The #17 Utah Utes put together a dominant, suffocating performance last Saturday afternoon, shutting out the Utah State Aggies 33-0 in front of a sold-out crowd of 51,455 at Rice-Eccles Stadium. With the win, Utah closed out their nonconference schedule strong, moving to 3-0 on the season, while Utah State fell to 0-3 and will be urgently searching for a win when they host Troy in Homecoming this week

Braden Pegan, a former Aggie receiver who had a coming out party last year on Homecoming vs Air Force, had a similar best performance of the season so far with 122 receiving yards and two touchdown receptions. Devon Dampier continued to be a problem for the Aggies just like he was at New Mexico when Bronco Mendenhall was his coach two years ago. While Pegan was his favorite target, he was spreading the wealth to other receivers and used his legs for a handful of rushing opportunities as well.

Utah State’s best offense was its punter, Landon Rehkow. He pinned the Utes within their own 20 on three occasions. Coach Bronco Mendenhall explained the decision process when he decided to punt, and then go for the fourth down on different occasions.

“Last weekend he did a really good job when I chose not to go for it on fourth and three,” Coach Mendenhall said. “He might be one of the most valuable players right now. It’s between our defense and our punter. Field position is kind of how we’re playing right now. Is it ideal? No. The decision I’m making is to give this team its best chance.”

The Utah State defense did what it could to stop the bleeding, but it was tough as they were on the field for 10 minutes longer than the Ute defense was. It was their second most penalized game of the season with a total of 8 penalties for 68 yards. The turnover margin was much better as Bronson Olevao recovered a fumble that gave the Aggies a rare first and goal opportunity. However, Grady Brosterhous threw a pass into double coverage in the end zone that was picked off.

The scariest moment happened when defensive leader Harrison Taggart was taken away by an ambulance. It was a chaotic moment as a USU student was taken away from the MUSS student section by police at the same time.

“Harrison is the heartbeat of our program,” Coach Mendenhall said. “There isn’t anyone that’s more vibrant. He influences the team not only by how he plays, but the time he spends and how he connects with the players. He is our team. He is who we want our team to be.”

While the rivalry looked lopsided, Coach Mendenhall was adamant that his team was motivated to play, and stressed the importance of execution.

“Our team was motivated to play,” Coach Mendenhall said. “Being with them at practice, they thought this was a significant opportunity. They practiced well. We didn’t execute well enough when we needed to move the football to have consistency in terms of possession time or anything. That was our hope that we could hold onto the ball and move it and keep it out of Utah’s hands. The number of three and outs led to the choice of field position to kind of compensate for that. The low part is they want to win. They saw the opportunity and you don’t get many of those to play in-state rivals. Will there be a sting to that? Oh yeah. Will there be a recovery process? Yes, but nobody really cares and we don’t have time. There’s a game next Saturday. You let the hurt wash over you and then it’s got to be done. That’s how life works. That’s one of the coolest things about athletics because it teaches grown-ups too. The faster you reset, the better you will be.”

While Homecoming will be a time to honor the Aggie players that have gone before them, USU is focused on one week at a time.

“We just need to come back for work and attack the next week,” Javen Jacobs said. “We can practice so just staying true to the process and trusting our coaches and each other on the field. I am just trying to take it one day at a time and focus on what we can control.”

While the Utes scored 33 points, the Aggies did display their own spectacular conditioning that allowed them to continue fighting.

“We really emphasize that in practice,” Chapman Lewis said. “We go six seconds as hard as we can. Even if it’s an incomplete pass we run to pick the ball up. We overemphasize so that when we get to the game it’s easier.

The Aggies will welcome a Troy Trojans team that only lost to the MIssouri Tigers by 10 points. It was a comparable performance to what USU displayed against Washington last week. USU will host Troy at 5:30 pm on Saturday, September 26th as they return to Maverik Stadium. The game will be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.

All images courtesy Joe Oliver.