LOGAN — Utah State football coach Matt Wells gave freshman quarterback Darell Garretson the reins to the Aggie offense when it was down 31-10 to Boise State after Utah State’s fifth three-and-out with starter Craig Harrison under center.

“I thought we were dead,” Wells said about the switch. “I didn’t think we had a whole lot going right there, whether it was the end of the second quarter or that first three-and-out. There were just a couple of things I didn’t like. We didn’t have a whole lot of momentum at that time.

“To me, it was close in deciding who was going to start. They both had good weeks in practice and I wanted to get Darell in. I wanted to see what he could do. He didn’t start real well, but he finished a whole lot better.”

Garretson finished the night 9 of 14 for 116 yards with two interceptions and a touchdown. Harrison went 7 of 17 for 105 yards.

Harrison was the more efficient runner by gaining 36 yards on five carries to just two yards on four attempts for Garretson. The 21-point hole the Aggies faced when Garretson entered played a part in his limited opportunities to show his mobility.

“I though he (Garretson) did some good things there at the end,” Wells said. “The guys got some confidence around him. You start throwing balls on time and it makes a big difference. In that second series, we were way late. A lot of this stuff is timing and rhythm. We’ll evaluate it and go from there on Monday.”

Wells maintained his neutral stance as he has not yet determined who will play quarterback next week at New Mexico, let alone the rest of the season.

“There’s still a lot of football left for us,” Wells said. “There’s a lot of games that we’re going to compete in for an opportunity to go to three straight bowl games. There are plenty of things for our team to play for. We will keep fighting. We’ll regroup, make some corrections and look at this tape really hard.”

The Aggies received more bad news prior to the Saturday night contest with the Broncos, which affected an already injury-depleted offense.

“D.J. (Tialavea) will be out for the year,” Wells said. “He broke a bone in his foot, and will have surgery this week.”

Many may suggest that the score line didn’t do the actual game justice, but there were plenty of bright spots for Utah State in coming back to lose by only 11 points.

Senior cornerback Nevin Lawson was all over the field, swatting away multiple passes and recording a career-high nine tackles and two interceptions in the game — one of which was returned for a touchdown.

“I’d rather have zero tackles and zero picks with a win,” Lawson said. “At the end of the day I just want to win. Nothing else matters.”

Related:

Southwick leads Boise St. past Utah St. 34-23

Joe Southwick passed for a career high 335 yards and two touchdowns on 30-of-44 passing as Boise State topped Utah State 34-23 Saturday night.

Travis Reynolds also set a new career-high with 142 receiving yards, despite the challenge of playing with two different quarterbacks. Reynolds has now caught at least one pass in 16 consecutive games.

“Going in, we didn’t know who was going to be the starter,” Reynolds said. “As the game progressed Craig (Harrison) was out there moving the ball effectively and when Darell Garretson got in the game he had to get his rhythm going. I can’t really evaluate right now because all I’m doing is my job.”

Reynolds noted that the team’s poor third-down conversion rate has to improve.

“I feel just like Coach (Wells) said, it’s better to start second-and-five than second-and-10, and we didn’t convert on third downs because of what we did on first and second down,” Reynolds said.

He also mentioned that the amount of errors committed by the Aggie offense was far too great to overcome.

“In the big games you can’t have turnovers, mistakes and miscues and stuff like that because those little things can cost you the game,” Reynolds said.

The loss snaps the Aggies' 13-game conference winning streak. Boise State head coach Chris Petersen noted during the week leading up to the game that it would be a good opportunity to measure the progress the Broncos have made. Petersen again complimented the Aggies following the conclusion of the league showdown.

“I think Utah State has a fine team, I really do,” Petersen said. “I think our defense played at a really high level. I think on offense we did some really good things, except for the turnovers (and) a few too many negative plays. Credit to Utah State, they have a really good defense." Kyle Spencer is a ksl.com intern. He is studying journalism at Utah Valley University and is the sports editor of the UVU Review. Follow him on twitter @kyledspencer.

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