‘TOUGHER THAN NAILS’: Weber State football trounces Utah State 35-7
-
- Weber State linebacker Simote Lokotui (13) and teammates celebrate after defeating Utah State 35-7 on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Logan. (Eli Lucero, The Herald Journal via AP)
-
- Weber State receiver Ty MacPherson (1) beats Utah State’s Andre Grayson (21) for what became a 62-yard reception in a game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Logan.
-
- Weber State safety Desmond Williams (0) returns an interception 33 yards for a touchdown against Utah State on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Logan. (Eli Lucero, The Herald Journal via AP)
-
- Weber State running back Damon Bankston (26) runs for a gain as Utah State’s Hunter Reynolds (27) pursues during a game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Logan.
-
- Weber State wide receiver Ty MacPherson (1) catches an 18-yard touchdown pass against Utah State on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Logan. (Eli Lucero, The Herald Journal via AP)
-
- Weber State running back Josh Davis (20) scores a 17-yard touchdown against Utah State in a game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022, in Logan.
LOGAN — At several moments, Saturday’s football game between Weber State and Utah State appeared like a classic good-FCS-versus-FBS game, or like a frequent March Madness game where the underdog lands some punches, leaves some opportunities empty and eventually, the other team withstands the push and slowly takes over.
The first part of that narrative played out in Logan, but the second part did not.
No. 16 Weber State dropped the hammer with a huge third-quarter sequence and earned a decisive 35-7 win over Utah State, the program’s second all-time win over an FBS opponent that saw the Wildcats outgain the Aggies from the start and eventually pull away.
“So proud of the players,” WSU head coach Jay Hill said. “They executed the game plan so well and they were tougher than nails tonight. They came with a purpose.”
It’s Weber State’s second all-time win over Utah State, the last coming in 1978. It’s also the program’s first win over an FBS team since 1993, a 47-30 beating of Nevada in the Wolf Pack’s second season at the I-A/FBS level after leaving the Big Sky.
“We got outcoached and outplayed. It’s that simple,” USU head coach Blake Anderson said. “They came with a great game plan and executed it. They had us off-balance all night on both sides of the ball. We dropped balls. We had penalties. We made mistakes. We played right into their plan. They did a great job. They earned it. Every bit of it. They’re celebrating down stairs and they deserve to.”
Though Weber State (2-0) held a yardage advantage of between 150-200 yards most of the night, the Wildcats struggled to reflect that discrepancy on the scoreboard. But that changed in the third quarter with a long-developing push followed by a strike of lightning.
Leading 13-7, WSU got the ball for its second possession of the third quarter at its own 14-yard line. Quarterback Bronson Barron scrambled for 5 yards on third-and-4, then hit Jacob Sharp on a 20-yard slant on a third-and-5. Then Barron took a designed QB draw on third-and-9 and found a wide-open field for 18 yards to the USU 31. Josh Davis picked up 7 yards around the outside on third-and-5. And on another third-and-5, Damon Bankston pushed and leaned for the needed 5 yards.
To finally find the end zone again, Weber State needed one more third-down conversion to go a perfect 6 for 6 on the drive, and the Wildcats got it. Barron threw a dart across the field to a fading Ty MacPherson, who hauled in a 9-yard touchdown pass over his shoulder in the end zone. It was 18 plays, 86 yards, and 9:29 off the clock to go ahead 19-7.
After a 274-120 yardage advantage in the first half netted only a 13-7 lead, it was a breakthrough moment for the Weber State offense still developing in Game 2 of Mickey Mental’s scheme and play calling, and trying to overcome two costly first-half interceptions.
“It’s the next play. I do what I did, and the guys trust me, I trust in myself. I just have to move on. You can’t dwell on those types of things,” Barron said. “It’s the next play, what can I do to help this team after I made that mistake. Fortunately, I was able to get the ball to playmakers and make up for that mistake.”
Weber faked the point-after attempt and punter/holder Jack Burgess dashed up the middle for a successful two-point conversion to make it 21-7.
Another key sequence followed that kept Utah State (1-2) from good field position and set up a defensive backbreaker: Burgess was flagged for a celebration penalty, pushing the ensuing kickoff back 15 yards. Sloan Calder boomed the kick to the left sideline at USU’s 10, and Colter May and Abraham Williams gave deft pursuit on a tackle that gave Utah State poor field position at its own 18.
Two plays later, USU quarterback Logan Bonner dealt his third interception of the night. Safety Desmond Williams jumped a route up the middle and picked it off cleanly, then looped around the left side untouched for a 33-yard touchdown, making it 28-7 with 2:43 left in the third quarter.
“Utah State’s known for coming back,” MacPherson said. “Eight games last year they came back on their opponents when they were down at half, but when we did that, I knew it was over. We clinched it with that.”
General sentiment was happiness for Williams, who has missed a lot of time with injuries but consistently makes big plays when he’s on the field.
“Pick-six, that’s big time, especially against this FBS team, their offense is really good,” linebacker Winston Reid said. “The fans were leaving at the beginning of the fourth quarter when it was 28-7, and that just gave us more energy. Pretty sweet.”
Utah State hardly threatened from there. Maxwell Anderson and Desmond Williams each recorded pass breakups to cause a turnover on downs, and Anderson did it again on the next series to help stop a fourth-down pass.
That second stop set Weber up at the USU 33. Davis converted a third-and-9 with a 12-yard rush and, two plays later, Barron hit MacPherson in the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown strike to make it 35-7.
“The game’s going to go back and forth a little bit. These guys won the Mountain West championship last year, they’re a good football team, they know how to move the ball, they know how to play good defense,” Hill said. “We knew it was going to be a battle and it was going to have to be taken. No one was going to give that game to us. The guys just kept going, kept grinding. Some things could’ve gone our way a little better in the first half, but didn’t. And they just kept fighting.”
It was a similar story as Williams for Davis, too, who rushed 18 times for 94 yards and a touchdown after missing his own chunks of time over the last two seasons. He was part of a key first-quarter sequence that kept Utah State from seizing control.
With a 3-0 score, USU’s Terrell Vaughn returned a kickoff 100 yards for a touchdown to put Utah State up 7-3 with 5:53 left in the quarter. Weber State answered when MacPherson beat his man up the left sideline and Barron dropped in a 62-yard throw to put Weber at the USU 17.
Davis gashed the defense for 17 yards up the middle on the next play and Weber was back in front 10-7.
It felt, over a sequence in the second quarter, that Utah State might take over.
The first part of that came when Barron hit Sharp on a 28-yard slant and run, then Sharp won a physical catch on a back-shoulder throw up the sideline for 25 more yards on the next play. But Weber had to settle for a field goal attempt which, though Kyle Thompson made two important field goals in the first quarter, was missed left from 47 yards.
The next time Weber had the ball, it drove to the USU 38 before Barron was crunched on a corner blitz and the ball landed in the hands of big Phillip Paea for an interception. He took the ball to the Weber 48 with 2:20 left in the half.
With a few pass completions and an 8-yard run from Calvin Tyler Jr. on fourth-and-1, Utah State was to the Weber 6. USU got a reset of downs on a defensive holding penalty called on Eddie Heckard with 22 seconds left that seemed to have USU ready to take a 14-13 lead into halftime.
But Heckard made a big pass breakup in the end zone by pushing a receiver out of bounds on a completed pass before he could get his feet down in the paint. On the next play, Bonner rolled to his left and had a man in the front of the end zone for an easy pitch-and-catch touchdown, but WSU’s Garrett Beck tipped the ball as he pursued Bonner and it went off course, and Maxwell Anderson picked it off.
Weber kneeled the ball to end the first half with a 13-7 lead still in pocket.
Utah State did not score offensively Saturday night. The Aggies totaled just 211 yards through 55 of the game’s 60 minutes until backup QB Cooper Legas led USU on a 14-play, 72-yard drive against many WSU backups that was stopped at the Weber 15 when Easton Payne wrapped up Legas on a fourth-down scramble.
Barron threw 11 of 22 for 202 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. Sharp hauled in 87 of those yards on four catches, and MacPherson totaled 89 yards on three catches, including the two touchdowns. Bankston added 18 carries for 53 yards as Weber State ran for 199 yards — only missing 200 due to negative-1 kneel downs to end each half.
Weber held Bonner to 12 of 31 for 120 yards and three interceptions. Legas was 4 of 9 for 37 yards and a pick. Heckard, Maxwell Anderson, Desmond Williams and Jalon Rock each recorded one interception. Utah State eked out 100 rushing yards before picking up 26 more on its final drive.
Beck led WSU with eight tackles. Reid and Desmond Williams each had six tackles. Brayden Wilson recorded WSU’s first sack of the season, taking down Legas on his first snap in the fourth quarter.
Weber State added six pass breakups to its four interceptions, playing toe-to-toe in man coverage against an FBS opponent.
“Those guys, Eddie, Max, they all played really well tonight,” Reid said of the secondary. “Those guys are really good and we can rely on them and be heavy on the run, us front seven.”
In the end, Weber State’s dominance was stunning, and it gave the program a breakthrough after many close calls.
The last four times a ranked Weber State played at Mountain West schools, the Wildcats came away with soul-crushingly close defeats. In 2009, WSU lost the opener at Wyoming 29-22, then lost 24-23 the next week at Colorado State after fumbling a snap to set up a game-winning field goal in the final seconds. In 2019, WSU dropped the opener 6-0 at San Diego State after Rashid Shaheed had a kick-return TD called back, then later lost 19-13 to Nevada.
“Preparation is everything. The most prepared team will win the game,” MacPherson said. “We had two extra days to prepare for these guys so we studied them like nobody’s business, we knew everything about these guys … We came out and we showed it.”
Weber State next returns home for a 6 p.m. kickoff Saturday, Sept. 17, hosting Utah Tech.