FOOTBALL: Aztecs suffer blowout to BCS hopeful Utah

If the lopsided stat sheet didn’t tell the whole story of Saturday night’s game, then Utah senior Brent Casteel’s postgame reaction certainly did.

The wideout, who caught three passes for 53 yards, strolled into the locker room singing the lyrics to a popular T.I. song.

“No one on the corner have swagga like us,” Casteel crooned.

After a 63-14 drubbing of the San Diego State football team, it would be hard to argue with Casteel’s statement. The No. 7 Utes walked all over SDSU and picked up their Mountain West Conference-leading 11th victory of the year.

“I feel extremely bad for this football team,” head coach Chuck Long said. “I feel bad for the guys on this team who have to go through something like this. This is a tough night.”

For about 10 seconds, it appeared the Aztecs had a chance against the powerhouse Utes. Senior running back Tyler Campbell hit a hole on the second play of the game and burst up the middle for an 18-yard gain. Unfortunately for SDSU, though, he dropped the football near midfield. Utah recovered it and marched 53 yards on the ensuing drive to gain a 7-0 lead it would never relinquish.

“No matter what happens on the offense, it’s our job to stop them,” senior linebacker Russell Allen said of his defense. “Obviously, we didn’t do that nearly enough tonight.”

The Aztecs didn’t even come close to stopping a Utah attack that came into the game averaging nearly 400 total yards and 33.8 points per game. The Utes (11-0, 7-0 in MWC play) didn’t punt once, compiled 520 total yards and scored nine touchdowns.

“I feel like we were more competitive last week against BYU than we were this week,” Long said after the game. “We just struggled to stop them.”

Utah quarterback Brian Johnson had a career night against SDSU, throwing for 283 yards and five touchdowns on 27 completions. His five scores put him in second place for the most touchdown passes thrown by a Utah quarterback in a single game.

“He was pretty good and accurate on his throws,” senior defensive back Corey Boudreaux said. “He was picking us apart. He was definitely throwing the ball well and putting it in good places.”

Johnson’s counterpart, Aztec quarterback Ryan Lindley, had a far poorer night. The redshirt freshman completed just 23 of his 41 pass attempts for 247 yards. Lindley’s two fourth-quarter interceptions were both returned for touchdowns by defensive back Deshawn Richard, who wasn’t even listed on the Utes’ two-deep depth chart.

“This is the biggest challenge of my career,” Long said of trying to coach this SDSU squad. “We’re fighting to get better, especially our younger guys. We’re trying to build their confidence, but at the same time we’re losing games.”

The 49-point loss drops the Aztecs to 1-10 and 0-7 in MWC play this season. SDSU has now lost seven straight games by an average margin of 33 points. If the Aztecs don’t beat UNLV next Saturday at Qualcomm Stadium, they will finish the season winless in conference play for the first time since 1960.

“We’re hurting,” Long said. “We’re hurting mentally and physically and I have to find a way to get this team back.”

Utah, on the other hand, is one win away from a probable BCS bid. If the Utes defeat in-state rival BYU next week at home in Salt Lake City, they will likely beat out Boise State and Ball State for the lone at-large bid into the Bowl Championship Series. It would be just the second BCS birth ever for Utah.

Comments

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Verify you are human:

Enter the characters in the image above: