BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner
Weber State defenders Jack Kelly (17), Maxwell Anderson (3) and Eddie Heckard (5) sack Western Oregon quarterback Kainoa Jones in a college football game Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022, at Stewart Stadium in Ogden. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner) <!–
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Second-year Utah State head coach Blake Anderson was equal parts right and wrong about what this weekend’s football game with Weber State will mean to the purple visitors heading up Sardine Canyon to play the Aggies.
“Weber State is going to come in this week with their hair on fire,” Anderson said. “This is the Super Bowl for a lot of players on that roster.”
It’s true because playing on the road in an FBS stadium is always a unique, fun experience for the players. It may also be true that some Utah natives on Weber’s roster could feel slighted by not getting an FBS opportunity from a school such as USU.
But it overstates the importance of the game, at least in terms of outcome. Because the FCS has a playoff, rather than the FBS bowl postseason, the Super Bowl for a four-time conference champ like Weber State comes in late November and into December when they vie for a conference title and begin the playoffs. In terms of the outcome, an FCS team beating an FBS team is a major boost for playoff qualification, but a loss — to be frank, the expected outcome in these matchups — does not impact that goal at all.
That’s why players and coaches focus on the process rather than the outcome, a process that Weber State hopes will pay dividends.
“I don’t think it’s much different … I’m going to treat it just like any other opponent,” WSU junior tight end Hayden Meacham said. “Even though it might be a bigger game, I’m going to prepare the same way each week so I can be the most consistent I can be, and I know a lot of my teammates feel the same way.”
Head coach Jay Hill likes to focus on the opportunities players have to show what they’re made of. And, if the game goes well, there’s a chance to win it at the end.
“It’s an opportunity to show that they can play football at a very high level,” Hill said. “It’s an opportunity to prove that they’re big-time players. I see a lot of opportunities in this. I see a lot of excitement in our guys over games like this. … It’s an opportunity for us to go in and execute at a high level against a very good team that, just a year ago, won the Mountain West Conference. This is one of the top teams out west.
“I love these opportunities. I did as a player and do as a coach because it’s out of these great opportunities that people have a chance to really shine.”
Weber State’s trip to Utah State is an interesting matchup because there’s still a lot to learn about each team. WSU debuted a new offense last week and has some kinks to work out. Utah State is trying to rediscover the big-play, quick-strike threat that made it so dangerous last year. The Aggies went on the road to Alabama last week in a game that revealed hardly anything except that Alabama is Alabama, and all but two or three other Division I teams are not.
Weber’s recent history at Utah State is not kind: a 45-6 loss in 2016 and a 70-6 loss in 2013. Once Hill built Weber State to a perennial top 25 team in 2017, the Wildcats have faced just two Mountain West foes since. In 2019, WSU took a 6-0 loss at San Diego State and a 19-13 loss at Nevada.
So, using defense and special teams, WSU will try to get in a similar dogfight as those 2019 games and give the offense a chance to make plays and perhaps steal a win.
MEET THE AGGIES
Seventh-year quarterback Logan Bonner leads the Utah State offense in his second season at the school. He’s plenty capable, having led the high-octane Aggies throwing for 3,628 yards with 36 touchdowns and 12 interceptions last season.
This season has been a tougher road as USU is replacing several big-time playmakers on Bonner’s side of the ball. The Aggies got rolling later in a Week 0 home matchup against UConn in which Bonner threw 20 of 29 for 281 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. USU’s 136 yards of offense at Alabama may not be super instructive.
Calvin Tyler Jr. and Robert Briggs have proved capable in USU’s rushing game. Tyler ran for 161 yards against UConn and Briggs added 85. Weber State’s front seven will have to at least approximate the success it had last week (Western Oregon rushed for negative yardage) to tamp down the scoring and stay in it.
Brian Cobbs, a graduate transfer from Maryland, seems to be the go-to pass catcher for Bonner. The 6-foot-2 receiver hauled in eight passes for 108 yards against UConn.
USU’s defense gives up 261 rushing yards per game. While 278 yards to Alabama may be neither here nor there, 245 yards to UConn was a surprise.
Linebacker MJ Tafisi (13 tackles, two for loss), cornerback Ajani Carter (12 tackles) and safety Gurvan Hall Jr. (12 tackles) lead Utah State in tackling, with linebacker Kaleo Neves and safety Hunter Reynolds each adding 10 tackles. Freshman safety Ike Larsen has emerged as a playmaker, totaling two interceptions, two QB hurries and seven tackles in two games this season.
ODDS & PREDICTIONS
Sportsbooks with lines on this game opened with Utah State as just a 4.5-point favorite. That’s now grown to 7.5 points. With an over-under of 58.5, that approximates a score prediction of a Utah State win at 33-26.
Jeff Sagarin, longtime college football computer ratings guru, ranks all of FBS and FCS together. His system ranks Weber State 122nd out of 261 Division I teams, and Utah State at No. 94. Using his predictive element and accounting for home-field advantage, Sagarin favors USU by 8.5 points.
Bill Connelly, another longtime CFB statistician now at ESPN, publishes weekly FBS predictions using his SP+ system. SP+ predicts a Utah State win by the score of 34-26 at 68% probability.
WEATHER
Weather predictions for Saturday call for sun and a high of 82 degrees in Logan. The forecasted temperature at 5 p.m. kickoff is 80 degrees, with sunset at 7:45 p.m. and temperatures in the mid- to upper-60s by the end of the game.
TV & RADIO
The Mountain West Conference’s digital online network, at themw.com/watch, will have the live video stream with Utah State’s crew of Scott Garrard on play-by-play and Kevin White as an analyst on the call. Weber State’s radio call goes out locally on 103.1 FM and online at 1031thewave.com, with Steve Klauke and Jerry Graybeal calling the game.