Week 11 Three by Three: Utah State Football and the MWC

In 2012, it was the final year of the WAC. With Gary Andersen at the helm, USU went undefeated in league play and lost its only two games by a combined five points. The team finished 11-2, won a dominant Potato Bowl over Toledo (41-15), and then finished the season ranked 16th in the AP poll. That was the Andersen high.

Fast-forward to 2018, and the Aggies are ranked 18th in the AP Poll and 20th in the Coaches Poll. Four regular-season games remain, but bigger possibilities are within reasonable reach. How high can this team go?

Let’s talk about some things, and some other things, too.

Three things from the past: USU 69, New Mexico 19

1. The fast start

A football game consists of four 15-minute quarters, but on Saturday afternoon in Logan, the Aggies only needed two of those quarters to light the A blue. The Aggies took a 52-5 lead into halftime and eventually took a 61-19 win to extend their winning streak into November.

As you are well aware, the Aggies score fast. Consider:

USU has outscored opponents 110-29 in the first quarter.
Stretching it one more quarter, the Aggies have outscored opponents 228-70 in the first half.
At one point in the broadcast, the announcers mentioned how Utah State has had 15 scoring drives in less than two minutes. By the time the fact was out there, the Aggies had done it again. And then again. So, really, who knows how accurate that statistic is. Bottom line: when the Aggiess score, it’s fast-paced and explosive.
The scoring load is also well-distributed among offense, defense and special teams. So far on the season, 20 different Aggies have scored a touchdown.

2. Jordan Love and the offense

After a lackluster game in Wyoming, Love was ready to kick it back to his level of normalcy. Like the rest of the team, he only needed 30 minutes to get his job done: 23 of 32, 448 yards and four touchdowns, all in the first half.

By the end of the game, Love and backup quarterback Henry Colombi completed passes to 14 different receivers with four different guys catching balls for scores. Specifically, for the first time since 2013, the Aggies had a pair of 100-yard receivers in the same game, with Jalen Greene (four catches, 108 yards) and Ron’quavion Tarver (seven catches, 112 yards) the lead targets.

3. Play of the game: Shaq Bond

The Aggie offense started the game with the ball but quickly went three-and-out. The Lobos turned their first possession into a field goal to take a 3-0 lead. After an Aggie touchdown, the Lobos marched upfield again and were knocking on the end zone for another score.

Shaquez Bond, a junior college transfer from California, had other plans as he intercepted a pass at the goal line and then raced 100 yards to the other end zone. Check out all these tidbits:

Sure, it’s not a concrete fact, but it was a momentum-shifting play that sparked Utah State to take control of the game. The game was over as quickly as he raced in his 100-yard dash.
The distance covered was the second longest interception returned for a touchdown in school history.
Oh, and Bond is the fourth player in MWC history to go 100 yards on an interception.
The Aggies have played eight games in 2018, and the date with Air Force is the only matchup in which the defense or special teams failed to score a touchdown.