Utah State football: Aggies enter WAC schedule with a different attitude

It's kind of an annual thing for Utah State — play a nasty non-conference schedule filled with rugged opponents, take some lumps, cash a pay check or two and limp into conference play with a bruised team — physically and mentally.

More often than not, that hasn't been a good formula and the Aggies have struggled to turn things around against teams from the Western Athletic Conference.

New Utah State coach Gary Andersen couldn't do much about the schedule -- Utah, BYU and Texas A&M were scheduled long ago -- but he has had an impact on the attitude Utah State has after those losses.

"Obviously we are not where we want to be with three losses, but I feel like we are ready for WAC play," Utah State junior safety Rajric Coleman said. "Coach (Andersen) emphasized that was our preseason . . . I think we have the confidence to go in and beat any team in the WAC and we have the scheme to beat any team in the WAC."

The Aggies hope the positive mood around the locker room carries onto the field Saturday when they open WAC play at New Mexico State — a team USU clobbered 47-2 last year.

"It's nice to get into WAC play," Andersen said. "There's a lot of teams in the WAC that are in the exact same position that we are in.

"There's going to be a great fight throughout WAC play," he added. "We're going to see some wins that people didn't expect and some losses that people didn't expect."

BOWL BOUND VANDALS?: The team with the most unexpected wins is Idaho.

The Vandals have four wins already and are on the verge of going to a bowl game after spending years at the bottom of the conference standings.

Idaho has a win over NMSU already, and picked up impressive wins against San Diego State and Colorado State.

Those two wins have helped the WAC post a respectable 4-6 record against the Mountain West — the league WAC schools most want to compete with.

Idaho's rise — they are in the second season of the Robb Akey era in Moscow — is one the Aggies would like to mimic and surpass in the next year or two.

IS THERE ANOTHER OPTION: With 15 fumbles this year, Utah State is putting a little extra focus during practice on ball security.

But practice results haven't always carried over to in-game situations where a pair of pitches from quarterback Diondre Borel weren't close.