Utah State coach Chuck Shelton had said he was going to throw the kitchen sink at his players in their first Saturday scrimmage of the fall football practice season, and he did just that Saturday afternoon at Romney Stadium.
Shelton kept his players on the field about 21/2 hours just three days after full-contact practices started. He played first offense against first defense, and he put in the full kicking game.He may have wished he'd not done that. "The placekicking was atrocious," he said of a 1-for-5 performance. Doug Beach made the one, a 23-yarder. Shelton called the kicking the most disappointing thing about the scrimmage, particularly since that's his area of personal responsibility.
"We had to push ourselves to see where we are," he said of the all-out scrimmage that came about because the Aggies have so many veteran players. Ten of 11 starters return on offense, along with several players pushing them at positions, and among the 47 lettermen are 16 who were first-team, second-team or honorable mention All-Big West Conference players last year.
Beach was all-conference last year. So was punter Rusty Carlsen, who averaged 47.4 yards on eight punts Saturday.
While USU returns first- and second-team Big West running backs Roger Grant and Floyd Foreman, it was Sean Hampton who led the charge Saturday. He rushed 12 times for 71 yards.
"The story today might have been Hampton," said Shelton. "He cuts well, blocks well, he makes the big-yardage play, the big big-down play and he can catch. He's coming into his own as the football player we thought he would be."
Roger Grant, the No. 2 returning rusher in NCAA Division I-A, ran 18 times for 74 yards and a 7-yard touchdown. "That might have been as phenomenal a 7-yard run as could take place," said Shelton, but he added, "He's not as sharp as we need for him to be after missing spring football."
Grant had shoulder surgery last winter to repair a torn capsule.
Floyd Foreman, the No. 2 back, ran seven times for 49 yards, but his best play, an 84-yard punt return for score, was called back because of clipping in an area that wasn't instrumental in the run.
Starting quarterback Ron Lopez was 12-for-17 passing for 81 yards, a touchdown and an interception by Willie Jackson. Junior-college transfer Greg Angelovic was 6-for-14 for 81 yards but had three early passes batted down, twice by Todd Heberlien and once by Ruben Farias. Lex Stoehr was 5-for-7 for 74 yards and completed a 49-yard pass to Toney Jenkins, a junior wide receiver whose 3-for-84 receptions made him the top target of the day.
Shelton was unimpressed by the execution of his quarterbacks early in the game but said they improved later when they realized grinding it out on the ground would help. He said the problem with passing is often that offenses wait for the big pass to bail them out when the 3- and 4-yard runs are the key.
There was one injury. Freshman cornerback Donald Toomer dislocated his left elbow and will be out three to four weeks.