USU football: Aggies beat Spartans in snowy Logan

LOGAN — With snow falling, the wind blowing and the temperatures dropping, it came as no surprise that Utah State opted to focus its offensive attention on its running game.

That San Jose State, a team allowing 277 ground yards per game, was a the opponent was a happy coincidence for the Aggies.

And Utah State took advantage of that by grinding out a season-best 381 rushing yards to take a 24-9 win over the Spartans.

"It says they care," Utah State coach Gary Andersen said. "It says they like to compete and they care about each other."

The much-needed victory means Utah State (3-7 overall, 2-4 WAC) reached one of the modest goals the team set at the beginning of the season — a winning record at home.

"To be able to get to 3-1 at home ensures something," Andersen said, "that I think is special to the seniors, to have a winning record at home ... that's something no one on this team has done."

Leading the charge for the Aggies was a resurgent defense which allowed only 56 rushing yards and a standout performance by sophomore running back Robert Turbin.

"Obviously a good game for us and a good win," said Turbin, who finished with 190 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries. "We had some ups and downs but the defense did a great job when their backs were against the wall."

The 381 yards was the most Utah State has had since 1999 against Nevada. Turbin passed the 1,000-yard mark for the season early in the game and finished with 1,122 yards so far this season.

"We had trouble with Turbin and (Diondre) Borel in the open field," SJSU coach Dick Tomey said. "I think they were certainly the better team. I've been impressed with them."

Utah State scored first after using a fake field goal to move the chains, setting up a 6-yard Turbin run with 11:47 on the first-quarter clock.

Turbin hit the end zone again in the second quarter, taking a pitch from Borel on the left side, stopping and reversing direction to evade tacklers on a pair of occasions and scampering 35 yards into the end zone to give Utah State a 14-0 lead.

The momentum was building, but Utah State couldn't put the Spartans (1-8, 0-5) away.

"We make it hard," Andersen said. "We can make any game interesting really easy."

In this case, it was allowing San Jose State to score twice in the third quarter.

"It was 14-0 at halftime. But I wasn't really fired up going into half," Andersen said. "I thought that game should have been 21- or 28-0. It wasn't so we came out and had a bad snap (on a punt) and let them score."

But even after the Spartans made it 14-9, this game never fully left Utah State's control.

Chirs Ulinski hit a 40-yard field goal to give the Aggies an eight-point lead early in the fourth quarter and backup running back Derrvin Speight capped an 87-yard drive with a dive into the corner of the end zone to push USU's lead to 24-9 with 9:35 to play.

And though SJSU had a couple of more chances to climb back into it, none of those chances paid off and the Aggies shut the door on the game when Levi Koskan sacked San Jose's Jordan La Secla on fourth down with 3:00 left to play.

"Defensively, we dug in," Andersen said. "I think this was only the second game this year that we were able to put pressure on the quarterback from the defensive line and that makes good things happen for you."

Those good things will be sorely needed next Friday night when Boise State invades Romney Stadium for a nationally-televised ESPN game.

e-mail: jeborn@desnews.com