LOGAN —Utah State’s football team held its first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday night on Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium, and it was the defense that stole the show.
Senior linebacker Kyler Fackrell and junior linebacker Nick Vigil combined for eight tackles, including four tackles for loss and two sacks, to help anchor a defense that recorded 17 TFLs and 10 sacks during the 90-snap scrimmage.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of teaching we’ll be able to do off this video,” third-year head coach Matt Wells said. “The defense came out and basically won the night. It was sloppy on offense in a lot of areas, and some of that is excusable to the general public because you have got a lot of offense in and you have young players playing, especially at receiver right now. But to us as coaches, that’s inexcusable. We’ll be able to use it to teach and to learn off of. The kickers got better as we went on, but it was pretty nasty early on. They’ll be all right, they’ll figure it out.”
The scrimmage started with the defense forcing five three-and-outs during the first seven series, while holding the offense scoreless the first 14 series before Keeton scored the first of his two rushing touchdowns on a 5-yard run.
“The defense played really, really well,” Fackrell said. “It was one of the cleaner first scrimmages of a fall camp that we’ve had. There’s still a lot of things we can improve on, but overall, there were less mistakes. People knew where they needed to be and did a good job.”
The defense scored the first points of the scrimmage courtesy of a safety by junior college transfer linebacker Brock Carmen, who tackled junior college transfer running back Devante Mays in the end zone. Carmen finished the day with four tackles, including the TFL.
The defense also recorded two interceptions, one by sophomore cornerback transfer Kevin Ogwu and another by redshirt freshman free safety Jontrell Rocquemore.
“Both the one and two defenses played well,” Wells said. “They came out and established some physicality. But on the flip side, I don’t think it was real sharp on the offense’s end.”
Senior defensive end Jordan Nielsen recorded four tackles and two sacks, while junior defensive end Ricky Ali’ifua had two pass breakups. Senior strong safety Marwin Evans, senior cornerback Bryant Hayes, senior nose guard David Moala, junior cornerback Jentz Painter and freshman cornerback Cameron Haney added three tackles apiece.
Offensively, redshirt senior quarterback Chuckie Keeton passed for 137 yards and rushed for a pair of touchdowns. Junior running back/wide receiver Kennedy Williams had two catches for 47 yards, including a long of 35 yards that set up a 25-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back LaJuan Hunt, who led the team in rushing with 25 yards on four carries.
“That was a key pass,” Williams said. “It was a dime. That’s the only way I can phrase it, it was a dime. Chuckie put it on the money and made it easy for me to catch it, honestly.”
Redshirt freshman wide receiver Zach Van Leeuwen led the Aggies in receiving, with four catches for 40 yards.
Utah State, which is in its second week of fall camp, will have a single practice on Monday from 2:15-4:15 p.m. on the practice fields, followed by its second two-a-day of camp on Tuesday, practicing from 9:15-11:15 a.m. and again from 4:55-6:25 p.m. on the practice fields.
The Aggies will then hold their second scrimmage of fall camp Wednesday at Maverik Stadium at 6 p.m., followed by a single practice from 3:57-4:45 p.m. on Thursday at the practice fields. USU will have another two-a-day on Friday, practicing from 9:15-11:15 a.m. and again from 3:55-5:25 p.m. on the practice fields.
All practices during fall camp, which concludes on Saturday, Aug. 29, are open to the public.
The 10th annual Aggie Football Family Fun Day, sponsored by Macey's Foods, will be held on Saturday, Aug. 22, at Maverik Stadium. Games and activities will get started on the south concourse at 5 p.m., while the football team will hold a situational scrimmage starting at 6 p.m. Fans are reminded to enter the stadium through the south entrances and to park in the west and south parking lots. Parking for the event is free.
The Aggies will open the season at home against Southern Utah on Thursday, Sept. 3, at 7 p.m. Utah State will begin Mountain West play by hosting Colorado State on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Fans can follow the Aggie football program at twitter.com/USUFootball or on Facebook at Utah State Football, as well as on Instagram at instagram.com/USUFootball. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program at twitter.com/USUAthletics or on Facebook at Utah State University Athletics.