USU football was fired up for its first road trip of the season but performed less than ideal on their away opener. USU suffered their first loss of 48-0 to No. 13 USC on Saturday at the Coliseum for a non-conference game. No matter how you look at it, it is pretty hard to take a loss like that as they are now preparing to face off against No. 12 Utah on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Maverik Stadium. This is the first time these two interstate rivals have met since the 2015 campaign and the first time the Utes have embarked on Merlin Olsen Field since 2012.
USU Suffered A Nightmare VS USC
Going back 16 years was the last time that USU faced two back-to-back teams that were ranked in the Top 25 AP poll. This long-ago repeat didn’t start well for the Aggies. To their credit, USC racked up 544 offensive yards, 295 in the air, and another 249 on the ground. Unfortunately, the Aggies managed only 190 yards total and couldn’t find their grove in the air or the ground.
The USC Trojans shut out the Aggies and haven’t been able to do that since 2017. It hasn’t been that long for USU to wait since they haven’t scored as it was back in 2022 when they faced off against Alabama. The Trojans averaged over ten yards per completion and almost seven yards per rush. The Aggies also had more than twice as many penalties as the Trojans and only went 2-of-11 on third down.
USU Little Glimmers Of Hope
Despite USU’s inability to get anything working for the offense and stop USC with their defense, they did show a spark here and there. Wide Receiver Jalen Royals and Running Backs Rahsul Faison and Herschel Turner started making plays but were quickly shut down. USU especially struggled to stop the USC running backs.
On a happier note, USU special teams didn’t do so badly. Aggie Kicker Elliott Nimrod and Punter Stephen Kotsanlee kept USC’s superstar Running Back Zachariah Branch from doing much despite the score at the end of the game. USU Head Nate Dreiling said during Monday’s press conference:
“We learned a lot from the tape. We were really close on some plays (against USC), but when you’re playing an opponent of that magnitude everything’s got to be perfect and we just weren’t there that night. I thought the kids competed extremely tough. The players were resilient the whole night.
“Whether you watched the first half or the last half, you wouldn’t know the difference in the score. There were players playing hard, so that was the best takeaway. Obviously, no one’s excited or happy with the outcome. We know we have to continue to (move forward) and first practice for Utah week is today, so we’re getting ready to gear up for that and we know it’s going to be a packed house, the players are going to be juiced up and it will be fun one.
Now that USU knows what to work on and has several days to prepare, will they be ready for Utah? Several injured players will return, and the Aggies have proven they will not give up.
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