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LOGAN — The Aggies wrapped up spring football practices Saturday afternoon in Logan in the Blue team’s 75-73 win over the White team on the final play of the game.
Kennedy Williams’ two-point conversion on a reverse from quarterback Jordan Love gave the Blue team just enough to earn the victory over the defense-heavy White team.
“The defense played well as a unit,” Utah State coach Matt Wells said. “We have a chance to be pretty decent on the back end in the secondary. We have some guys that have played there before and we’ve got a couple of new guys that are very talented that have come in. That will be good competition throughout the summer and into training camp.”
The game was the first chance for the nearly 5,000 estimated fans in attendance to see the new press box and loge additions to Maverik Stadium. The boxes are still under construction, but are on track to be finished before the first game of the 2016 season.
Tonny Lindsey led the ground game with 89 yards on 12 carries, including a 6-yard touchdown on the Aggies’ third offensive scoring drive of the game. LaJuan Hunt added 64 yards on 12 carries for a team that ran the ball 55 times for 195 yards and two scores.
“This year, we’re going to emphasize the running game big because we’re all upperclassmen,” Hunt said. “Like coach (Mike) Canales was saying, ‘We’ve got to lead the offense as running backs and tight ends,’ and I feel like this year is the year we’re going to do that.
“We’re really going to make an impact in the running game.”
Love completed 7 of 14 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown, a 27-yard TD toss to Zach Van Leeuwen that capped a five-play, 75-yard scoring drive. Damion Hobbs completed 8 of 12 passes for 79 yards, a touchdown and an interception. The Oregon transfer found Alex Byers for a 36-yard TD strike on the Aggies’ first offensive touchdown drive of the game.
Kent Myers completed 6 of 13 passes for 58 yards with an interception, and Cade Smith and DJ Nelson also saw snaps under center.
Edmund Faimalo led the defense with three sacks, and Devin Centers and Jalen Davis each hauled in an interception. Alex Huerta and Gaje Ferguson had a team-high five tackles, and Centers also scored on a safety before Van Leeuwen’s late TD.
Click the video above for highlights from the annual scrimmage.
Utah scrimmage
Junior college transfer Troy Williams was listed out for the remainder of spring football with an undisclosed injury, so Brandon Cox ran an efficient offense by completing 18 of 25 passes for 223 yards and three touchdowns.
“I was pleased, especially with Brandon. I thought Brandon had his best day as a Ute,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. “He was poised, he ran the offense, and it probably was his best day.
“Tyler’s got a lot to learn, but he’s got so much upside. His ceiling is extremely high,” he said referring to freshman Tyler Huntley.
Cox found Caleb Repp for a 50-yard TD strike to cap the second offensive drive of the day, then added a 1-yard and 8-yard scoring toss to Wallace Gonzalez later in the scrimmage. Repp finished with 109 yards to lead all receivers.
Joe Williams ran the ball 11 times for 33 yards and a touchdown, and Huntley completed 7 of 19 passes for 66 yards and a score.
Defensive end Pita Taumoepenu led the defense with 3.5 tackles for loss.
“Pita is a big-play guy,” Whittingham said. “He’s going to be an instrumental part of our defense this fall. He was a guy who did a good job for us last year. As far as the amount of reps he got and production, he probably should have had more reps, but he’ll get those this year.”
