Know the Foe: Utah State at Wyoming
Oct. 21—Jason Turner, who has covered Utah State football for the Herald Journal in Logan since 2015, weighs in on what Wyoming can expect this weekend against the Aggies.
Utah State played three quarterbacks last weekend against Colorado State because of injury. What is the Aggies' quarterback situation going into this weekend?
We asked (coach) Blake Anderson about that Monday during a press conference. He's pretty forthright about injuries, but he said it was going to be day-to-day, and I really don't think he knew at the time.
Personally, I have to think (Cooper) Legas has a concussion, and I can't envision him being cleared to play this weekend. His backup, Levi Williams, had that right ankle taped up pretty heavily when he came back into the game against Colorado State, and he was hobbling around pretty good.
My gut is that he is questionable at best. I really think there's a good chance we're going to see Bishop Davenport again.
Davenport started the season as the fourth-string quarterback and was forced into playing the entire second half under center for the Aggies last weekend. What did you see out of the true freshman in the 17-13 win over the Rams?
Davenport looked great on those first two drives in the third quarter. They got a field goal on the first drive, and he had a 14-yard completion followed by a 15-yard completion to set them up in field goal range. Those were nice passes. They weren't terribly difficult routes, but he put the ball where it needed to be.
On the touchdown drive, he had a 20-yard run where he lowered his shoulder and trucked over a defender to get them inside the 10-yard line, and then, on third and goal, he kept the ball and made a guy miss. He's clearly athletic, and I think we all knew that going into the season, and we knew he was a dual-threat guy in high school in Texas.
Davenport came in looking confident, despite having no live reps in practice. The playbook was definitely limited for what they ran for him, but I think if he plays against Wyoming on Saturday, which I think will be the case, I think things will be opened up a little more for him with a full week of reps under his belt.
Wyoming quarterback Andrew Peasley played three seasons in Logan, and will lead the Cowboys against his former team this weekend. How have you seen him develop as a leader?
He's always had those explosive feet from the get-go. With Peasley, you've seen flashes of brilliance over the years. His game against Air Force last year, he was brilliant, and he played so well. But he's been up and down a little bit over the years.
I see his touchdown-to-interception ratio is great this year, but he's completed like 53% of his passes. The scheme is a lot different at Utah State than it is at Wyoming, but I think that was his M.O. here — he had flashes of brilliance, but had signs of inconsistency. But he never really had the starting job to himself here, so I don't know if it's really fair to compare.
On the defensive side, who are the biggest weapons that have emerged so far this season?
I think a few guys have emerged. At safety, Hunter Reynolds is in his second year with the program, and he's a graduate transfer from the University of Michigan. He was just recently named to a mid-season All-American team. He's the team's third-leading tackler, and is tied for first on the team with two interceptions and is tied for the team-high with six passes broken up.
Another guy is another transfer, MJ Tafisi, who's a middle linebacker that played at the University of Washington for four years. He didn't see a lot of action there, but he's Utah State's leading tackler now with 66 tackles in seven games. In four of his last five games, he's had over 10 tackles, so he's really coming on. He also leads the team in tackles for a loss with eight.
Daniel Grzesiak is a defensive end, and he's probably in Colorado State quarterback's nightmares because he had three sacks last weekend, along with three and a half tackles for a loss.
Byron Vaughns is definitely one of the best players on Utah State's defense, but he's in concussion protocol, and I really don't think the Cowboys are going to see him.
Calvin Tyler Jr. leads the offense with 634 rushing yards in seven games this year. How important will it be to get him going with a true freshman quarterback under center?
Tyler has been great the last three weeks. Once they made the change to a more mobile quarterback (after starting quarterback Logan Bonner had a season-ending injury last month), Tyler has been great in the (run-pass option) offense.
He's rushed for over 100 yards the last three weeks, and is probably averaging somewhere around 5.1 or 5.2 yards per carry in those games. He's looked good.
Wyoming upset the Aggies 44-17 last year in Logan. How much does that loss motivate the guys on this year's team?
I think the defense is especially going to be motivated. Air Force ran the ball all over them last year, and they threw the ball all over them when they put the ball in the air and scored 45 points last year and they gave up over 619 yards. The Aggies almost sliced that in half this year with 360 yards. The defense prepared really hard for that triple-option scheme for Air Force.
I don't know if that same level of preparation will go into Wyoming, but I guarantee the defensive coordinator, Ephraim Banda, has learned a lot from that game against Wyoming last year. I really think they're going to have a better defensive plan this year.
What do you expect to see out there Saturday night?
Honestly, I expect to see a dogfight. I think it's going to be pretty low scoring, maybe in the 20s for both teams, but I think it's going to be a one-possession game. I don't know who's going to win.
If (Legas) was the quarterback, and I knew he was going to be the quarterback, I would give the Aggies the slight edge. But I'll give Wyoming the slight edge based on the unknowns.
Alex Taylor covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at ataylor@wyosports.net or 269-364-3560. Follow him on Twitter at @alex_m_taylor22.
