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LOGAN — Utah State celebrated senior night on a chilly ESPN2 broadcast with a 41-7 win over San Jose State in front of an announced crowd of 18,428 tickets sold at Romney Stadium.
It was the final regular-season home game for Zach Vigil, Kevin Whimpey and the 26 other seniors lauded in a pregame ceremony, representing the winningest senior class in Aggie history.
There was a lot of good to go around for the Aggies (9-3, 6-1 MW), including a season-best ground game, a season-high points total and the usual dominant defense. Here are a few quick thoughts on the Aggies’ win over the Spartans (3-8, 2-5 MW).
Senior Love
Senior night started off about as perfectly as it could for the Aggies, when former walk-on linebacker Zach Vigil drilled San Jose State quarterback Blake Jurich for a sack that knocked the former backup out of the game. B.J. Larsen also added his team-high eighth sack of the year as the Aggie defense pressured San Jose State third-string quarterback Mitch Ravizza through the night.
Run, Kent, Run
True freshman quarterback Kent Myers ran for a career-long 27-yard touchdown on the Aggies’ first play from scrimmage, and Utah State put up plenty of points on the Spartan defense. He then increased his career-best run with a 65-yard scamper down the right sideline for a TD in the middle of the second quarter, marking the second-longest rush for the Aggies in 2014. He would then add a third rushing touchdown in the second half, piggybacking off of JoJo Natson’s scamper to the 2-yard line with about five minutes left in the third quarter.
The speedy wide receiver scored his third rushing touchdown Friday, blitzing the Spartan defense for a nine-second, 56-yard run on the first play from scrimmage of the second half. Natson would finish with a career-high 124 rushing yards, as well as 29 receiving yards and 25 yards on punt returns.
It wasn't as much of a factor in what turned out to be a rout of a three-win Spartans team, but special teams yardage took a significant dip in the final regular-season game in Logan. Aggies punter Jaron Bentrude was outpunted by San Jose State challenger Michael Carrizosa, 102-252 — though the visitor took three more punts. Still, Bentrude's game average of 34 yards per punt was significantly lower than his season average of 41.0 yards per game. It could be an anomaly, but Bentrude has set a lofty standard to this point in the season. He also muffed a punt in the first quarter for a 15-yard loss.
Utah State still has a chance to host the Mountain West championship game, if the Aggies win at Boise State next week and Colorado State loses one of its next two contests. If that happens, the Aggies will likely hope for a sellout crowd — despite the 33-degree or lower temperatures at kickoff that attracted visibly fewer fans than the 18,000 announced crowd.
