Utah State football: Aggies show positive signs in scrimmage

LOGAN — Utah State football situational scrimmage at Romney Stadium showed signs of improvement from Monday's scrimmage and Aggie coach Gary Andersen was pleased with the progress.

"The defense played much better. We had better emotion with the first two groups. They tackled much better," Andersen said. "We ran to the football well and the offense made some plays as well. It was a much more competitive scrimmage. It is what you would look at and say, 'That is Division I football.' "

USU's defense had six players with four or more tackles, including a total of 10 tackles for loss with three quarterback sacks. Senior linebacker Paul Igboeli had two TFL's, while freshman safety Cache Morgan led the way with 10 total stops. Senior safety Kejon Murphy snared the lone interception of the day and had four tackles.

"We just made more tackles and swarmed a lot more compared to the last scrimmage," Murphy said comparing Saturday's second scrimmage of the spring to the first action on Monday. "We improved in knowing our assignments and just playing the game. We need to just play the game and not think so much. That was key to the improvement."

The Aggie offense was led by junior QB Diondre Borel with six rushes for 84 yards, highlighted by a 70-yard scamper that sophomore Robert Turbin capped the three-play, 75-yard scoring drive with a 1-yard TD plunge for the first score of the day. Borel was also 17-of-24 passing for 145 yards with 2 TD's and the one INT. Turbin had four carries for 71 yards, including a 27-yard run and a 39-yard dash, in addition to one catch for 15 yards.

Redshirt freshman Exavier Johnson was 11-of-19 passing for 108 yards while rushing for 40 yards on four carries, including two TD's. Johnson's first TD came on a 14-yard run, capping a 5-play, 75-yard scoring drive, while he added a 2-yard score later in the scrimmage, lowering his shoulder and running over the defensive player at the goal line.

"I think (offensive coordinator) coach Baldwin had much more of a conscious effort to get Diondre and Exavier (Johnson) and (Adam) Eastman the opportunity to throw the ball more," Andersen said. "We switched the second team quarterback, which was a real positive I believe. Exavier shined today in my opinion. He impressed me today as far as his ability to run the offense the correct way."

Freshman QB Adam Eastman was 7-of-9 passing for 78 yards with one TD, a 22-yard strike to sophomore wideout Stanley Morrison during the two-minute drill at the end of the scrimmage, as the offense marched down the field covering 70 yards in eight plays in 1:15 time, using one timeout.