LOGAN – Utah State is fresh off its most dynamic victory of the season but must now focus on getting more of the same against San Diego State. Much like Hawai’i, the Aztecs aren’t the same caliber of opponent the Aggies were getting pummeled by early in the season. But the Aggies have already stumbled against below-average opponents this season, such as Temple or New Mexico. Just because the opponent is lesser on paper is far from a guarantee that Utah State will find a way to have a lot of success. The hope, however, is that last week’s 55-10 domination of Hawai’i is an indication that improvements have been made and that more wins are on the horizon.
Game Info:
- Kickoff: 1:30 p.m. (Mountain Time)
- Location: Merlin Olsen Field (Logan, UT)
- TV Broadcast/Stream: CBS Sports Network
- Radio: KVNU (102.1 FM, 610 AM)
KVNU Aggie Gameday pregame show with Stockton Jewkes and J.D. Walker: Begins 11:30 a.m. on 102.1 FM, 610 AM KVNU
KVNU Aggie Call Postgame: Starts immediately after Coach Nate Dreiling’s post-game comments.
- Text (435) 554-1175 or call (435) 753-5868 during the pregame or postgame show to give your thoughts and reactions for the game.
Utah State Depth Chart
USU Football Week 12 Depth Chart (OFFENSE)
| Position | Starter | Reserve |
|---|---|---|
| QB | Spencer Petras | Bryson Barnes |
| RB | Rahsul Faison | Herschel Turner Jr. |
| WR | Grant Page | Colby Bowman |
| WR | Otto Tia | Colby Bowman |
| SLOT WR | Kyrese White | Jack Hestera |
| TE | Josh Sterzer | Will Monney |
| LT | Cole Motes | Trey Andersen |
| LG | Wyatt Bowles | George Maile |
| C | Falepule Alo | Bryce Radford |
| RG | Aloali’i Maui | Tavo Motu’apuaka |
| RT | Teague Andersen | Jared Pele |
USU Football Week 12 Depth Chart (DEFENSE)
| Position | Starter | Reserve |
|---|---|---|
| DE | Cian Slone | Marlin Dean |
| DT | Gabriel Iniguez | Ricky Lolohea |
| DT | Isaiah Bruce | Bo Maile |
| DE | Lawrence Falatea | William Holmes |
| WILL | Jadon Pearson | Tanner Williams |
| MIKE | John Miller | Bronson Olevao Jr. |
| NICKEL | Jaiden Francois | Torren Union |
| B-CB | Avante Dickerson | JD Drew |
| BS | Jordan Vincent | Malik McConico |
| FS | Ike Larsen | Chase Davis |
| F-CB | DJ Graham | Noah Flores |
Utah State Injuries
- Robert Briggs (RB) – Out for Season
- Jalen Royals (WR) – Out for Season
- Broc Lane (TE) – Out for Season
- Taz Williams (DT) – Out for Season
- Miguel Jackson (DT) – Out for Season
- Enoka Migao (DE) – Out for Season
- Blaine Spires (DE) – Out for Season
- Gabe Peterson (DE) – Out for Season
- Clyde Washington (LB) – Out for Season
- Jon Ross Maye (LB) – Out for Season
- Logan Pili (LB) – Out for Season
- Falepula Alo (OL) – Questionable
Top Storylines & Matchups
How much of USU’s newfound defensive prowess carry over to this week?
Utah State hit a host of season-best marks on defense last Saturday, holding Hawai’i to 47 rushing yards, intercepting five passes and recording seven sacks, with it all adding up to a mere 10 points allowed to the Warriors. The relief such a performance gave to the Aggie defense can hardly be overstated. They could finally hang their hat on something rather than explain why they’d allowed 45-plus points to someone yet again.
Will this continue? Well, ideally yes. And if there was ever a solid team to test that capability against it’d be San Diego State. The Aztecs have a season-high (against FBS opponents) of 27 points for a single game, which they’ve done twice against Hawai’i and Wyoming. Not exactly a stellar resume.
This doesn’t make SDSU having a season-best performance impossible, though. After all, Temple scored 45 points against Utah State a couple months back, with that same team having scored more than 20 points just one other time the entire rest of the season (34 against East Carolina). The Aggies have facilitated offensive comebacks for other teams before so don’t go assuming SDSU has no chance to score 30 or more points in this one.
SDSU will run the ball whether USU stops it or not
A massive key in Utah State’s win over Hawai’i was the complete lack of run game from the Warriors. The Aggies certainly did their part to slow down any rush attack Hawai’i attempted, but with only 19 designed run plays, the Warriors hardly tried.
San Diego State will never give up on running the ball.
Whereas the Warriors average 28.5 rush attempts per game, the Aztecs average 35.1, a significant difference in philosophy. And the man leading the charge, or perhaps is the only one charging, is running back Marquez Cooper. Of the 350 rush attempts this season for SDSU, Cooper has 246 of them. The next-closest in attempts on the team is quarterback Danny O’Neil who has 54 (20 of those attempts being sacks counted as rush attempts). Cooper will be almost a guarantee to run the ball at least 20 times and there’s a pretty good chance he eclipses 100 yards seeing as he average 106.2 yards per game (though he’s only had 100-plus once in his last five games).
The threat from SDSU sack artist Trey White
Trey White currently leads the Mountain West in both sacks (11.5) and TFLs (17) by a fairly healthy margin. He’s become the focus of most opposing offenses that have sought to mitigate his impact as much as humanly possible.
Recent team’s efforts to stop White have been successful, for the most part. While White does have 11.5 sacks, in the last five weeks he only has 0.5. He was an absolute terror in late September and early October with 10.5 sacks in a four-week span, but he’s been far less productive of late. That’s not to say he’s lost his touch, it just has more to do with teams making it too hard for him to record numbers. Any slacking by Utah State will very likely result in White returning to his previous run of form.
The good news for Utah State is that it’s been pretty solid in keeping its quarterbacks upright. Despite facing some of the best teams in the country at getting sacks, like Boise State (2nd) and UNLV (T-13th), the Aggies rank 47th in sacks allowed at 1.6 per game. The Broncos and Rebels combined for just four sacks on Petras despite him recording 108 dropbacks in those two games (good for a sack rate of 3.7 percent).
If there’s a team that can find a way to slow down White, it’ll be the Aggies.
Utah State has found its post-Jalen Royals rhythm
Much has been made of how Utah State would perform without its star receiver, and now may be the time we all shut up about it. Spencer Petras saw a notable statistical decline after not having his top target (and also another favorite target in tight end Broc Lane), but last Saturday saw him much closer to his midseason form when the Iowa transfer was dropping 300-yard games left and right.
Wide receivers like Grant Page and Otto Tia have made up for some of the lost yards and receptions, but tight ends Josh Sterzer and Will Money have seen a notable increase in target share. Through the first seven games of the season, Utah State quarterbacks (mainly Petras and Bryson Barnest) Utah State targeted a tight end on 14.2 percent of pass attempts. In the three games since that percentage is up to 20.3 percent, hitting a peak against Hawai’i with Sterzer and Monney accounting for more than 40 percent of pass attempts from both Barnes and Sterzer.
Senior Day for the Aggies
Utah State will honor 22 players as part of its senior day celebration this Saturday — Falepule Alo, Wyatt Bowles, Colby Bowman, Jacob Conover, Rahsul Faison, Jaiden Francois, Jacob Garcia, Stephen Kotsanlee, Jon Ross Maye, Cole Motes, Elliott Nimrod, Spencer Petras, Ioholani Raass, Jalen Royals, Cian Slone, Blaine Spires, Josh Sterzer, Seni Tuiaki, Torren Union, Jordan Vincent, Clyde Washington and Kyrese White.
Game Prediction
Eric Frandsen and Jason Walker both gave their predictions for the game on the Full Court Press (4-6 p.m. weekdays on 106.9 FM, 1390 AM The FAN).
Eric Frandsen’s Prediction — Utah State 38, San Diego State 28
- Correct winner predictions this year — 8/9
- *Score prediction accuracy rating — .477
Jason Walker’s Prediction — Utah State 31, San Diego State 29
- Correct winner predictions this year — 6/10
- Score prediction accuracy rating — .444
*Score prediction accuracy rating is on scale of 0-1 and measures predicted score and winner for all games so far and the deviation of predictions from the actual scores of the games (NOTE: Some previous weeks ratings were miscalculated and are lower than they should be). Eric didn’t have an official score prediction for New Mexico so his numbers don’t include that game.
