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LOGAN — The quarterback group for Utah State was a sight to behold as all six members walked onto Jonah Field at War Memorial Stadium an hour prior to kickoff against Wyoming on Saturday night.
The unit's leader, the Aggies' starting quarterback and broken-footed Logan Bonner, scooted his way across the field; and concussed QB2, Cooper Legas, rocked a hoodie under his padless jersey and cruised alongside. Ankle-hampered QB3 Levi Williams wore full pads and looked ready to go through his normal warmup routine, despite knowing full well he wasn't playing.
Rounding out the group was a fully-padded trio of underclassmen: QB4 and true freshman Bishop Davenport, QB5 sophomore Garrtt Larson, who had taken his first practice reps of the season days earlier, and QB6 true freshman Chase Tuatagalo, who wasn't on the travel squad a week prior.
Not an ideal scenario for a team that entered the game with conference championship aspirations on the line.
To make matters worse, in the second quarter of the game, the Aggies' leading tackler MJ Tafisi rolled around on the turf writhing in pain. The defense, which was already missing starting defensive end Byron Vaughns, and the Aggies' leader in forced turnovers, corner AJ Carter, was noticeably depleted from that point forward.
The shorthandeness on both sides ultimately contributed to Utah State's 28-14 loss to Wyoming.
There were plenty of reasons for the loss — specifically surrounding the offense — but the injuries played a massive role. If Utah State were to tweet out a comprehensive injury report, they'd run over the 280 character limit.
Legas, Vaughn and offensive lineman Falepule Alo were out with concussion protocol. Carter, who was in a boot, has a foot injury that will keep him out for "two to three week, potentially the season," head coach Blake Anderson said.
Tafisi exited the game with what Anderson called a "neck and arm and nerve issue," and starting defensive end Daniel Grekiak went down late in the fourth quarter, too.
"A lot of people went down," linebacker AJ Vongphachanh said after the game on Saturday.
Several other players, including defensive tackle Poukesi Vakuata, who is battling a foot injury, played through pain.
Keep in mind, the Aggies already lost four contributing players — Bonner, Kyle Van Leeuwen, Seni Tuiaki and Phil Paea — who all suffered season-ending injuries earlier in the year.
Between the missing pieces and effort to mitigate injuries, the depth chart has opened up, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Against Wyoming, freshmen defensive lineman Bo Maile and Enoka Migao, and freshman linebackers Sione Moa and Max Alford all played meaningful snaps on Saturday.
"We did (run) out of bodies, and you could see it down the stretch," Anderson said. "Young guys on the field that just hadn't played much."
So, yeah, the Aggies (3-5, 2-2 Mountain West) are a bit short handed as they enter the bye week. Fortunately for the team, they get a second bye week before the final four games.
"We need it," Anderson said. "It comes at a good time. We've gotta get fresh and healthy and try to make a run down the stretch."
The most critical thing, arguably, is getting Legas back and healthy. In Legas' two full games, the Aggies averaged 30 points and 403 yards of offense. In six games without Legas, Utah State averaged 15.5 points per game and 331.5 yards per game. There is no question Legas' mobility, passing accuracy and decision-making is a game changer for the offense.
Running back Calvin Tyler Jr.'s highest yards per average games came in the BYU and Air Force games with Legas at quarterback; and two of receiver Brian Cobbs' three top reception games were in the same games.
Defensively, giving Tafisi and Vaughns time to heal, while resting everyone else may offer some rejuvenation to a defense that looked exhausted against Wyoming.
While the path to the Mountain West title game is more cumbersome than Main Street in Logan at rush hour, bowl aspirations are in reach if the Aggies play their best football in November. Games against lowly New Mexico and Hawaii are must wins, but they need to upset either San Jose State or Boise State to get there.
"The next thing on the table is to find a way to win three games to get there," Anderson said. "We've got four opportunities to do it. If you do that, then you put yourselves in a position to make this thing kind of crazy down the stretch. We need help, obviously, we need some (teams) in the league to beat each other up a little bit (to win the division), but that's what happened a year ago and it got a little crazy down the stretch."
"We can only control what we can control at the end of the day," Vongphachanh said. "So we're gonna have to learn from this build off of it, and hope for the best."
If the team is as depleted as it was on Saturday night, things won't work out in its favor; but if they return to form, a 15th bowl appearance from the program is still in the picture.
