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LOGAN — Utah State opened Mountain West Conference play with a 34-16 win over Air Force on Saturday night behind a strong performance from Darell Garretson and the aerial attack.
The Aggies (4-2, 1-0 MW) had seven receivers combine for 311 yards on 22 catches, led by Hunter Sharp’s 164 yards and two touchdowns on 12 receptions.
The defense also came out strong, anchored by Zach Vigil and a career-high 22 tackles to go along with an interception and a quarterback hurry. But it wasn’t all perfect for Utah State. The Aggie run game still needs work, and special teams — while improving — still has a long way to go.
Here are a few other observations from the Aggies’ homecoming night victory.
Top-10 run defense
The Aggies held Air Force’s normally prolific, triple-option ground game of Jacobi Owens and Kale Pearson to 80 total yards in the first half and 155 yards for the game.
The crowd
Utah State’s sold-out crowd of 24,037 left with a smile on homecoming night, and for good reason. After a rough 2-2 start to the season, the Aggies have won two straight with victories of then-No. 18 BYU and a win that dropped Air Force to 1-2 in Mountain West play. A conference championship is still in play for Utah State, which is a goal Utah State coach Matt Wells has stressed to the media since training camp.
Hunter Sharp
The junior college transfer continued to impress, notching his fourth straight 100-yard receiving game with 155 yards and two touchdowns — in the first half. The junior finished with 164 as he continues to click with Garretson, who completed 20-of-29 passes for 298 yards and ran for 24 yards and a touchdown on eight carries.
The offensive line
The core group led by Kevin Whimpey came out firing in the first half, paving the way to 101 rush yards by a stable of four rushers. After the break, the line started to break down a bit more and gave up significantly less time to Garretson and the passing offense. Each lineman has made marketable strides in the past few weeks, but it still has work to do one game into league play.
Special teams
Nick Diaz converted on field goals of 46 and 35 yards, but the overall special teams performance was average with a few rough patches. Jaron Bentrude had a punt blocked 15 yards from his own end zone in the fourth quarter, and JoJo Natson had only 18 yards on one punt return.
The run game
Linebacker Nick Vigil started his first college game at running back, which is a nice accomplishment for the sophomore but a telling sign for Utah State’s more experienced running backs. Garretson was one of the team’s leading rushers with 24 rush yards, and the running back trio of Vigil, Joe Hill and LaJuan Hunt had a combined 44 yards on the ground.
