Utah State's defense held its ground during the first scrimmage of preseason practice for nearly two hours Saturday.
"It's like this every year at the start of preseason practice - the defense is ahead of the offense by leaps and bounds," USU head coach Charlie Weatherbie said."I saw some great things on defense today."
He noted that the number one defense stopped the offense three times on fourth down situations. Weatherbie isn't too worried about his offense catching up, though.
"We have the opportunity to be a fine offensive team," Weatherbie said. "We're inexperienced but talented."
Junior running back Abu Wilson, who is recovering from a knee injury that forced him to miss the entire '93 season, carried the ball seven times for 41 yards.
Three quarterbacks saw action in the scrimmage. Matt Wells, a sophomore who came into the scrimmage as the Aggies No. 1 QB, was 4-11 for 21 yards.
Wells did not practice Thursday after he twisted his ankle on the final play of a goal line drill Wednesday.
The Aggies most impressive quarterback during the scrimmage was Aaron Flowers, who entered the day as the third man on the depth chart. Flowers completed 14 of 17 passes for 117 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown pass to receiver Xavier Foreman. Flowers completed his last seven passes in a row.
Jorge Munoz went 3-7 with 21 yards.
Profail Grier, one of USU's top running backs, missed the scrimmage with a groin pull, but is expected to return to practice Monday.