You never know what will happen in a football game in the moments leading up to kickoff. Both teams enter the field ready and energized. The fans feed off that energy and channel it into the belief that it's their team’s night.
USU fan and student, Hayden was charged and ready to cheer his team on and boo the opponents.
“We're just warming up,” he said. “Once we get to the fourth quarter, especially if it's a tight game, holy cow; lots of bad manners, lots of insults to the other teams, boos, you name it, we're not afraid.”
That energy did not last as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas scored quickly on their first two drives of the game, effectively silencing the home crowd.
“It's going to be a long night, Utah,” a UNLV fan said from the upper decks of Maverick Stadium. The Rebels continued with a relentless onslaught that forced the Aggies into three first-half turnovers from USU quarterback Spencer Petras.
USU fans began to leave by the dozens as the Aggies found themselves down 41-7 going into halftime.
“The entire first half was all self-inflicted,” said USU head coach Nate Dreiling. “You're going to watch it on tape. There's guys who missed tackles, there's guys getting lined up late, and we're just not executing.
In the second half, the Aggies emerged as a new team and settled into a rhythm. USU outscored the Rebels 29-9. However, the hole they dug themselves into was too deep, and the Aggies lost 50-34.
“We know how good that we can be,” said USU linebacker Cian Sloan. “We just got to take that same mentality to the rest of the games this year and just play our brand of football, and then they should work out in our favor.”
Dreiling said after going through a very tough early schedule he is looking forward to his team taking on other teams with losing records to help his players build confidence and establish a winning mentality
“If you play hard and you execute, you are going to win games,” Dreiling said. “We're playing hard and we're so close on the execution part, so the margins of error hopefully will be a little bit smaller with our opponents coming up. But if you don't execute, it won't matter.”
The Aggies have a record of 5-1 and sit in twelfth place in the Mountain West Conference. They will be back at home as they take on the New Mexico Lobos on Oct 19.
