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 Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information.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 — Utah State senior quarterback Chuckie Keeton brushed off last year’s knee injury, and the Aggie offense picked up right where it left off in its 110-snap first scrimmage of fall camp at Romney Stadium.
Keeton completed 16 of 22 passes for 180 yards and two touchdowns, and also added 32 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Running back Joe Hill, who also returned from a knee injury, led the ground game with 67 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
“From an offensive standpoint, tonight was much better than our first day of full pads,” Keeton said. “We’re looking forward to improving and having a little bit more success in the upcoming scrimmage on Saturday.”
Hill saw his first live action since Sept. 27, 2013, when he went down with a knee injury against San Jose State. He added a two catches out of the back field for 24 yards.
“My knee is strong and I’m just getting my confidence back,” Hill said. “I didn’t even think about it today; I was just making my reads and my cuts.”
Junior college transfer Hunter Sharp continued to impress at wide receiver, leading the aerial threat with five catches for 90 yards and a 40-yard touchdown grab from Keeton that capped a four-play, 50-yard drive. Brandon Swindall and Hayden Welchers also caught touchdown passes from Keeton and sophomore quarterback Darell Garretson, respectively.
Garretson completed 14 of 25 passes for 122 yards and a score.
Deshane Hines led the defense with eight tackles, and Devin Centers and Brian Suite added seven tackles and five tackles each for the Aggie defense. The defense didn’t force an interception, though Jordan Nielsen recovered a fumble in the endzone for a touchdown.
“That is not like our defense, but I’m not worried about it one bit,” Utah State coach Matt Wells said. “We held some guys out with some training camp tweaks, but I’m not worried about them.
“We’ve got some work to do in the secondary, we know that. We’re playing new guys at new positions, even in the last couple of days. That’s something we can get cleaned up. I thought it was pretty clean from an offensive standpoint. There weren’t very many balls on the ground.”
Contributing: Jeremiah Jensen, Matt Glade
