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PROVO — Add a 98-yard scoring drive led by a former Aggie to the list of ways Utah State has invented to lose a game. Brigham Young quarterback Riley Nelson came in for the Cougars late in the game to beat USU 27-24 in Provo, Friday evening.
Nelson came into the game as a replacement for starting QB Jake Heaps late in the third quarter. The 6-foot junior showed fans of both universities a display eerily similar to what he did to Fresno State in 2006 while playing his freshman year in an Aggie uniform before serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Riley realized it was his opportunity and he ran with it,” BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall said. “He won’t sit on the sideline pouting, but he’ll be out there on the field helping our team. He has a very unselfish mindset about him.”
Utah State led for all but the last 11 seconds of the game, when a Nelson pass was deflected into the hand of tight end Marcus Mathews to give BYU the final edge, 27-24.
“We couldn’t stop them when we needed to,” Aggie head coach Gary Andersen said. “It’s not one phase, not one group. We just couldn’t execute when we had to have it at the end. This is as hard of a stretch as I have ever been through.”
Utah State scored first on a run by running back Robert Turbin when the junior from Fremont, Calif. beat the BYU defenders to the edge and ran 80 yards for a touchdown, 7-0.
“We could be 4-0 right now,” Turbin said. “We’re not. All these losses hurt the same. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. They all hurt the same because you work so hard.”
Turbin had 123 yards and also scored his first receiving touchdown of the season on a 24-yard screen pass from freshman quarterback Chuckie Keeton, halfway through the third quarter to go up 21-13.
Utah State’s largest lead of 11 came with 12:39 to go in the fourth quarter when sophomore kicker Josh Thompson chipped in a 21-yard field goal from the right-hash to go up 24-13.
Then the wheels fell off the Aggie wagon.
Thompson put the ensuing kickoff out of bounds and Nelson began his first touchdown drive at the 40, eventually finding Cody Hoffman on a 24-yard fade to the corner of the end zone to pull BYU within four, 24-20.
After a USU punt, BYU drove down the field again, this time reaching Utah State’s 26. On 3rd-and-2, Aggie cornerback Chris Harris forced a fumble away from BYU running back JJ Di Luigi and jumped on the ball to give Utah State possession with just under four minutes to play and a four-point lead.
Aggie fans everywhere started celebrating, but the following 3-and-out gave BYU hope with 2:36 left to play and Nelson drove the Cougars from their own 4 yard-line to steal the win away from USU.
Turbin blamed himself for the loss.
"We get a big play with the fumble recovery, then we can’t get the first down and that’s on me,” Turbin said. “We just don’t make the plays when we need to.”
Tavin Stucki is a sophomore journalism student at Utah State University. He is the sports editor and football beat writer for the Utah Statesman, the Aggie campus newspaper. Twitter: @tavinstucki
