Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
LOGAN — Through 12 regular-season games in 2014, Utah State football has only produced two 100-yard rushers in a single game.
After the second occurred last Friday against San Jose State, coach Matt Wells may want to change wide receiver JoJo Natson’s number.
Natson ran for a career-high 124 yards and a touchdown on seven carries in the Aggies’ 41-7 romp over San Jose State (3-8, 2-5 MW) in the regular-season home finale, and the junior from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, piled up a game-high 178 all-purpose yards for Utah State (9-3, 6-1 MW) as he continues to see plenty of time in multiple positions and special-teams sets.
Just don’t give him all the credit.
“I have to give credit to my offensive line, seriously,” Natson said after the game. “They did a great job blocking for me. Without them blocking for me, I wouldn’t have done it at all.”
With Utah State’s two-back setup of LaJuan Hunt and Joe Hill combining for 100 total yards, the Aggies’ coaching staff looked to the perimeter to find chunks of yardage on the ground. The tactic worked well in the third quarter, when Natson took the handoff, spun around a block by tight end Wyatt Houston and followed Hunter Sharp and Ronald Butler into the end zone.
Once Natson turned the corner, he was off to the races.
“He’s amazing,” said quarterback Kent Myers, who had a career-best 92 yards and three touchdowns on four carries. “The dude’s fast, and it takes a lot off of me to know that I have athletes like that around me. It takes a lot of pressure off of me. Each week, I hope he just goes out and does it again.”
Blocking patterns can’t be neglected in performances like Natson’s, even downfield, Wells said.
“I think when a receiver like that runs that well on the perimeter, the credit has to go to the receivers and tight ends on the perimeter,” Wells said. “I thought they did a great job blocking. A lot of the guys you see, but I thought our receivers in particular blocked really well on the perimeter.”
The Aggies piled up 313 yards on the ground, knowing they would be facing the top pass defense in the Mountain West Conference in San Jose State.
“It takes me back to my high school days,” Myers said. “I just wanted the opportunity, and we game-planned this read throughout the week. I finally had the opportunity to break away, and that’s what I did.”
Natson and Myers combined for 216 of the Aggies’ 313 yards on the ground, while Hill had 54 yards on 15 carries and Hunt had 43 yards and a score for Utah State.
“Coach let us know that we needed to run the ball,” Natson said. “Pre-game, everything was about the trenches.
“Coaches were yelling at us every week about how we need to run the ball better, and win the game in the trenches.”
