are living embodiments and ultimate examples of next-man-up. Players who weren’t just backups. They were the backups to the backups. Turner and Jameson are that at running back. Will Monney at tight end, Otto Tia at wide receiver. On the defensive side, the entire front seven — save for one player — is entirely comprised of players who were neither starters, nor the primary backup. Gabriel Iniguez is the one survivor as a Week 1 starter. The rest — Isaiah Bruce, Cian Slone, Lawrence Falatea, John Miller and Jadon Pearson — were expected to receive perhaps some, but not a lot, of playing time. All of them started against Washington State. Slone is currently leading the team with 5.5 sacks on the season.
The new backups were obviously even further down the scale of likelihood to play. Ricky Lolohea was playing on the scout team a month ago. He played 30 snaps as a rotation defensive tackle. William Holmes, a true freshman and former baseball player drafted in 2018 by the Los Angeles Angels, was the primary reserve at edge rusher, playing 15 snaps. And his story is one that could have its own feature as Dreiling demonstrated with his minute-long response to a question about Holmes.
“Will Holmes is such an unbelievable human being,” Dreiling said. “He’s always smiling and continues to work. He was kind of number six or seven in the depth chart after fall camp. And then, you know, you lose your three of your top four guys and all of a sudden people got to step up and play. And so he’s been back and forth all year, traveling (with the team), scout team, traveling, scout team. But the one consistent with him is he has always gotten better with his fundamentals.
“Dude’s never played football until this season. It helps being the most athletic guy on the field, no matter who he’s playing against. But he is going to have such a bright future. He’s continued to learn the position. He’s playing with great fundamentals. Our outside linebacker coach has done an unbelievable job with him. So that dude’s a true freshman And he’s, you know, he’s 6-3, 250 and probably the second fastest guy on our team. So as he continues to figure it out, man, he’s got a chance to play football for a very long time.”
These last few games aren’t going to be a the culmination of a great season. Players aren’t going to put themselves in the record books. They won’t get to the Mountain West title game, a bowl game, or get any notable team accolades to celebrate. But what the team can celebrate is those who have stayed the course. Not everyone on this team has done that. There are some that have packed it up, decided to redshirt and are already making their plans to leave Logan. But those who remain healthy enough to play and have the fighting spirit are going to give everything they have in the next few games.
And even if Aggie fans don’t look back fondly on the ending of this season. The players who stick through all of this will at least be able to look back proudly. But even that language comes across as assuming the worst for these next three games. Those games are far from guaranteed losses. Hawai’i and San Diego State both have losing records and the Aggies get to play them at home. SDSU just lost to New Mexico. So it’s not an exercise in futility and hopelessness. There are more W’s to be earned in November, even if they won’t add up to a conference title or even a bowl game.
