Honestly, I feel like the injury bettered me as a football player and as a man off of the field. I'm blessed that that happened. Really. – Utah State wide receiver Brandon Swindall
LOGAN — There weren't a whole lot of positive things the Utah State football team were able to take away from last year's season-opening loss at Tennessee.
But one of few bright sides for the Aggies was the play of junior wide receiver Brandon Swindall, who managed to snare five passes for 37 yards in the disappointing 38-7 loss to the Vols.
And considering what Swindall was able to do against an SEC team, there was every reason for the Aggies to be excited about the possibilities heading into their next game — a home contest against Idaho State out of the Big Sky Conference.
Those hopes lasted all of one play.
After the Aggies received the opening kickoff, USU quarterback Chuckie Keeton handed the ball off on first and 10 to running back Joe Hill for a 3-yard gain. But while the Utah State offense was gathering itself together at the 38-yard line for its next play, Swindall was busy just trying to get off the field.
"The first play, I went in motion and then came back," Swindall recalls while standing on Merlin Olsen Field, not far from where he tore his left Achilles tendon on Sept. 6. "I pushed off and with that first step, it just snapped on me. I knew right then what had happened, and I kind of hopped off the field."
A native of Oklahoma City, Swindall's family was in the stands at Romney Stadium that night, excited to see the 6-foot-4, 205-pound wideout continue to improve after a sophomore campaign that saw Swindall lead the Aggies with six touchdown receptions.
"It was weird," Swindall says of the injury that abruptly ended his junior season. "When it happened, it kind of felt like I stepped in a ditch. You can see me on film kind of looking back like, where's the ditch?"
"When I got off of the field, I felt like I still had a little movement in it. So, I thought maybe it was just a strain, and so I iced it. But after I iced it, that's when the pain really started to kick in. I had no movement in it, and the pain was terrible."
When he received the news that Swindall was done, USU head coach Matt Wells took the news particularly hard. Also a native of Oklahoma who came west to play for the Aggies, Wells was very excited about Swindall's prospects heading into the 2014 season.
"Your heart goes out for a kid that's worked that hard," Wells says. "To see a season cut short — you know basically never got started — you feel bad for the kid for the amount of work that he had put in."
The Aggies, of course, went on to have one of the best seasons in school history, finishing with a 10-4 record and their third straight bowl game victory. And Utah State managed to do excel despite the absence of not only Swindall but a slew of other starters, including linebacker Kyler Fackrell and quarterback Chuckie Keeton, who were lost for the season after USU's first and third games, respectively.
But for better or worse, all those injuries seemed to create an Aggie off-field fraternity of sorts.
"It really did bring us so much closer together," Swindall says. "Me and Chuckie, and Fackrell and I are like brothers. It's good to know that there are people like that that you can always trust and know that they're going to do the right thing. Especially me and Chuckie. Chuckie and I are on the same page, which is a good thing for a quarterback and a receiver, so I'm really excited for the season."
While Keeton is back and looking strong after two straight years of knee problems, Fackrell — who cut off his long hair on Tuesday — seems fully recovered from his torn ACL and has been practicing without a knee brace since the Aggies' first fall practice last Friday. Unfortunately for Swindall, he tweaked his left hamstring that same day and has been held out of practice ever since.
"It's just a normal training camp strain," Wells says. "But I'm also a little precautionary, too."
But the bad hamstring doesn't mean that Swindall hasn't been active during USU's fall camp. During practice, the senior is always talking to his fellow receivers as they come off of the field, trying to share his experience with the younger Aggies.
"The kid's done everything we've asked him to do since January, a lot of times six days a week on his own, doing extra things," Wells says of Swindall. "He's a true football junkie in every sense of the word. From film study to extra stretch to extra lift to being a tremendous teammate off the field, and a leader and a team captain.
"To me, Brandon Swindall is a consummate Aggie. He's completely involved and trying to help teach, and he's invested. He's fully invested in this program."
Coming out of Millwood High School, Swindall says he actually didn't have a lot of collegiate options, despite being a two-way star who led the state of Oklahoma with 17 interceptions — eight of which were returned for TDs — during his senior year. Wells really liked Swindall, however, and offered him a scholarship while he was still serving as the wide receivers coach at New Mexico.
Swindall accepted the offer, but before he could get to Albuquerque, Wells was hired to be the quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator at his alma mater in 2011.
"Then the Aggies offered me," Swindall says. "I didn't even come on a visit or anything. I just followed Coach Wells and trusted in him."
Swindall redshirted his freshman season, then saw action in eight games in 2012. He ended up catching 29 passes for 285 yards in 2013, and the Aggies are certainly counting on him to do that and more this season.
Other than the sore hamstring, Swindall says he's healthy and ready to go after missing almost all of 2014.
"I kind of used it as a learning process for me," Swindall notes. "I was kind of able to sit back and actually realize how much I love the game, and kind of learn the mental aspect of it from another perspective. On the field it's different; when you look at it off the field, it's like, OK, this is what goes on.
"Honestly, I feel like the injury bettered me as a football player and as a man off of the field," he adds with a determined smile. "I'm blessed that that happened. Really."