Utah St. football: After botched play, USU coaches scrapped option

PROVO — When Diondre Borel's pitch on an option play near the end of the first half was off target — as many of his pitches have been this year — it did two things to Utah State's offense.

First, it gave BYU the ball with 39 seconds left in the half, and the Cougars needed just 10 seconds and two plays to turn a 14-7 football game into a 21-7 contest at the half.

Second, it destroyed the Aggie coaching staff's confidence in what was supposed to be a significant portion of the offensive game plan and effectively ripped several pages out of USU's playbook.

"It is a major concern," Utah State coach Gary Andersen lamented after the 35-17 loss. "It is something we have to address ... It is something that changed the play calls in the second half."

That play, an option designed to go to Robert Turbin but recovered by BYU's Andrew Rich, was the second fumbled option pitch of the game. The first was recovered by the Aggies but caused a first-half drive to stall.

When the second fumble became a momentum-swinging disaster, the Aggies had to tighen up their game plan and eliminate the potential for further damage.

"The option is what we are going to do," Andersen said.

But Friday night in LaVell Edwards Stadium, that essential part of USU's offensive set wasn't working. In fact, it hasn't worked well yet this season.

Utah State's often-explosive offense was shut down to a large degree by the BYU defense. No Aggie play went for more than 32 yards and after entering the game averaging nearly 500 yards per game, USU managed just 322 against the Cougars.

"I've got to give credit to BYU," Andersen said. "They tackled well and cut off some of those lanes."

Aggie tailback Robert Turbin, one of the top rushers in the country before the game, managed just 47 yards on 17 carries.

The offensive highlight for Utah State, if there was one, was the 20-of-28 passing from Diondre Borel for 213 yards and a game-capping touchdown to Xavier Bowman with three seconds left on the clock.

"Our biggest issue is that good football teams make plays to win games," Andersen said, "and we haven't been doing that."

e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com