Utah State’s Blake Anderson blasts booing fans after loss to Weber State. Is there a quarterback controversy?

The boos rained down inside Maverik Stadium, and there was no escaping them.

Blue-clad Utah State Aggie fans were upset, and they let Utah State football’s coaches and players know it.

Only the boos weren’t directed at the entire Utah State team, despite the Aggies’ dismal showing in a 35-7 loss to Weber State at home Saturday night in Logan.

No, these boos — really any and all boos Saturday — were largely directed at one player:

Utah State starting quarterback Logan Bonner.

Bonner struggled mightily against Weber State. He completed only 12 of 31 pass attempts for 120 yards, with his longest completion going for 19 yards.

Worse still, he threw three interceptions. One came in the end zone when Utah State was in position to take the lead going into halftime and another effectively ended the game late in the third quarter when Weber State’s Desmond Howard returned it 33 yards for a touchdown.

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So far this year, Bonner hasn’t looked at all like the quarterback who led Utah State to a Mountain West championship last season.

And Aggie fans, frustrated by USU’s struggles on offense though the first three games, let him hear their displeasure. Again and again, until backup quarterback Cooper Legas entered the game late, to raucous cheers.

Is Bonner’s time as the Aggies’ starting quarterback over? Has Legas supplanted him?

Utah State head coach Blake Anderson would have none of it in the aftermath of the Aggies’ second blowout loss in three weeks.

“I don’t know if people are going to like to hear this, but (Bonner) is the same quarterback that won us a Mountain West Conference championship last year, the first one ever at this university,” Anderson said. “He is coming off a knee injury — in less than nine months — and he is not the only person making mistakes.

“It is real easy to sit in the stands and boo, and I want nothing more than for Cooper Legas to have a great career when his time has come, but he had the opportunity to win that job in the offseason and he did not.

“He (Legas) is a great No. 2 and is going to be a really good No. 1, but right now Logan Bonner is the starting quarterback, and he deserves the opportunity, and he also deserves respect.”

Since arriving in Logan, Anderson has routinely stated that Utah State has one of if not the best student sections in the country, but he was truly troubled by Aggie fans booing Bonner.

Disgusted might be an even more appropriate word.

“We had a lot of our fanbase show true colors today, and it was embarrassing,” Anderson said. “They can be mad at me, and we didn’t get it done, we didn’t win, but there is plenty of blame on that sideline to go around, not just one guy. 

“And he (Bonner) did help us win the conference title last year, and it ain’t been that long ago. I wish people would remember that. Pull for him, not against him.”

Anderson praised Legas, who in reserve Saturday completed 4 of 9 passes for 37 yards and an interception — “He is going to be great football player and I love him,” Anderson said — but as of this moment, the starting quarterback job at Utah State belongs to Bonner.

“I’m not going to be swayed by people in the crowd,” Anderson said. “We are going to pull tighter together on the sideline. That is a fact, because apparently that is what we’ve got.”