This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In the last, hopeless sequence of Utah State's football season, the ball went backward, landing out of bounds after a series of laterals failed to accomplish anything.
That final moment of futility and regression Tuesday afternoon characterized the Aggies' experience in the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, a 23-21 loss to Akron. USU's good intentions of finishing with a winning record, giving quarterback Chuckie Keeton's career a memorable ending and possibly emerging from 2015 with the country's longest active bowl winning streak of four games all crumbled on a cloudy afternoon with the backdrop of a mostly empty Albertsons Stadium.
Akron eagerly claimed the trophy filled with potatoes, commemorating the school's first bowl win in 29 seasons of FBS competition and concluding what coach Terry Bowden labeled "a year I'll never forget." The Aggies, whose coaches were able to say such things in the recent years, were left with a 6-7 record and bunch of other haunting numbers to show for their school-record fifth consecutive bowl appearance.
Six pitching changes, back and forth between quarterbacks. Five sacks allowed. Four three-and-out sequences in the first quarter. Three turnovers. Two fourth-down failures, including an aborted field-goal try. And one more frustrating defeat in a season that included too many of them.
The Aggies will lament three trips inside Akron's 30-yard line that somehow resulted in a net loss of three points, among other regrets. "The bottom line is the scoreboard could have been lit up a lot more," said USU coach Matt Wells. "Should have been."
USU could or should have done a lot of things differently, but failed to get consistent production. Maybe that was an inevitable result of trying to employ two quarterbacks in intermittent rotation.
In any case, an interception, a dropped pass in the end zone and a fumble kept the Aggies from scoring on those three nice drives in the second quarter — and even enabled the Zips to kick a field goal on the last play before halftime. In a virtual replay of USU's loss to BYU (only with a different QB), Kent Myers was hit and fumbled, with Akron's Rodney Coe scooping the ball and running 56 yards to the USU 12.
If the Aggies had won, the four points that offensive tackle Jake Simonich saved by preventing a touchdown would have proved vital. As it turned out, Akron's three points were critical.
Another key moment came in the third quarter, after Myers' touchdown pass to Hunter Sharp gave the Aggies a 14-13 lead. USU got the ball back and drove to midfield via Devante Mays' 18-yard run and Myers' 24-yard pass to Swindall. But receiver Andrew Rodriguez fumbled after catching a short pass. The Zips turned the recovery into a touchdown drive and later added a field goal, enabling them to absorb Keeton's TD pass to Swindall with 1:12 remaining.
The loss left Wells searching for positive reflections of a season that once promised more than it delivered. November losses at New Mexico and Air Force played out a lot like Tuesday's episode, another case of the Aggies coming close enough to end up disappointed.
"Somebody has got to make a play, but it's not always at the end of the game," Wells said. "That's what I think we're having a hard time learning right now. Sometimes those plays are early, early in the game."
USU's production of minus-5 total yards in the first quarter was only part of the problem. In a weird way, it was worse that the Aggies recorded 297 yards in the second and third periods, yet scored only 14 points. And a USU defense that held Akron to 100 rushing yards allowed a long drive that ate up almost half of the fourth quarter and gave the Zips a nine-point lead, via a field goal.
The ending left Wells eager to analyze the program: "How do we make this thing better?"
The problem is that no answers came soon enough for USU to make the 2015 season satisfying.
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