The promise shown by Utah State against Iowa? The Aggies made good on it against Idaho State with a record performance

The last time Utah State football scored 78 or more points in a game was over 100 years ago, when the Aggies defeated Idaho State 136-0 in 1919.

Saturday night in USU’s home opener against the 2023 version of the Idaho State Bengals, Utah State made program history, scoring — you guessed it — 78 points in a thoroughly dominant 78-28 victory.

The 78 points scored by USU were the fourth-most in a game in program history, the three higher scoring games all coming in the early 1900s.

Simply put, the 2023 Aggies did something Saturday in Maverik Stadium that no Utah State team in the modern era has.

Not during the Gary Andersen era. Or the Matt Wells era. Or the Blake Anderson era, until Saturday night.

It doesn’t stop there, though. You don’t score 78 points and not do some other historic things along the way.

The Aggies scored a program-record 44 points in the second quarter, the most points scored in a single quarter ever in Utah State history, at least since Aggie football stats have been recorded.

Utah State’s 51 first-half points were the second-most ever in school history, trailing only the 52 first half points scored against New Mexico in 2018, during the pinnacle of the Jordan Love era.

At one point during the second quarter, Utah State scored 20 points in a 71 second span, thanks to two touchdown receptions — one by Terrell Vaughn, the other by Jalen Royals — and a pick-six, courtesy of safety Ike Larsen.

When head coach Blake Anderson learned that all he could say was, “Is that right? Cool.”

Added Idaho State head coach Cody Hawkins, “What a second quarter they had. Pretty much everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong, but it was a great opportunity for our program to have some teachable moments both on offense, defense and special teams.”

There’s more, but when you get away from all the records, Utah State’s offense was balanced and dynamic, while the defense showed playmaking ability and much-needed adaptability.

The Aggies finished with 591 yards of total offense, 380 of which came on the ground. Of that, 279 came from three running backs — Robert Briggs, Davon Booth and Rahsul Faison — all of whom rushed for at least 83 yards and a touchdown.

They of course were quick to credit the offensive line, with Briggs saying, “I saw nothing (all night) but a big hole.”

Utah State played three quarterbacks, two of whom — starter Cooper Legas and his backup Levi Williams — finished with quarterback ratings of 194.4 or better.

Both quarterbacks had only two incompletions each, while also throwing a combined four touchdown passes.

Vaughn led a group of wide receivers who hauled in four touchdowns and caught 22 of 28 pass attempts on the night.

Vaughn himself had 11 receptions for 73 yards, at one point threatening a USU record set in 1972 for receptions in a game (that record is 15).

On defense, the Aggies forced three turnovers — a major point of emphasis following the loss to Iowa — including a pair of pick-sixes, the one by Larsen, another by UCF transfer Jaiden Francois.

The team also committed only four penalties, though Anderson expressed that he hopes that number falls to zero at some point this season.

USU’s defense finished with eight tackles for loss and a sack, continuing the disruptive play shown against the Hawkeyes.

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Making the defensive showing all the more impressive, the offenses Utah State faced in back-to-back weeks could not have been more different. The Hawkeyes play a pro-style, run-focused game, while the Bengals have a Air Raid attack.

It took a quarter for the Aggies to adjust to the Air Raid, but after that things went pretty swimmingly.

“We for sure did a lot better,” safety Anthony Switzer said. “I still think we left a little bit on the table.”

Add everything together and it was the kind of game that doesn’t happen often. Especially not at the collegiate level.

“Does high school count? It happened back in high school,” Briggs said. “It was, it is amazing. It felt great. I like to put that many numbers on the board every time.”

The performance by the Aggies against the Bengals validated feelings of optimism that permeated Utah State football and its fanbase following the season-opening loss at Iowa last week.

Sure, the Aggies lost that game, but they competed with and at times out-performed a perceived Big Ten title contender.

On Saturday they did what good teams are supposed to do, that is beat inferior teams. And by beating the Bengals as convincingly as they did, the Aggies did what great teams do.

It was a step in the right direction for a Utah State team that is still figuring itself out.

“I made it very clear to them, what we were up against, that I felt we were the better team,” Anderson said. “But only if we performed like that and acted like that and carried ourselves the right way.

“... I had a lot of respect for Idaho State and it was up to us to put it away. I felt like they handled things maturely, had a great week of work. Guys were focused and we had tremendous energy coming out.”

Perspective and context matter, and the Bengals have been one of the worst FCS programs in the country for years now. Utah State was supposed to win the game.

But under Hawkins things appear to be improving in Pocatello. Moreover, the Aggies said all the right things following the record-breaking win.

They said they wouldn’t let it go to their head. That the final score didn’t matter. That there were mistakes to fix.

Anderson himself, in response to multiple questions, said repeatedly that the final score was misleading. That his team made plenty of mistakes that would need to be corrected, especially with Air Force next on the schedule, followed by a James Madison team that beat Virginia on Saturday and might be the favorite to win the Sun Belt Conference this season.

“What mistakes are we still making that we got away with?” Anderson said. “That’s the biggest question right now. We can’t let the score cloud our coaching and our technical teaching.

“... I love the athletes that we’ve put in the room (here). A lot of them made plays tonight that are going to help us. Guys made plays all over the place. It is really up to them. My anticipation is that we are going to be competitive every week.”

He added, “This is a great step, but it is one game that we were supposed to win.”

Unlike last season, though, specifically against an FCS opponent, the Aggies won the game they were supposed to.

And because of it, the potential that Utah State might have a good, maybe even great team in 2023 remains very real.