Utah State football: Defense shines, offense sputters in scrimmage

LOGAN — For a time, Gary Andersen was like a kid in a candy store. The Utah State head football coach was fired up and giddy as he watched the Aggie defense make stop after stop, force a few turnovers and generally dominate the offense during Tuesday morning's 115-play scrimmage.

Then he remembered he's also the USU head coach and the offense is his concern as well.

"We got to the 1-inch line and have to throw the ball to score," Andersen said. "That's disheartening."

Despite those offensive struggles, Andersen said he saw much of what he wanted to see on Tuesday morning. The defensive line was getting a much better push and giving the quarterbacks all sorts of problems. The receivers, despite a few drops, showed they have plenty of potential and depth. The running backs didn't exactly light things up, but were far from disappointing except in those red-zone situations.

The scrimmage also had a bunch of developments that should have Aggie fans intrigued.

Quarterback Diondre Borel was not his normal sharp self.

"We need to step it up a little bit," Borel said of the offense. "Overall, I feel like the defense was playing a lot better today."

That's good news for a team that struggled, especially in the red zone, last year.

"The red zone is something that we harped on a lot," Aggie linebacker Junior Keiaho said. "We really want to improve on that."

The highlight of the scrimmage was clearly the goal-line defense. After a couple of nice offensive plays gave USU some seemingly-easy scoring opportunities, the defense buckled down and refused to give an inch.

"I'm sure Diondre will tell you he didn't play the way he wanted to," Andersen said. "But I'm sure the defense was an issue. I'm not sure you can put all of that on Diondre. He didn't get the protection he needed."

Though the linebackers appear to be the strength of the defense, the defensive line is coming along well.

Redshirt freshman D.J. Tialavea, in particular, is standing out with his rapid development as a defensive tackle.

"It's different," the 6-foot-4, 265-pounder from West Jordan said. "I've never played inside before.

"It's a grind in there," he said. "You have to be a tough kid ... You've got to be strong, got to be stout."