LOGAN — When asked if Friday night’s game against BYU would have a surreal feeling for him, Utah State center Quin Ficklin suggested that it would actually be more like business as usual.
“It won’t be surreal,” explained Ficklin, who transferred from BYU to USU in January. “I’ve played against these guys hundreds of times before. I played against them in practice a lot, so I know all of the defensive linemen, the linebackers and the defensive backs; I know them really well. It’s not so much surreal. It’s going to be exciting.”
Ficklin redshirted with the Cougars in 2012, then served an LDS Church mission before returning to Provo, where he failed to get on the field in 2015 and saw limited action in 2016. Because he was a walk-on at BYU, he was able to transfer and play this season, quickly earning a scholarship with the Aggies due to a strong performance in the spring.
Now a leader on USU’s offensive line, Ficklin is joined by another former Cougar, junior tackle Roman Andrus. Ficklin and Andrus were roommates at BYU the season following their missions, but then Andrus transferred to Snow College for the 2016 season before heading north to Logan.
Senior safety Dallin Leavitt also played at BYU before transferring to USU following his sophomore season, while new Aggie linebacker Sialao Mobley played rugby at BYU before deciding to shift his focus to football.
But no one is tighter with the current group of Cougars than Ficklin, who estimated that he knows at least 50 members of the BYU roster. He also said he’s known senior linebacker Matt Hadley his “whole life” and noted that Hadley’s older brother took his sister to senior prom.
“A lot of connections for me there,” Ficklin added. “A lot of the guys on the offensive line I’m in a group text with, so I still talk with them on and off. I ask them how their game went and tell them how our game went.
“… They have a lot of good guys, and I have no hard feelings toward BYU football at all. They were great to me, and I had a great three years there. But I’m having an even better year here at Utah State, though.”
THE WAY TO ROUGH UP SAN JOSE: Following two disappointing performances on the road at Wisconsin and Wake Forest, it should come as no surprise that the Aggies were flying high following last Saturday’s 61-10 beatdown of San Jose State.
While the Spartans are arguably the worst team in the conference, the manner in which the Aggies dominated in all three phases of the game was still very impressive. Especially for a team that hadn’t won a road game in nearly two years, and had dropped five straight conference games.
“You should have seen the locker room,” USU coach Matt Wells said. ”We celebrated like we should celebrate, and I’m happy for those guys.
“ … It was a huge win for us, a big win. Mojo. Confidence. We got a lot of guys in the game and a lot of guys played well. It’s a huge win, a step in the right direction.”
PROFESSIONAL QUARTET: Utah State fans who watched Sunday’s CBS broadcast of the Bengals-Packers contest were treated to a rare sight: four former Aggies talking together after the game, all wearing NFL uniforms.
While second-year linebacker Nick Vigil ended up on the wrong side of Green Bay’s 27-24 overtime victory over Cincinnati, the Bengals’ young starter was still all smiles as he chatted with former teammates Aggie teammates Kyler Fackrell, Marwin Evans and DeVante Mays.
Second-year players Fackrell and Evans both saw time against the Bengals at linebacker and safety, respectively, while Mays, currently on Green Bay’s active roster as a running back, is waiting for his first NFL rushing attempt but has been playing on special teams.
“I actually did see that,” Wells said of the USU reunion at Lambeau Field. “We broke at about 5:30 p.m. (Sunday). We had a 30-minute window before position meetings, and we were eating dinner (at the Laube Complex. I was in Waqa Damuni’s office, and we saw that. The overtime, then the quick shot of all four Aggies, the three Packers and Nick (Vigil) of the Bengals.
“That was pretty neat. … It’s pretty cool. I’m proud of those guys.”