Running back Roger Grant was near tears as he answered questions.
"This isn't an Aggie loss," said Grant. "This is my loss. I gave it away."Grant could think of nothing but his fumble at 12:35 of the fourth quarter. He seemed to have clear sailing to the end zone but was hit on the shoulders by Utah's Todd Lawson and lost the ball to the Utes' Pita Tonga. The score was 12-7, and the Aggies wouldn't have another good shot at scoring until Joe Jacobs' interception at midfield gave them a two desperation chances starting with 1:53 left in the 12-7 loss at Rice Stadium.
"It's a game-killer," Grant said perhaps remembering the fumble he'd made on an otherwise certain long touchdown last year at Fresno State. The Aggies settled for a 24-24 tie.
"He got us down there. What do you do?" said Aggie Coach Chuck Shelton about Grant's lost fumble Saturday night.
Aggie sophomore free safety Damon Smith begged to differ with Grant, trying to shoulder the burden himself.
With no time left in the first half and Utah State ahead 7-6, the Utes went long, and Smith got inside the receiver. Should he intercept or just bat it down? It was a judgment call. He tried to intercept, lost the ball to receiver Bryan Rowley for a 46-yard Frank Dolce completion, and Rowley lateraled as Smith tackled him - the Aggies later thought it was a forward lateral - to Greg Hoffman, who dragged Darius Bynum into the end zone for the game's final score.
"I could put that loss on my back," declared Smith. "It it weren't for that one play, it would be 7-6.""The ball hit us in the chest, I think," said Utah State Coach Chuck Shelton, subdued at yet another setback for his program. The promising 1990 Aggie team also started with a deflating loss to Utah, 19-0 in Logan, and it took Utah State until the Big West Conference began a month later to start feeling good about itself again.
"It bounced around," Shelton said.
"That's opportunity. You take advantage of opportunity, and you win.
"Credit Utah," Shelton said.
It had been a rough week for Grant, who missed practices with knee and back soreness and lost his starting job to Floyd Foreman. "That didn't bother me," he glumly insisted.
But Grant, starting slowly as did the rest of the Aggie offense, was soon putting up familiar yardage. He carried 17 times for 112 yards with a long of 22 yards. Foreman got 8 yards on five tries.
"I think our offense just started to click," Grant said of his running totals. "We started to get in the game. We didn't have the ball much the first quarter."
Utah State ran only four offensive plays including a punt in the first quarter, mainly because the Utes were on the march with their quick running backs, Charlie Brown (21 carries, 104 yards) and Keith Williams (11 carries, 76 yards). "They ate us alive," said Shelton.
Aggie punter Rusty Carlsen "was about the only offensive weapon we could get on the field the first half," Shelton said.
Carlsen averaged 55 yards a kick on six punts.
"I had good protection, plenty of time, and the first couple gave me a lot of confidence," said the All-Big West punter. "I hope as the year goes on, they don't have to use me as much."
The other positive for Utah State was that Tracey Jenkins caught a touchdown pass for the ninth straight game, leaving him one short of former Cougar Mike Chronister's NCAA record.
The pass was a 4-yarder from Ron Lopez at 7:59 of the second quarter and put USU up 7-3.
The Aggies were blaming themselves, but Shelton blamed the Utes for playing well. "I didn't think anybody could kick our defense around like that," he said of the unproductive first quarter.