A season ago, the Utah State football team was one of the worst teams in the country when it came to tackling turnovers.
This is not an exaggeration.
At the end of the 2022 season, the Aggies were ranked 120th out of 130 FBS teams in turnover differential at minus 9.
USU was the worst team in the Mountain West Conference — in terms of turnovers — and forced just 11 steals, while giving up 21 steals and losing fumble six times.
This was a problem in almost every game during the 6-7 campaign.
Throughout the offseason that followed, head coach Blake Anderson stressed the need to secure the ball, especially from his quarterbacks. Simply put, the Aggies needed to be better at turnovers or they wouldn’t have a chance to improve on their mediocre 2022 season.
And they knew it.
Eight games into the 2023 season, things have improved significantly. Utah State is ranked No. 69 in the nation in turnover differential this season, at just -1.
The Aggies have forced 16 turnovers – eight fumbles and eight interceptions – and rank in the middle of the MW in differential, thanks to four lost fumbles and 13 interceptions thrown.
These interceptions, however, remain a serious problem for the Aggies and come from both McCae Hillstead and Cooper Legas.
So far this season, Hillstead has thrown seven picks, while Legas has thrown six. Hillstead has thrown two or more interceptions in each of his last three appearances – against UConn, James Madison and San Jose State – while Legas has thrown two interceptions in each of his last two games – against Colorado State and Fresno State.
Hillstead’s performance against San Jose State was discouraging, as the freshman returned to action after missing several games due to concussion protocol and committing several errors.
“I mean, we can’t give the ball away. That’s our problem,” Anderson said. “That’s really why he (Hillstead) was put on the field because we didn’t think he was going to make it. He didn’t get a lot of help today. We didn’t control the front. They (SJSU) got to him a lot quicker than they should have. … I don’t feel like he played well. There were some mistakes that we can’t afford to make.”
It was mistakes, however, that led to Hillstead getting the quarterback job over Legas against San Jose State. Anderson noted that Legas was outplayed this weekend by Hillstead in large part because the senior quarterback could have thrown as many as five interceptions last week against Fresno State if not for the Bulldogs’ dropbacks.
“The goal was to stop turning the ball over,” Anderson said.
This has been Utah State’s goal all season and while the Aggies have made progress, there is clearly a long way to go.
If Utah State wants to become bowl eligible this season, those improvements will have to come in the final four games of the season, against San Diego State, Nevada, New Mexico and Boise State.
Otherwise, the Aggies may not bowl this season, with the freebies largely to blame.
