Aggies looking for big road win at Washington

LOGAN – After coming up short in Salt Lake City against the University of Utah, the Utah State University (1-1) football team is looking to rebound against another Pac-12 opponent on the road. The Aggies will take on the University of Washington (1-1) in Seattle Saturday afternoon.

If USU does bounce back with a win, it will be by doing something that hasn’t been easy for the team. After more than a half-decade of close calls, Aggie fans are still waiting for their team to beat a P5 school on the road. It hasn’t happened yet, but they’ve come close. In 2010 it was a one-touchdown loss at No. 7 Oklahoma. In 2011 it took a late-game, last-minute comeback for defending national champion Auburn to beat the Aggies in the season opener. In 2012, USU came up short at Wisconsin due to a potential game-winning goal that missed. In 2013, the team lost at USC by three points and at Utah by four. Then there was the game just last week against the Utes, where head coach Matt Wells said he feels the team just “ran out of time.”

“That’s the way I felt,” he said. “I know our players felt like that. I thought they competed their tails off to the bitter, bitter end.”

There isn’t a whole lot of history between these two teams, they have only faced each other twice, and there isn’t an Aggie fan alive who remembers when the Huskies shut out USU 45-0 in 1904. The other game was played in 1998, and was a 53-12 loss for USU. In his career, Wells has never played or coached against Washington and said he doesn’t really know what to expect as far as the game-day atmosphere at Husky Stadium, but said he sees his week-three opponent as having young skill guys on offense and experience on defense.

One of the young offensive guys is freshman quarterback Jake Browning. In his first two games this season, Browning has completed 37-of-58 passes for 476 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He led his team to 49-0 victory last week against Sacramento State after losing to Boise State 16-13 in week one. Wells said Washington coach Chris Petersen must have a lot of trust in his quarterback’s play to name a true freshman a starter.

“To me, that makes you think highly of the kid as an opposing coach going in,” Wells said. “Because the guy knows what the heck he is doing at coaching quarterback.”

Wells said Browning has great arm strength and accuracy.

“You know the kid has toughness and grit, or he wouldn’t have won the starting job in training camp. I think there’s a couple of things I can assume about him and be pretty spot on, but I can see the physical skills on tape and he’s a very talented kid.”

Washington’s leading rusher, Myles Gaskin, is also a freshman. Gaskin has carried the ball 19 times for 151 yards, averaging 7.9 yards per carry. Defensively, the Huskies are allowing an average of 8 points and 274.5 yards of total offense each game. Senior offensive lineman Ben Wysocki/ played against the Husky defense before his transfer to USU from UCLA. He said the way to beat them will be to “come out fast against them and get them on their heels.”

“They’re a sound defense and they’re going to come out hard,” he said. “Their secondary is very talented, so we’re going to have to hit them in the mouth first.”

The Aggies will be getting back some additional help this week. Corner back Bryant Hayes, wide receiver Hunter Sharp and offensive lineman Tyshon Mosely will all be back after being suspended the first two weeks of the season for breaking team rules.

There has been some concern amongst Aggie fans about the health of quarterback Chuckie Keeton, but he is still expected to start. He took some hard hits against Utah and limped across the field, but never came out of the game. After the game Keeton simply said “I got hit, I’m good.” Wells gave a little more info.

“We checked him after every series and he kept getting cleared to go in,” he said. “And course, he wasn’t coming out.”

After Saturday’s game, the Aggies will get some rest before starting Mountain West play October 3.

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