By Gregg Xenakes, Associate College Football Editor
2009 SEASON IN REVIEW: The beginning of the 2009 season saw a new leader in Logan as Gary Andersen made the move from being an assistant with the Utah Utes to being the lead man with the Aggies. Andersen took over a program that
was just 3-9 in 2008 and had won a total of just five games since the middle
of the 2006 campaign, which meant nothing was going to be easy for the former
Junior College All-American.
Nevertheless, Andersen managed to get some spirited play out of his crew the
first few weeks of the season as they fought hard in losses against both Utah
and Texas A&M on the road, a pair of meetings that had disaster written all
over them. The team's first home game of the campaign provided for a 53-34
victory against Southern Utah, and in fact all but one of the next five
outings saw the Aggies play tight matchups that were decided by four points or
less. Unfortunately, during that stretch only a 23-21 final versus a visiting
Louisiana Tech group fell in favor of USU, but at least the Aggies showed that
the rest of the Western Athletic Conference was not going to run all over
them.
After the LaTech win the Aggies almost knocked off Fresno State (31-27) and
played tough against Hawaii (49-36) in a loss out in Honolulu before dumping
San Jose State for a 24-9 victory back at home. Getting the jump on Boise
State wasn't expected and it failed to come to fruition, yet USU scored a
moral victory by delivering three touchdowns against one of the strongest
defenses in the nation. Feeding off their positive experience against the
Broncos, the Aggies turned around and logged a 52-49 win against Idaho in a
thrilling season finale that represented the team's first road win since 2007.
Coach Andersen has his work cut out for him, but at least the bar has not been
set all that high by most of his predecessors over the last few decades. In
fact, you have to go back to Phil Krueger in the 1970s who finished with a
three-year mark of 21-12 to find the last head coach to finish his tenure with
the Aggies with a record better than .500. One of the more troubling notes is
the one that says the Aggies have won back-to-back games only once since 2003,
not to mention the squad has not finished above .500 since going 6-5 in 1996.
2010 ANALYSIS:
OFFENSE: "From an offensive standpoint our goal is very, very simple, it's our
team goal...it's to get better at what cost us games last year," states coach
Andersen in the simplest terms. "We moved the ball up and down the field, at
times we struggled in the red zone, at times we had untimely turnovers that
really hurt our football team...and those mental penalties, we've got to
improve in that area to be able to take the next step."
Moving the ball up and down the field again this season for the Aggies will be
quarterback Diondre Borel who led the WAC and was ranked 15th in the nation in
total offense last year with an average of 278.6 ypg. With more than 1,000
career rushing yards, Borel is a threat to take off every time he accepts the
ball from center and that can only be an advantage for the signal-caller as he
steps up in 2010 and tries to become that player that coach Andersen knows he
can be.
"I think that Diondre Borel has prepared himself for a tremendous senior
year...he carries himself as a leader on the football team and its much more
natural for him to be a leader on and off the field which is a big step for a
quarterback."
While Borel will get his share of yards running the ball, the primary ball
carrier for the Aggies will again be Robert Turbin who was third in the WAC in
2009 with 108 ypg, a stat that was good enough to earn him All-WAC Second Team
honors. In addition, Turbin is also a tremendous safety valve coming out of
the backfield, having led all league running backs with 34.8 ypg through the
air.
Making the work of Borel and Turbin that much easier is four returning
starters along the offensive line, a mix of juniors and seniors who have
already worked together to get this offense moving in the right direction.
With time in the pocket provided by those linemen, Borel will have plenty of
opportunity to seek out any one of several wideouts such as Eric Moats who
showed potential last season with his 27 receptions, yet scored just one TD
over 12 games.
DEFENSE: As someone who was a very successful defensive coordinator at Utah
before taking over the Aggies, coach Andersen is the first to admit that his
unit did not realize its full potential last year.
"We played hard and our kids ran to the football, they competed but, we were
not good on defense. We have got to get better and I put that 100 percent on
me. That's my background, that's where I have spent most of my coaching career
and I will focus in heavy on that this year."
Coach Andersen will be leaning heavily on junior linebacker Bobby Wagner, the
lone All-WAC First Team member for the Aggies a season ago. Wagner led the
league in total tackles with 115 and averaged close to nine stops per contest
when suiting up against league foes. Fellow juniors Kyle Gallagher and Junior
Keiaho will also be patrolling the middle of the field for the Aggies
The secondary is deep in senior leadership, headed by cornerbacks Chris Randle
and Curtis Marsh, so hopefully that will help turn around a group that ranked
101st in the country last year with almost 250 ypg allowed through the air.
Unfortunately, not all of the blame can be laid at the feet of the secondary
because the run defense was just as guilty a year ago when it permitted
opponents to crank out 205.5 ypg, leaving the unit 110th in the country. Put
it all together and the Aggies were 113th in total defense and 107th in
scoring defense, allowing 34.0 ppg.
SPECIAL TEAMS: All of the kicking duties will again belong to Peter Caldwell,
unless there's a drastic change in plans. The senior was called upon for 69
punts a year ago and averaged a solid 42.2 yards. While he landed 27 of those
kicks inside the 20-yard line, he also saw 11 land for touchbacks and another
two were blocked, so there's certainly room for improvement for him and his
protectors. Junior Stanley Morrison, the top returning receiver for the Aggies
after reeling in 33 passes for 616 yards and three touchdowns, will also be
on-call for punt returns after averaging eight yards per opportunity last
year. Kerwynn Williams averaged 25.1 yards per kickoff return in '09, thanks
in large part to one 75-yard effort, and will again get a chance to break one
for the end zone this fall.
OUTLOOK: The Oklahoma Sooners pose a huge threat to the Aggies when the two
teams kick off the new season against each other. Except for a date with Idaho
State a week later, the non-conference schedule for Utah State is far from
easy, given that the team also clashes with San Diego State and BYU from over
in the Mountain West Conference. Granted, SDSU is by no means a dominating
team, but having to play that game on the road, sandwiched between the WAC
opener versus Fresno State and the meeting with the Cougars at home, will
still be enough of a test to rattle USU. Having a pair of open dates on the
calendar will certainly aid in recovery for beaten and bruised players, but do
the Aggies really want to take off the last week of November just so they can
travel to Boise State the first week of December? By then the postseason
picture should be rounding out and chances are Utah State will not be part of
it.