Utah State football: Diondre Borel leads Aggies past Bengals

USU vs. Idaho State boxscore

LOGAN — Utah State quarterback Diondre Borel continued his excellent play for the Aggies on Saturday, passing for 255 yards and a touchdown while adding another 46 yards and a TD on the ground in a 38-17 victory over the visiting Idaho State Bengals.

In the victory, Borel became only the seventh Aggie quarterback in history to go over the 5,000-yard passing plateau for his career, and the first to do so since Jose Fuentes hit that mark in 2001. Borel also moved up to No. 3 on the Aggies' all-time total offense list with 6,212 career yards, passing Eric Hipple, who played for USU back in the late 1970's.

"It's a great feeling, breaking records, but we've got to get the wins — that's all that matters." Borel said about hitting those career milestones.

"It seems like every game he gets another record," USU head coach Gary Andersen said. "I can't keep track of them all, but he deserves everything he gets."

Andersen was happy to get the first win of the year, but still believes the Aggies (1-1) have plenty to work on.

"It's great to get a victory any time in a Division I football game," he said, "but we still have plenty to work on."

The Aggies were determined not to be another FBS team to lose to an FCS team on Saturday after watching several big-name schools fall earlier in the afternoon. "You watch those games all day long," Andersen said "We aren't a football team that can take anybody lightly."

Even as the Aggies were happy to walk away from their home-opener with a win, they were not entirely satisfied with the effort.

One era of emphasis for the team this coming week will be penalties. The Aggies were flagged 10 times for a total of 98 yards.

"It's ridiculous." Andersen said about his team's penalties "We will never be the football team we want to be unless we start figuring that out. … Stupid, ignorant, administrative penalties we have to be able to handle as a football team."

Utah State started out slow, surrendering a 43-yard kickoff return on the opening play which led to an Idaho State field goal just four minutes into the game.

After starting out sluggishly, however, the Aggies controlled the game in nearly every conceivable way, scoring 38 unanswered points behind a stifling defense, Borel's passing and a balanced rushing attack that saw four different players run for a touchdown.