With 19 seconds left in the game Utah State and Colorado State appeared to be headed for overtime in Fort Collins. That was before a 46-yard pass from Quarterback Garret Grayson to Rashard Higgins set CSU up for a last second 46-yard field goal and the 16-13 win.
“That’s a tough way to lose a ballgame,” said USU head coach Matt Wells. “Credit to them, they made a couple of plays at the very end and credit to their field goal kicker. What a great kicker, the kid stayed focus and made it. Hard fought win.”
The Aggies struggled to get anything going on offense over the course of the game, especially after sophomore quarterback Darell Garretson went down with an arm injury early in the third quarter.
“That was our second string so now we have our third string in so that’s uphill sledding,” Wells said. “He came in and fought and battled and didn’t bat an eye and I thought he managed it pretty good in the second half.”
Craig Harrison came in to the game and went 5-12 for 28 yards as the offense mustered just 260 total yards in the game. They also had a limited amount of plays in the game.
“The bottom line is 50 plays,” Wells said. “I’m going to point right to the offense, that’s third downs you can’t stay on the field.”
Garretson was 14-19 passing for 132 yards and an interception before he got injured.
“He’s going to be down for a minute,” Wells said. “We’re going to re-x-ray him, but it looks like he is going to be down for x-ray it looks like he’ll be down for probably next week I would assume. But we’ll see, we’ll evaluate him tomorrow and Monday.”
Last season Harrison came in for the injured Chuckie Keeton against BYU in Logan and also came out with the loss.
“He did a good job, it’s tough just getting thrown in the fire like that,” said senior running back Joe Hill about Harrison. “You know it could happen, but you don’t want it to happen, but unfortunately it did. I feel like Craig, given the opportunity, will gain confidence this week and if Darell is not ok, I feel like he is going to do good.”
Hill led the team in all-purpose yards with 70, however 59 came on a game-tying touchdown run in the first quarter.
“The line did a great job of creating the hole and giving me the opportunity to use my speed to the fullest and I took advantage of it,” Hill said.
USU’s defense came up with a season best eight sacks in the game.
“We came in with a game plan to get pressure on [Grayson] as many times as we can,” said junior defensive end Jordan Nielson. “So we came out doing that and then we just kind of let off towards the end. So we just need to keep it going.”
Last season USU’s 13 points were enough to claim the win over CSU in Logan. However this year the defense couldn’t keep enough points off the board. Though they limited the Rams to 318 total yards. Colorado State converted eight third downs.
“They’ve got to get off the field, got to find ways to get off the field,” Wells said. “They’ve got to get off the field on third downs. It’s not on the offense, not on the defense that’s a total team loss for us.”
Zach Vigil lead the team in tackles again with 13 while his younger brother Nick Vigil was second on the team with nine. Higgins however had 10 receptions for 187 yards including a 69-yard reception on the first play from scrimmage, which lead to a CSU touchdown.
CSU had its first sellout crowd in 10 years. They also racked up 116 penalty yards. USU’s defense failed to force a turnover for the first time this season. CSU also had possession for 11 more minutes than USU.
The loss was the first one in conference for the Aggies. Now every team in the Mountain Division of the Mountain West Conference has one loss.
“It’s everybody’s game now,” Wells said. “You’ve got a lot of teams with one loss, we don’t control our own destiny anymore so we’ll see how it goes it’s going to be game by game for a while.”
The loss drops the Aggies to 4-3 on the season and 1-1 in conference. They are also 1-3 on the road this season
“That’s gut wrenching,” Wells said. “It just pulls your guts out and you hate it for the kids.”
