WAC Preview: Utah St. Aggies
July 1st, 2008 by Kevan Lee
The Utah State Aggies, traditional punching bags in a conference full of punching bags, are stuck on the road to nowhere. They are languishing in the slow lane with coach Brent Guy at the wheel of their metaphorical Kia Sportage of a football program.
Two wins last season was a twofold improvement over the prior year, but no one will be mistaking the Aggies for Boise State or Hawaii any time soon. This is the best picture I could find of the Aggies.
In fact, no one will be mistaking them for San Jose State, either. Utah State has a ways to go before they reach respectability, much less contention. Similarly, they have a ways to go before they become a breeding ground for viable fantasy football options. Their offense is sketchy; their skill players are depressing. Still, with enough digging, there may be a diamond in the rough.
Two Aggies are fighting for the starting quarterback spot this fall. Senior Sean Setzer has had setbacks with injuries, but if he’s healthy, he could provide the passing touch that the team needs. Setzer is competing with junior Jase McCormick, who saw limited playing time last year. This was probably a good thing since his limited playing time produced two touchdowns and five interceptions.
These two separated themselves somewhat in spring practice when the competition for the starting spot was a four-way battle. Some believe that a healthy Setzer gives the team the best chance to be productive, which is about as good as it could get for Utah State offensively. Still, he’ll need to hold off McCormick in spring practice in order to be the man for the Aggies’ August 30th opener at UNLV.
A potential strength of the Aggie offense could be its backfield duo of Derrvin Speight and Curtis Marsh, sophomore running backs who may split carries in 2008. Speight was the team’s leading rusher, relatively speaking, with 504 yards last year. Marsh showed some spark in spot play. Their success will largely be on their own shoulders considering the weak (literally and figuratively) offensive line in front of them. Lack of depth up front could lead to some long days for Speight and Marsh, days spent running into piles of defensive linemen three yards in their own backfield. Still, the offense will have to hang its hat on something. When the Aggies score—however infrequently that will be—there is a good chance that Speight and Marsh will be the ones falling exasperated into the end zone. A dark horse contender to consider is converted linebacker Derrick Cumbee, who may warrant a look by midseason.
Last season’s bright spot was WR Kevin Robinson, who posed a real threat at wide receiver and in the return game. Robinson is now gone, drafted in the sixth round by the Kansas City Chiefs. In his wake lies an obscure group of what’s-his-faces who will make the passing game more of an adventure than usual. The group of receivers includes Otis Nelson, Xavier Bowman, and Stanley Morrison, and any one of the three could emerge as the top wideout during the year. Of course, it should be noted that being the top wideout at Utah State is nothing to write home about. Robinson, who led the team in receiving yards last year, ended up with a total of 640 yards. If USU’s best player had that small of a statistical impact, there is no doubt that the new crop of receivers will have even less of one.
Expect the team’s leading receiver to come from the tight end position in the form of senior TE Rob Myers. However, there are three things to ponder before you go filling your WAC tight end quota with Myers. Consider who will be throwing to him, how often he’ll need to stay in to block, and why you would be drafting a Utah State player in the first place.
On special teams, Utah State quarterback Leon Jackson (yes, quarterback) was one of the WAC’s most effective punters last season. This made life a little less emasculating for kicker Peter Caldwell. With Jackson gone, Caldwell will take over the punting duties in addition to his job as placekicker (shower optional).
A more important loss is Robinson, who brought a serious threat to the return game. Whoever takes his place will most certainly be less effective. Conveniently enough, Utah State is much stronger on defense than offense. This is good because the defense will be on the field plenty. The Aggie “D” returns nine players from last year’s squad. Normally an encouraging statistic until you consider that last year’s defense gave up 34 points per game. Still, there are signs of improvement, and there is really nowhere to go but up. The leader of the defense will be senior linebacker Jake Hutton, a second-team All-WAC player last year. In front of him, the defensive tackles should be a strength with the addition of two sturdy JC transfers. Behind him, the secondary boasts serious depth. Of course, little of it will matter if the Aggies can’t pressure the high-flying WAC offensive passing attacks. Utah State recorded an average of one sack per game last year.
Conclusion
The world’s biggest optimist might note that the Aggies enter the 2008 season on a two-game winning streak, having slipped past New Mexico State and Idaho to end the season last year. However, that same optimist would probably not draft any Utah State players. Why would you consider drafting a Utah State player? Perhaps you owe Chris Cooley money. Maybe you don’t want to win in fantasy football. Whatever the reason, good choices are few and far between on the Aggie roster. Better save your roster spots.
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