Six things to know for Utah State’s homecoming game against Air Force

LOGAN – Utah State’s return to Mountain West play this week features one of the toughest conference foes it’ll face all season. Air Force garnered 10 first-place votes in the preseason Mountain Division poll and are living up to that billing. The Falcons are 4-1 this season with its only loss being on the road against a tricky Wyoming team. Meanwhile USU, who got three first-place votes in that same poll, are 1-4.

The Aggies will need to continue the improvements they’ve shown in the last two weeks to get their first win in more than a month.

Game Info

  • Kickoff: 5 p.m. MT
  • Location: Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium
  • TV Broadcast: FS1
  • Aggie GameDay Coverage on KVNU (102.1 FM/610 AM & KVNU mobile app) & simulcast on 106.9 The FAN (106.9 FM / 1390 AM & 106.9 The FAN mobile app): 3:30 p.m. MT
  • KVNU Aggie Call (102.1 FM/610 AM, KVNU mobile app + 106.9 FM / 1390 AM The FAN, 106.9 The FAN mobile app): Immediately after game ends

Injury Update

In addition to losing Logan Bonner for the year which added to the growing pile of season-ending injuries on this USU squad, the Aggies were without starting left tackle Alfred Edwards at BYU. The team also had running backs Calvin Tyler Jr. and Robert Briggs get banged up at times throughout the game. Tight end Broc Lane suffered a hamstring injury on a 37-yard catch that was called back by a penalty.

Anderson said he expects both Tyler and Briggs to be at “full speed.” He said Edwards “looks like he’ll be ready to go this week.” Lane missed the remainder of the BYU game after his injury. On Monday Anderson said Lane is “questionable” for Saturday’s game.

Mountain West title run still in the cards

Though Utah State sits at 1-4 this season, plenty of hope remains for a solid run toward the top of the Mountain West standings. Not just because it’s mathematically possible, but because a weaker field has left the door open for an improving Aggie team to make a late run.

“I think it’s wide open,” Anderson said of the Mountain West. “You look across the board and everybody’s struggling to find consistency. If we can be that team that can click and start doing that on a weekly basis then who knows what this group is capable of.”

USU lost its conference opener to UNLV, but a win over a 4-1 Air Force team – which figures to be a top team in the Mountain Division – would go a long way in repairing the damage done by that opening loss. But losing this week could spell the end of any hopes.

“Conference play is really, really here in a way that, having lost to UNLV, we just don’t have the luxury of having games drop,” Anderson said.

Triple-Option always a unique challenge

Once a more popular offense, the triple-option is rarely used in Division I college football anymore. At the FBS level, the service academies – Army, Navy and Air Force – are the flag-bearers for that style of offense. The rarity of that style of offense is something that works in its favor for a team like Air Force.

“Playing Air Force is much different from playing anybody else,” said USU defensive lineman Hale Motu’apuaka. “It’s going to be a war [in the trenches]. It’s very nasty. It’s very physical. You’ve just got to bring it and compete with them. Air Force is always a physical team to play, especially the O-line.”

Anderson said that in his experience in facing option-based offenses “you find out very quickly if your plan’s gonna work or not.”

“There’s games that (the score is) 14-13, it’s 13-10. There’s games that it’s 62-58 and I’ve been in both of those. Typically, defensively, you put together a plan you go in and if you execute it well and you can keep it to a low-scoring game, then man you’re excited.”

Anderson is 3-1 against option offenses as a head coach. He faced Georgia Southern’s “Veer” offense under Chad Lunsford three times while at Arkansas State with a 2-1 record and won at Air Force last year in his first season with the Aggies.

Aggies still working on turnovers, even with new QB

Utah State is dead last in FBS – 131st – in turnovers lost with 11 of those giveaways being interceptions and four being fumbles. Last week, with Cooper Legas making his first start, the Aggies didn’t fare any better than previous weeks. Legas lost one fumble and threw two interceptions. He also had a third pick, but it was called back due to a penalty on the defense.

Anderson was asked about those turnovers and gave his analysis on those plays by Legas.

“The fumble was bad ball security. Can’t happen,” Anderson said. “First interception, ball was tipped. Nothing he can do about that. He was trying to put the ball in the right place. The interception late in the game…honestly it’s a bad decision on his part. You get into a two-minute type scenario, drop eight, the windows are going to be smaller. You’ve got to be very deliberate about what you’re doing. Wideouts need to really work with him and try to find open grass and then he’s got to be willing to check the ball down there. There were two other available places to go with the ball that would have been better decisions than the one he took.”

After all of that, Anderson said Legas will get better, saying that at BYU he “just struggled to move through his progressions at the pace he needed to in that environment” and that more live snaps would help alleviate those issues.

USU needs to play keep-away

Dominating time of possession is a path to victory in pretty much every game. Teams tend not to score enough points if they don’t have the ball enough. But for a team like Air Force, keeping the ball away is a huge deal. And in Utah State’s history, the trends really show just how much limiting the plays by Air Force make a difference in success.

In Utah State’s matchups against Air Force since joining the Mountain West, the Aggies are 2-1 when holding the Falcons below 55 rushing attempts, and allowed just 21.0 points on average in those contests. On the flip side of that number, USU is 2-4, allowing 36.0 points per outing. Those two wins came in 2018 and 2021, which just so happen to be the two best offenses in program history.

It’s unlikely that the Aggies can win in a shootout like last year’s game. They’ll need to keep the Falcons from moving the chains too often, but also keep drives going themselves. Utah State was able to put one half of ball-possession offense together at BYU, a full game of that could deliver the Aggies a victory on Saturday.

Legas recruited by Air Force back in high school

Legas got attention from all three service academies during his recruiting process, with all three making scholarship offers according to Rivals.com. Air Force head coach Troy Calhoun said they “liked (Legas) a lot” when recruiting him.

“He was a really talented player in high school,” Calhoun said on Tuesday. “He moves really, really well.”

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