Utah State's Kent Myers has High Expectations for Senior Season

Kent Myers has accomplished quite a bit during his first three years at Utah State.

After all, the native of Rowlett, Texas, was tabbed the Gildan New Mexico Bowl Offensive MVP in 2014 as a true freshman and garnered honorable mention all-Mountain West honors in 2015 as a sophomore. His name is scattered all over the school record books, including owning both the USU and Mountain West single-game record with a completion percentage of 93.3 as he completed 14-of-15 passes at Hawai'i on Nov. 1, 2014.

You could go on and on about Myers' feats with the Aggies, but there is one thing missing that the 6-foot, 205-pound senior quarterback desperately craves.

"I want to win the Mountain West championship," Myers said. "I haven't done that since I've been here, but we were close my freshman year."

Considering the Aggies finished the 2016 campaign with a 3-9 overall mark (1-7 in the Mountain West) and were picked to finish dead last in the conference this season, Utah State chances of reaching the top this season don't seem very high.
 

However, Myers insists the Aggies have what it takes to climb to the top of the mountain.

"This is my fourth and final year here and I feel like we have the team to do that this year, so it is going to be an amazing season," Myers said. "Besides winning the Mountain West, I really just want to feed the ball around because we have a lot of great athletes surrounding me, and I want to go to a good bowl game."

That kind of leadership and drive is exactly what you want from your starting quarterback.

"He has been tremendous in the classroom as far as learning everything and asking questions, just taking all the coaching he can get to try and improve his craft and his skills, and make himself a better quarterback for us," said first-year Utah State offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach David Yost. "He did a tremendous job of orchestrating the offense throughout the spring and it continued through fall camp."

Following a standout prep career at Sachse High School in Rowlett, one in which he passed for 3,522 yards and 42 touchdowns, to go along with 559 yards rushing and 10 more scores as a senior, Myers headed west to continue his career.

The son of Greg and Stephanie Myers, who was named the Texas Class 5A District 11 MVP as a senior, turned down offers from Air Force, New Mexico and Navy to become an Aggie.

"This was the best option for me," Myers said. "Air Force, New Mexico and Navy all run the triple option and I didn't want to be a running back or quarterback that gets hit 30 times a game, rather than being able to throw on the run when I have to like I do here at Utah State."

With the likes of Chuckie Keeton, among others, ahead of him on the depth chart, Myers was likely going to redshirt during his first season with the Aggies in 2014.

However, due to injuries to three different quarterbacks, Myers found himself thrust into the spotlight. As a true freshman, he played in his first career game against UNLV on Oct. 25, passing for 32 yards and rushing for 28 more to help the Aggies beat the Rebels 34-20.

The very next week, Myers made his first career start at Hawai'i. But by the way he played and managed the game, you would have thought he was a seasoned veteran.

In setting both the school and conference single-game completion percentage record, Myers completed his first 12 pass attempts against the Rainbow Warriors, which is also a program record. He finished the game with 186 yards passing and three touchdowns as the Aggies rolled to a 35-14 victory on the rock. 

"I was just getting the ball to my athletes," Myers recalled of the game. "Coaches always talk about it, to just do your job and that's what I did as a freshman -- I did my job. The defense was telling me to put the ball in play, give it to the playmakers and they will do the rest. I was smart with the ball, I got it to the athletes around me and I went 14-for-15."

Myers ended up playing in seven games during his freshman campaign and was 5-1 as the starting quarterback. He completed 79-of-119 passes (.664) for 866 yards and five touchdowns, to go along with 310 yards rushing and a team-leading five touchdowns on 56 carries.

Since taking over the reins as the starting quarterback, Myers has not looked back. Entering Friday's game against BYU, he has appeared in 32 total games with 29 starts. For his career, he has completed 487-of-793 passes for 5,625 yards and 35 touchdowns, to go along with 1,299 yards rushing and 18 more scores on 290 carries.

Yost expects his starting quarterback to enjoy a great senior season.

"He has a chance to have a really efficient, attacking-type season and then it's just a matter of the more time we give him, the more plays we can make around him," Yost said. "With any quarterback, it is as much about the 10 guys around him as it is about him, but I think he's going to be really on top of it this season -- attacking and getting the ball in our playmakers' hands.

"He is a distributor in our offense and then he does have that bonus feature of making plays with his feet. We want to continue to have him making plays with his head and his arm as much as we can. I think he can have a really explosive year for us and put us in positions to be a successful football team." 

One thing is certain, Myers does not want to have a repeat of last year. He wants nothing more than to help the Aggies right the ship and return to prominence, which means becoming a better leader for the team.

"It starts with that, and that is the main thing," Myers said. "You can have the most talented team in the world, but if you don't have leaders to motivate your guys and keep everything up to par, then your team can break down. Last year I was a leader, as well, and we had some good leaders, but you can always improve on something. We went 3-9. If we would have said something sooner -- there are always those what-ifs -- our season could have turned around, especially with the number of close games we had. Hopefully, we can change that this year."

Myers was a two-sport star at Sachse HS as he also played shortstop and outfield on the Mustangs' baseball team. He garnered Texas Class 5A all-District 11 first-team honors as a junior, second-team honors as a sophomore and honorable mention honors as a freshman.

Choosing which sport he wanted to play at the next level was not easy for Myers.

"My true love before football was baseball, so it was a hard decision, whether I was going to play football or baseball in college," he said. "I really started falling in love with football during my junior year of high school and in the long run, this is what I wanted to play. Nothing beats playing quarterback at the Division I level, and being able to come and get my degree."

Myers is a sociology major with a marketing minor. He is on track to graduate in the spring of 2018. 

After college, he would like to continue playing football on a professional level.

"God willing," Myers said. "If not, I want to be a medical sales rep for a medical device company. My mom is a clinical specialist, so I have been around that all my life and that is something I look forward to doing."

No matter what career path Myers takes, you can be certain it will be full of plenty of accomplishments. 

For more information on Utah State Aggies, visit http://www.utahstateaggies.com/.