When Utah State faces 25th-ranked Colorado State Saturday night in Logan, the Aggies will have their hands full against a talented team that returns 17 starters from last year and is favored to win the Western Athletic Conference.
For the Aggies to have any chance of winning, the one guy they'll have to worry about more than anyone else is senior quarterback Moses Moreno, rated as the 11th best quarterback in college football this year by The Sporting News.The Aggies figure their powerful offense will produce some yards and touchdowns, even against the strong Ram defense. But to stay in the game, the Aggies will need to shut down the Ram offense, specifically Moreno.
Moreno will likely be the best quarterback the Aggies face all year. He's been outstanding so far, completing 67 percent of his passes for 460 yards and four touchdowns. And he didn't do it against patsy competition, throwing against 7th-ranked Colorado and Big West favorite Nevada. Last year he completed 57 percent of his passes for 2,921 yards.
USU coach John L. Smith is well aware of Moreno's ability, saying, "He is something. He can throw it from one end of the stadium to the other. He can launch it and is very accurate."
Coming out of Castle Park High School in San Diego, Moreno was not highly recruited and was just hoping for a Division II scholarship.
That was the year CSU coach Sonny Lubick was recruiting his first class soon after being named head coach. "We were running around saying, `Anyone want a scholarship. We'll give you one to fill our quota,"' joked Lubick. His former assistant coach Dave Lay promised Moreno a scholarship after a couple of other QB prospects fell through.
But Lubick wondered what he was getting when he first saw the skinny 170-pounder.
"We visited the house and I was thinking `Where the heck did we get this guy? Coach Lay must have been smoking something."'
Moreno played behind Anthoney Hill for two years, one as a redshirt and went into the 1995 season in a dead heat with Ricks transfer Daren Wilkinson. Eventually Wilkinson got the job, but when he dislocated his finger against UTEP, Moreno went in for him. He never came out and has since started 15 straight games for the Rams. He's now up to 205 pounds and is considered a definite pro prospect.
"Moses has the ingredients," Lubick told the Denver Post. "To be a quarterback, you have to have a natural talent. He has a real strong arm. His assets are his intangibles. He's a tough guy, he works hard, plus he's intelligent."
Moreno looks even better, according to Smith, because of his fleet-footed receivers. Geoff Turner leads the way with 10 catches for 123 yards, while Darren Hall is the big-play man with 223 yards on just five catches, an average of 44.6 yards per catch. Other top receivers are seniors Darrell Ballard and Paul Turner.
Like USU, the Rams run a one-back offense with Damon Washington rambling for 111 yards per game so far. Kevin McDougal isn't far behind with a 93-yard per game average.
"They have got some good running backs - they are kind of the complete package," said Smith.
Defensively, the Rams are led by junior middle linebacker Willie Taylor, who has started 25 straight games going back to his freshman season. To show you how talented the Rams are on defense, consider that two starters from last year, tackle DeVaughn Hawkins and Steve Trammel have been beaten out for starting jobs by Adrian Ross and Greg Pollard.
GAME NOTES: The Rams are spending as little time in Logan as possible. They'll fly into Salt Lake at 8:15 tonight and bus to Ogden, where they'll stay overnight. Then directly after Saturday's game, they'll return to Colorado . . . CSU's rivalry with Utah State is the third longest in the Rams' record books, dating back to 1902. The Rams lead 34-30-2 . . . When the two rivals last met in 1995 at Romney Stadium, the Rams whipped the Aggies 59-17.