SALT LAKE CITY — When the clock struck midnight Friday, Utah State accomplished what it hadn’t since 1978, snatching the Old Wagon Wheel from BYU and taking it to Cache Valley. While Utah State comes off a season-redefining win, the Aggies are not the only team to enter Romney Stadium on an emotional high this coming Saturday.
Last weekend, Air Force (4-1) beat the Midshipmen of Navy 30-21 to put the Falcons in the driver's seat to win the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. By knocking off Mountain West preseason favorite Boise State 28-14 the week before, the Falcons are positioned to make a run for conference honors as well.
While the game is still days away, the Deseret News sports staff knows winning on the weekend takes dedication during the weekdays. To ensure our readers are properly informed, we studied some film, crunched some numbers and checked in with the head coaches of Utah State and the Air Force Academy.
Who is Darell Garretson, quarterback of Utah State?
While Aggie faithful knew what they had under center to back up Chuckie Keeton, all of Utah now knows Garretson is hardly a second-string sophomore scrub after the BYU game. The 19-year-old sports a 7-2 record as starter, 65 percent passing completion rate and “quarterback smarts” and “plenty of moxie,” according to Utah State head coach Matt Wells.
“Being the backup quarterback is the hardest job in sports. I’ve been there,” said Wells, the Aggies' quarterback during the mid-90s.
“It’s good at times and not so good at times,” Wells added. “Darell Garretson is a very talented kid. You coach them in a way that they’re always one play away. … He’s a kid that never stops learning and never stops grinding. As long as he keeps doing that, he’ll be successful.”
Passing: Utah State vs. Air Force | Create InfographicsTaking over for Keeton midway through the past two seasons is not the first time Garretson has stepped in for a hurt Heisman-caliber quarterback.
When now-UCLA Bruins quarterback Brett Hundley got hurt as a high school senior in Arizona, Chandler High turned to then-sophomore Garretson.
“He played behind a high-profile guy in high school,” Wells said. “I think Brett Hundley is pretty good. He replaced him and was highly successful. I didn’t make him that way, he came that way. It’s just his mindset.”
Who is under center for Air Force?
While backup Aggie quarterback Garretson can light up the secondary as evidenced by last Friday's stats of 19-25 passing for 321 yards and four touchdowns (three passing, one rushing), don’t expect a robust air attack from the cadets. The option-oriented Air Force offense comes into Logan ranked fourth last in FBS passing, averaging 136 yards per game.
Even the Logan-Cache Airport gave the cadets a no-fly signal, according to head football coach Troy Calhoun. The Falcons will instead land their Boeing C-17 Globemaster at Hill Air Force Base outside Ogden, then bus through Sardine Canyon to Cache Valley.
Run-first quarterback Kale Pearson is key to the Air Force offense. When the senior signal caller went down last year to a torn ACL in his right knee in a week one victory over Colgate, so, too, did the Falcons' season.
In the next 11 games, Air Force only won once, against Army. Even while hobbling around on his surgically repaired knee, Pearson told Colorado Springs-based newspaper Gazzette he’d lead the Falcons to a winning season in 2014.
So far, it looks like Pearson and Co. are ahead of schedule, with the quarterback passing more precisely than expected. Pearson’s three touchdowns, including one with 35 seconds left, made the difference last Saturday against Navy. All told, Pearson has seven touchdowns and zero interceptions. The 5-foot-9, 175 pound quarterback doesn’t sound like a cadet who’s content with what he or his team have accomplished yet.
"Yes, four wins and one loss, it is a good start, but we still don't have the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. We still haven't gone to a bowl game. We still haven't won the Mountain West. I still haven't done a whole lot. I still want to accomplish all of that before I can say I did what I set out to do,” Pearson said.
NCAA Offense Rankings: Aggies vs Falcons | Create Infographics“I saw him in high school,” Wells said. “He reminds me a lot of Darell (Garretson) and DJ Nelson with the moxie they’ve all got, but he’s faster than both of them. He’s tough, gritty and is throwing the ball well. He’s what gets them going. I’ve seen that kid as he grew up, and he’s a winner.”
While at Tulsa Union, Pearson won four Oklahoma state high school titles.
The Aggie coaching staff might have to game plan on defense for a little Falcon trickery. Air Force wideout Jalen Robinette had one pass attempt against Navy. He made the most of it, a 54-yard touchdown completion.
What exactly is the Air Force triple-option offense?
Offensive Play Calling: USU vs AFA | Create InfographicsAs a service school with physical restrictions on joining the academy, Air Force cadets must rely on speed and technical execution rather than size and strength. For decades, the Falcons have run the triple-option offense.
“It’s responsibility-driven on defense,” Wells said. “You have to be very responsible, whether it’s the dive, the fullback, the quarterback or the pitch. It puts a strain on a D-coordinator and a defense because it’s in every front and every pressure.”
Look for the Aggies to play a very vanilla base defense that will react to how Air Force's option develops between the quarterback, fullback and slotback.
Wells might be the ideal coach to stymie the Falcons' unusual offense. Wells began his coaching career as an assistant at Navy, where his teams played the triple option on offense.
“You don’t see it very often,” Wells said about the option. “I’m glad we had an extra day to prepare for it.”
What is the key matchup? Air Force rushing offense versus the Utah State run defense
Defense: Aggies vs. Falcons | Create InfographicsThe cadets execute the run-first offense to near perfection: They have finished with a top-10 ranked run offense in 19 of the past 21 years. This season looks no different: Air Force sits third in the FCS with 338 yards rushing per game.
Utah State might be ideally suited to slow down the Air Force ground assault. The Aggies' defensive front seven has been the team's most consistent strength in 2014. The defense excels in two key areas: stopping the run and takeaways.
The Aggie defense has allowed 93 yards/game rushing, ninth best in NCAA. The defense has also forced 15 turnovers over the past four games.
“They’re always very talented defensively,” Calhoun said about his Aggie opposition. “It’s maybe the best defense in the whole league. They are superb against the run, as they are in total defense and scoring defense as well. They were last year and so far they’ve proven that may be the case again this year.”
The academy puts the student in student-athlete
Since the 1950s, the Falcons have had 38 football All-Americans in addition to 39 Academic All-Americans. This combined school and gridiron success isn’t an accident.
“The athletic part, the football part, that comes to a close,” Calhoun said in a Tuesday interview. “ And yet there’s a longer path. There’s a longer commitment my players have made when you come to the academy.
“I’m not sure if in college sports we’ve missed something. What we’ve nowadays is 365 days, 12 months a year football. It’s the whole schebang,” Calhoun said. “I mean, did it really hurt Jim Brown that he was a pretty good lacrosse player? Or how about Jackie Robinson?” Athletes are athletes.”
Recruiting football players to Air Force is a unique challenge
The first 40 days a freshman football player arrives in Colorado Springs, they don’t touch a football, according to Calhoun.
“We’ll cut all your hair off. We’ll wake you up at 4:30 in the morning. You’re going to go through basic training. It’s going to be hard," Calhoun said in a Wednesday radio interview.
“When you start school, it’s not going to get any easier,” Calhoun added. “You’re going to take tough classes. You’re going to take calculus. You’re going to take aeronautical engineering. You’re going to take chemistry. We’re going to put a lot on your plate. You’re not going to redshirt.”
At the 2015 NFL draft, you won’t hear the names of any Air Force player called to the dais to shake the commissioner’s hand. The academy is just the beginning for the cadets: After graduating, the cadets come out as officers and must serve on active duty. While the commitment varies, pilots must serve in the military a minimum of 10 years after finishing flight school, according to the Air Force Academy website.
“Sometimes it just drives you crazy recruiting,” Calhoun said, laughing. “Academically, who am I going to find that can get into school here? Or when you go into a home and a parent or the player wants to know, could he be sent to Iraq or Syria or Korea? It’s real. Absolutely that could happen after graduation. A lot of 17-year-olds think they’ll play in the NFL and think they’ll be ready. Those parts are — extremely challenging.”
The academy's rigorous standards have an upside. “Those that do come here, though, they are the caliber of what you want. Those that do graduation have a lot of spirit and mental and fortitude.”
Two-way play
Last Friday night in Provo, Nick Vigil not only helped harass BYU quarterbacks: he also added rushing duties. All told, the 6-foot-2, 230-pound sophomore played 108 snaps against the Cougars.
His running style gave the Utah State offense a new-found aggression. His production was prodigious. Vigil led the Aggies in tackles (nine) and rushing yardage (16 carries, 57 yards).
Wells isn’t tipping his hat for what kind of rushing load the Fremont High School product out of Plain City, Utah, will carry Saturday.
"You better tune in Saturday night, I’m not giving that one away,” Wells said.
No bulletin board material for the Aggies
“Instantly when you look at Utah State, they certainly hold us captive in terms of the attention they deserve,” Calhoun said. “We’re going to their backyard, and they’re just an excellent football team."
Logan air will be fair
Utah State’s two losses came while playing in the hot and muggy environs of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Jonesboro, Arkansas — conditions not easily re-created in Cache Valley.
“When you go to Tennessee or Arkansas, obviously, you have humidity issues,” Wells said. “We did as good as we could this summer to get it as hot as we could in Logan for those two games in Tennessee and Jonesboro. We trained in the indoor. That was about as hot as we could get it in the heat of the day. We practiced in training camp at two o’clock when I could get it as hot as I could.”
With both teams coming from high-altitude cities (4,534 feet at Logan, about 6,200 feet at the academy outside Colorado Springs) in the Intermountain West, adjusting to the thin, oxygen deprived air of Logan shouldn’t burden one team more than the other.
Get ready for game day
Kick-off at Merlin Olsen Field is set for 8:15 p.m. Saturday. For those not in the stands, ESPNU will broadcast the game live. Keep tuned to Deseret News as well — we’ll keep you up-to date throughout the Aggies’ Mountain West conference opener with photos, tweets, instant analysis and commentary throughout the night.