From the Notebook: USU wins impossible game

Utah State offensive lineman Weylin Lapuaho (61) celebrates a touchdown by the team against BYU during the first half of an NCAA college football game Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, in Provo, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Utah State’s win over Colorado State on Saturday is the kind of game head coach Blake Anderson said are “games you typically lose” and yet, here we are. The Aggies are now 3-4 on the season, 2-1 in Mountain West play and are that much closer to a bowl game. Check out the recap of the game if you haven’t, but here are some particulars from the game that are of interest.

Strange game as always against Colorado State

Things never seem to be normal when it comes to Utah State playing Colorado State. In 2018 and 2021, the games came down to literally the last play and you could even include 2020 where the game was cancelled not due to the pandemic, but by a strike by the players.

It’s hard to top cancelling a game due to player revolt or a pair of oddball last-second plays that determine games and seasons, but this year’s matchup certainly took its best swing at things. The Rams were already down to their own third-string quarterback, a walk-on true freshman, and through bad injury luck the Aggies eventually trotted out a true freshman of their own at QB.

Calvin Tyler Jr. a “calming presence” in run game

Calvin Tyler, Jr. has largely been overlooked in the turmoil surrounding the quarterback position and even troubles in the wide receiver corps. But he’s been quietly plugging along and been solid in his role. He’s run for 100 yards three games in a row (see below for more on that) and now has 634 yards this season.

“He’s running the ball better and better each week,” Anderson said. “He’s a calming presence. He’s not a real vocal guy but he doesn’t seem to get rattled. And right now, in a game like tonight that’s pretty important.”

A huge factor in that calming presence is Tyler’s ability to get first downs. Tyler has gained 31 first downs on the ground, good for T-22nd among all FBS players. Just over 21 percent of all of USU’s first downs have come as a direct result of Tyler’s legs.

Aggies finally getting to the QB again

Prior to this week, the Aggies held the ninth-worst sack total in FBS (tied with five other schools) with just seven quarterback takedowns. With the three sacks, all courtesy of Daniel Grzesiak, USU jumped up to T-112th in total sacks and are 109th in sacks per game. Last year the Aggies averaged 2.3 sacks per game, good for a decent 60th in FBS. For Anderson, it was a welcome relief to have his pass rush back against an Air Raid offense.

“It was needed,” Anderson said. “The ability for our pass rush to show up was something that was really important.”

This trend of getting, or not getting, to the quarterback will be interesting to monitor going forward with Byron Vaughns leaving the game with a head injury and maybe missing more time. But the fact that USU kept getting to the QB after Vaughns left is a testament to its other rushers, in particular Patrick Joyner who filled in for Vaughns.

Unsportsmanlike penalties

At the end of Gurvan Hall’s eventually-negated pick six return, he dove into the end zone earning an unsportsmanlike penalty that added insult to injury since a holding on the return took the six points off the board. If anything personifies Utah State’s penalty issues, it would be that single play alone.

The Aggies rank 130th in penalties (128th in per-game penalties) and 131st in yards penalized (in case you didn’t know, there are 131 FBS schools) which essentially puts them at the bottom of the heap when it comes to avoiding yellow laundry.

Not helping this very bad and very impactful trend in penalties is Utah State’s penchant for earning Unsportsmanlike Conduct penalties. The Aggies have nine (NINE!) of this, the most unavoidable penalty in existence. Throw out the 135 yards lost to these penalties and USU shoots in the right direction on the penalties leaderboard (only to 124th in total penalties but all the way to 106th in penalty yards).

Something Anderson would do well to do is talk to his players about celebrations since four of these nine unsportsmanlike penalties have come on USU touchdown plays. Spotting the team 15 yards on the kickoff isn’t a great way to keep the opponent from responding.

By The Stats

This section is a little new, but it will be a part of this series going forward. It’s a compilation of interesting statistical tidbits from the game or trends that continued in the game. Enjoy.

  • Running back Calvin Tyler, Jr. ran for 129 yards, his third straight 100-yard game (109 vs Air Force, 104 at BYU). Tyler is the first Utah State player to run for 100-plus yards in three straight games since Kerwynn Williams in 2012 (Williams did it four straight times to end the 2012 season).
  • Tyler is averaging 90.6 yards per game through seven games this season. At this pace, he’d rush for 1,086 yards by the end of the regular season. That would make Tyler the 13th player in USU history to run for 1,000 yards, joining Tom Larsheid (1960), Roy Shivers (1965), Louis Giammona (1975, ’76), Rick Parros (1977, ’79), Roger Grant (1990, ’91), Abu Wilson (1995), Demario Brown (1999), Emmett White (2000, ’01), Robert Turbin (2009, ’11), Kerwynn Williams (2012), Joey Demartino (2013) and Darwin Thompson (2018).
  • Tyler has 139 rushing attempts this season, which ranks ninth in FBS. At his current pace of 19.9 attempts per game, Tyler would finish the regular season with 238 rushes, which would rank just outside of the top 10 in school history (Emmett White’s 242 in 2000 ranks 10th).
  • Four different Utah State players attempted a pass against Colorado State — Cooper Legas (9-for-12), Levi Williams (2-for-9), Bishop Davenport (3-for-9) and Terrell Vaughn (0-for-1). The last time the Aggies had that many different players with at least one pass was at Alabama in 2004. In the 48-17 loss, Travis Cox (16-for-27), Leon Jackson III (1-for-4), Matt Crivello (0-for-1) and Rod McNeal (0-for-1) all had pass attempts.
  • Throughout the 2022 season, seven different Utah State players have attempted a pass — Logan Bonner (62-for-109), Cooper Legas (53-for-83), Levi Williams (4-for-16), Bishop Davenport (3-for-9), Stephen Kotsanlee (1-for-1), Brian Cobbs (0-for-1) and Terrell Vaughn (0-for-1). It’s the most players in a single season with a pass attempt since 2000. In that season, there were also seven Aggies to attempt a pass. They were Jose Fuentes (194-for-368), Jeff Crosbie (21-for-49), Steve Mullins (1-for-3), Brian Benza (1-for-2), David Fiefia (1-for-1), Emmett White (0-for-1) and Ky Oday (0-for-1).
  • Utah State passed for just 138 yards in the win over CSU. Since 2000, the Aggies are now 20-36 in games where they pass for 140 or fewer yards. Oddly enough, though, in the four lowest passing of the century, USU is 3-1.
  • Defensive end Daniel Grzesiak recorded 3.0 sacks against Colorado State. He’s the seventh USU player since 2000 (when sacks officially became a statistic in the NCAA) to have at least three sacks in a single game. He joins Nick Vigil (2x), Ben Calderwood, John Chick, Nick Heninger, B.J. Larsen and David Woodward.
  • With the eight tackles for loss Utah State had against Colorado State, the Aggies now rank T-11th in FBS in total tackles for loss (49) and are T-16th in tackles for loss per game (7.0). At that current pace, USU would finish the regular season with 84 team tackles for loss, ranking sixth in program history (the 2014 Aggies hold the record with 114, followed closely by the 110 of both 2013 and 2021).

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