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LOGAN — The pregame atmosphere at Romney Stadium was intense and frenzied, with Utah State fans looking forward to finally climbing past a bitter in-state rival.
Then, BYU linebacker Kyle Van Noy intercepted a Utah State pass on the game’s first offensive play to give the Cougars a touchdown. And to top it off, Aggie quarterback Chuckie Keeton left in the first half with an injury — never to return.
Instead, the Aggies found out the ending of the script unchanged as BYU beat USU, 31-14. The climax to this year’s battle for the Wagon Wheel featured more disappointment and sadness than usual for the Aggies.
In his post game press conference, Utah State coach Matt Wells’ tone was consistently grim and subdued.
“It wasn’t the script that we had written or planned,” Wells said. “Right now we’re facing a lot of adversity. We’re going to have to find a way to regroup.”
It wasn't the script that we had written or planned. Right now we're facing a lot of adversity. We're going to have to find a way to regroup.
–Matt Wells
As sickening as the injury to Keeton was for the Aggies, the opening interception by Van Noy was just as bizarre for Wells.
“I had a flashback to 2007 when I was at New Mexico, Bryan Kehl had a pretty similar pick against us at New Mexico … it was a shock to everybody,” Wells said.
Besides the loss of Keeton a week before Utah State’s matchup with Boise State, the Aggies marked another loss to an in-state FBS team.
Wells said the loss to BYU hurt just as much as losses to Southern California and Utah.
“It doesn’t matter who the opponent is at the end,” he said. “Did we want to win? Absolutely ... But, to say we’re any more disappointed than the other two — no, absolutely not because we put the same amount of work in.”
The Aggies will have even more work to do now as backup quarterback Craig Harrison appears likely to be the starter for the foreseeable future.
Harrison completed 18 of 41 passes for 185 yards, and one touchdown. He also rushed for 38 yards.
Related:
Taysom Hill leads BYU past Utah State, 31-14
Taysom Hill threw three touchdown passes to Mitch Matthews, and linebacker Kyle Van Noy scored on an interception return to help BYU rout Utah State 31-14 on Friday night.A transfer from Snow College, Harrison is more of a prototypical drop-back passer, compared to the multifaceted talents of Keeton, but he expects the offense to maintain its core structure.
“Obviously, I’m no Chuckie Keeton,” said Harrison, who prepped at Grantsville High School. “But, I have faith in the coaches; I have faith in every player that we’ll be able to shape and mold the offense to my strengths. Obviously, the zone read isn’t a strength of mine, but I don’t think it’s something we’ll eliminate completely because it’s a very important part of our offense.”
Harrison also noted the need for more consistency by the offense.
“The biggest thing we need to do is sustain drives,” he said. “We’d get a first down, get a big play, and then we were fighting the chains from there on out, so it’s difficult to win games when you don’t score points.”
The Aggies will have a chance to pick up a big conference win next Saturday at home against Boise State.
“The biggest thing is, (BYU was an) in-state game so it hurts to lose, but the real goal is to win the Mountain West,” Harrison said. “That was the biggest thing, is conference, and what we want to do in conference is win the Mountain West.”
