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LOGAN — When Utah State made the jump to the Mountain West Conference two years ago, the Aggies seemed to have left behind everything about the old WAC.
Except, of course, for the important thing: rivalries. And Saturday’s opponent hopes Utah State will consider it among league rivals for the ascendant Aggies. UNLV visits Romney Stadium for a 2 p.m. kickoff Saturday on ESPNews.
“They’ve been awfully good the last few years,” UNLV coach Bobby Hauck said. “They’ve built facilities, and they have it rolling. They’ve won 11 of 12 conference games, 8 in a row on the road (before last week’s loss at Colorado State). They’ve played well, and we’ve played them close the last couple of times we’ve played them.
“It’s a big game because they’re awfully good.”
Utah State leads the all-time series 14-7, including a 7-3 mark in Logan. The Rebels’ last win was a 27-17 victory in Las Vegas.
They always come in with a good game plan, and they have a good solid group of receivers who go up and make plays. They're very physical when they block and when they run the ball.
–UNLV defensive back Kenneth Penny on Utah State
Last year’s 28-24 grind-it-out road win for Utah State (4-3, 1-1 MWC) in Las Vegas helps fuel the tie between the two schools. Senior defensive back Kenneth Penny remembers it well.
“They always come in with a good game plan, and they have a good solid group of receivers who go up and make plays,” Penny said of the Aggies. “They’re very physical when they block and when they run the ball.”
The Rebels (2-5, 1-2 MWC) come into the contest with a lot of momentum, riding a 30-27 win over defending league champion Fresno State alongside a bye week to prepare for Utah State.
The Aggies, meanwhile, may be drifting in a different direction. Utah State snapped its record conference road streak last week with the loss at Colorado State, and the Aggies will start a quarterback who was originally the third-stringer on the first day of the season.
“You build off wins, and that win from Fresno gave us a confidence boost as a team,” Penny said. “We felt it in the locker room after the game.”
Much of UNLV’s offensive success rides on quarterback Blake Decker, a Scottsdale Community College transfer who attempted to walk on at BYU before serving an LDS mission in Mexico. The junior signal caller has completed 58 percent of his passes for 1,632 yards, six touchdowns and 10 interceptions. The Rebels will be without one of his main targets though, as senior Devante Davis won’t suit up in Logan. Davis has 258 yards and two touchdowns on the season.
But the chance to start the Rebels’ first winning streak of the year is exciting for sophomore running back Keith Whitely.
“We need to be consistent, being able to have consistent drives and help our defense out,” Whitely said. “We started out the (Fresno State) game really good, and we just need to be consistent across the second, third and fourth quarters.”
The offensive losses for both teams point to a low-scoring affair. But so does one other fact, Hauck said.
“Their defense is outstanding, and has been for a couple of years,” he said. “The Vigils are big, physical players that like to play. They have a good energy out there, and they like to block. They are good with their hands, they shed people and they get to the ball,” he said of the Utah State players.
