Alabama football vs. Utah State: Score prediction, scouting report
Blake Anderson put together a remarkable first season as coach of Utah State football.
In 2021, he took the Aggies to their best season ever with a school-record tying 11 wins and the program’s first Mountain West Championship. Utah State dominated No. 19 San Diego State 46-13 and finished the year ranked No. 24 in the USA TODAY Coaches poll.
The year before Anderson’s arrival, the Aggies went 1-5.
In 2022, Anderson aims to build on the strong first season. He did so in Week 0 as Utah State beat UConn 31-20, but Week 1 brings a whole other level of opponent: No. 1 Alabama.
The Aggies beat each of the last two Power 5 opponents it faced (Washington State and Oregon State), but it hasn’t had a Power-5 test like this one.
Utah State (1-0) will face No. 1 Alabama (0-0) at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.
Here's a look at the Aggies.
Experienced quarterback
Graduate senior Logan Bonner has been around college football for quite a while.
He was on Arkansas State’s roster from 2016-20, playing in 24 games and making 15 starts.
Then Bonner transferred to Utah State in 2021 and started 14 games and tallied 3,694 yards for the second-most offensive yards in school history. He finished with 3,628 passing yards for 36 touchdowns with 12 interceptions. The yardage and touchdowns were both school records.
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He’s been around so long he’s already played Alabama before. Bonner faced the Crimson Tide in 2018 when he was a quarterback at Arkansas State. He went 6-for-14 with 53 yards with 28 rushing yards.
“The quarterback's back, who's a really good player,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said Monday. “They were one of the most effective passing teams in the country a year ago.”
Bonner completed 20 of 29 passes for 281 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions against UConn.
A vulnerable run defense
One game doesn’t define a defense, but Utah State’s ability to stop the run wasn’t encouraging in its first matchup of the season.
The Aggies surrendered 245 yards on the ground for an average of 6.3 yards per rush. UConn sophomore running back Nathan Carter ran for 190 yards on 20 carries for an average of 9.5 yards per carry.
If Utah State can’t clean up its run defense, Alabama’s running backs could have a field day.
Jahmyr Gibbs is expected to be electric for the Crimson Tide this season, and that very well could start Saturday if Utah State’s run defense struggles again.
An opportunistic defense
Alabama will need to make sure it takes good care of the football early, especially as it tries to shake off any rust that can come from playing the first game of a season.
Utah State forced three turnovers against UConn. Two of those were interceptions as Hunter Reynolds and Ike Larsen picked off the UConn quarterback. The third turnover was an interception.
"I think one of the big things about first games and playing a team like this — this team creates a lot of negative plays,” Saban said. “They do a really good job of stunting and pressuring. That's been kind of their forte. They were one of the leading teams in the country last year in tackles for loss and creating negative plays.”
Score prediction
Alabama 45, Utah State 13: These won’t be the Aggies who give the Crimson Tide the biggest challenge this season. That comes in October. As long as Alabama plays clean, disciplined football, the talent gap is too big for Utah State to make it competitive over four quarters.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football vs. Utah State: Score prediction, scouting report
