Utah State football: Spartans stifle Aggies' offense in near-shutout win

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Utah State's Diondre Borel took the first snap of the game on Saturday, promptly fumbled, and fell on the ball for a 2-yard loss.

It was all downhill from there for the Aggies. San Jose State overcame a slow start to dominate Utah State, 30-7, before an announced crowd of 20,318 fans at Spartan Stadium and, hopefully, not too many more on ESPNU.

The Aggies scored their lone touchdown on a 1-yard pass from Sean Setzer to Ronald Scott with one minute, 50 seconds left in the game.

Utah State's offense earned the near-shutout. Peter Caldwell punted 10 times for Utah State. The Aggies were 2-of-15 on 3rd down. They turned the ball over twice, didn't cross midfield until the fourth quarter, and didn't complete a pass until the third quarter.

"We didn't start out like we thought we would," said Borel, who was coming home to the Bay Area, where he played his high school ball. "Our O-line had a little bit of trouble blocking. We've just got to work on a lot of things on offense."

The final numbers looked almost passable — 190 total yards, 13 completed passes, 10 first downs, the late touchdown. But those were deceptive. San Jose State (4-2, 2-0 WAC) put a licking on the Aggies.

"I think the defense played well pretty early," Utah State coach Brent Guy said. "But they wore down. We didn't put as effective a rush on them as they did us.

"When they did get the lead, they were a little more aggressive defensively than we had seen them, they were coming after us a little bit more, we had a hard time protecting Diondre and Sean, neither one of them got in a rhythm, neither one of them were very effective tonight, as well as our running game."

That about covers it. The Spartans finished with 401 yards of offense, led by quarterback Kyle Reed, who was 28-of-40 for 300 yards and three touchdowns. David Richmond caught eight passes for 89 yards and a touchdown, including a spectacular, one-handed grab late in the first half. San Jose State ended up missing a field goal on the drive, so the play went for naught.

It was a long night for cornerback Ray Hurst and the defense. Hurst did have an interception, as well as a nice tackle on punt coverage.

"(It was) very frustrating," Hurst said. "We had a good week of practice, and we didn't show none of that. We came out flat. Period."