Utah State football is getting better. Its performance against Utah made that clear

Nate Dreiling did not waste any time making one thing very clear following the Utah State Aggies’ 38-21 loss to their rival Utah Utes Saturday.

Dreiling, the interim head coach of Utah State football, is not into moral victories. Not even a little. Not even against the No. 12 team in the country.

Nor is his Aggie team.

It didn’t matter all that much Utah State looked like a completely different team against Utah than it did the week prior in a 48-0 loss at USC.

It didn’t matter that the Aggies’ offense came alive against a Ute defense that may end up being considered among the best in the country when this season is all said and done.

And it didn’t matter that Utah State’s defense continues to look leaps and bounds better than it did a season ago, even if the unit was playing Saturday against a true freshman quarterback (Isaac Wilson) in his first collegiate start.

Utah State lost to Utah. That is what mattered.

“No one is interested in moral victories here,” Dreiling said.

For added measure, safety Jordan Vincent noted, “I’m not big into moral victories.”

So yeah, Utah State lost to Utah and it hurt.

“I wanted to win this one,” running back Rahsul Faison said. “I just really wanted to win this one, so we’ve just got to get better.”

The Aggies aren’t blind, though, and anyone that took in the latest iteration of The Battle of Brothers could see that Utah State is improving.

“We are getting closer,” Dreiling said.

A week after getting shut out, the Aggies scored three touchdowns against Utah and could’ve easily had more.

Quarterback Bryson Barnes threw for two of those scores and ran for another, and he had a third touchdown pass taken away when Utah defensive back Smith Snowden ripped the ball from USU wide receiver Kyrese White’s hands in the end zone early in the game.

Throw in a pair of missed field goals by Elliott Nimrod, normally a steady and effective kicker for the Aggies, and Utah State easily could’ve put 34 points on the board.

Utah deserves credit for holding the Aggies to only three scores, but when compared to the previous game when USU fought and clawed and still managed to put nothing on the scoreboard against USC, well, 21 points was a certified leap.

It wasn’t just the points, though.

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The Aggies’ offensive line held its own against a highly touted Utah defensive front. Utah managed only three sacks in the game, and only two of those were against Barnes, with backup (really third string) QB Jacob Conover getting taken down late in the fourth quarter when the game was in hand.

USU’s O-line opened up running lanes time and again for Faison, who had a standout performance with 115 yards on 19 carries.

“That Utah defensive front is one of the best in the country,” Dreiling said. “We ran for 140 yards on arguably one of the best fronts and one of the best defensive coordinators in the country.”

Utah State’s skill position players routinely found themselves open against Utah’s defense — wide receivers Otto Tia and Jack Hestera especially — and when they weren’t open they frequently made spectacular plays to keep drives alive, like a one-handed 35-yard reception by Jalen Royals or an equally impressive 27-yard reception by Hestera, hauled in while being smothered by a Utah defensive back.

Utah State has always had confidence in its offense — especially the current offense established by former head coach Blake Anderson — and Dreiling noted that he got out of the way of that group this week and it made all the difference.

“It was me quitting talking to the offense,” Dreiling said. “I told them (last week), ‘Hey can we slow this down,’ and that is not how they do things and that is 100% my fault.

“So I stayed out of their way, opened some doors for them and physically stayed out of their way, and they were rolling like they always do. We saw what they can do. They scored 21 points against what will probably go down as a top three to five defense in the country and that was with a backup quarterback (in Barnes) and two receivers (Royals and White) getting knocked out of the game.”

Utah State was also much improved defensively against the Utes.

Yes, Wilson started his first collegiate game and that played into strategy and scheme for both teams. It wouldn’t be fair to ignore that, but the Aggies held up more often than not against the Utes’ offense, all things considered.

Early on in the game, when Utah desperately wanted to run the ball to ease the pressure on Wilson, Utah State held firm up front. Tackling was much improved from the game against USC and the Aggies’ defensive front genuinely held its own against a bigger Utah front.

Later, when Wilson was asked to do more, USU’s secondary frequently made the plays it needed to in the back end, be it pass breakups or an interception by Vincent.

Utah eventually wore down Utah State and broke open some game-changing plays — on the ground and in the passing game — in the second half especially, but Dreiling saw that as a need for consistency on defense more than anything else.

“Defensively we held them to 20 (rushing) attempts for 80 yards in the first half,” Dreiling said. “In the second half they broke some yards.”

It wasn’t all good, of course.

For as good as Barnes was — and he was good — the Utah transfer missed wide open receivers on too many occasions, threw a bad interception and couldn’t make enough plays to keep the Aggies in the game in the end.

He completed barely over 50% of his passes in a game USU needed him to be more than average.

The Aggies’ defense played better but ultimately couldn’t slow the Utes down enough, on the ground especially when it mattered in the second half, and that is before mentioning USU’s inability to cover tight ends.

“We were close on some stuff but no one cares about close,” Dreiling said. “We are ready to win. We know we have to take that next step.

“The toughness was there the whole game. Proud of how they played. We just need to do more, get better at the details. If we do that, we have a chance to get this thing going.”

That is what Utah State wants more than anything right now. To get going, i.e. win some games.

After the loss to USC, that didn’t seem all that likely going forward this season. After the Utah game — loss notwithstanding — that isn’t the case anymore.

“We are going to get better, for sure,” Faison said.

If it feels likely that’s because the Aggies already have.