Utah State quarterback Levi Williams (16) seems for a receiver throughout the first half of the staff’s NCAA faculty soccer recreation towards Alabama, Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Vasha Hunt, AP
No Utah State Aggie soccer participant was actually a standout Saturday night time towards Alabama.
The Crimson Tide dominated, en path to a 55-0 shutout victory in Tuscaloosa.
It was largely a brutal night time for the Aggies, one which they professed the necessity to depart behind afterward, but it surely did afford backup quarterbacks Cooper Legas and Levi Williams vital enjoying time.
Legas and Williams have been battling for the backup quarterback job — behind Logan Bonner — for months now, going again to the spring.
They're listed as Legas OR Williams on the Utah State depth chart, which means the race continues to be neck-and-neck.
Given time, each confirmed flashes of their potential Saturday, even in dismal circumstances.
“Contemplating the surroundings, I believed they each did tremendous,” Utah State head coach Blake Anderson mentioned.
Bonner began the sport, per the same old, however after his knee was aggravated early, the Aggies elected to take no possibilities, benching him for the remainder of the night time.
“He (Bonner) bought dinged early,” Anderson mentioned, “and with the knee we don’t need to take a whole lot of possibilities.
“It was swelling. Structurally it appears tremendous and he shall be tremendous subsequent week, but it surely wasn’t sensible to maintain placing him on the market. He wasn’t going to have the ability to transfer like we wanted him to.”
In Bonner’s absence, the Aggies turned to Legas and Williams, and statistically neither carried out all that nicely.
Legas accomplished 3 of 8 go makes an attempt for simply three yards, whereas Williams accomplished 2 of 5 passes for 15 yards.
Each ran with the ball, too — Legas had the sting there — however finally mixed for under 10 complete yards.
So how have been they “tremendous?”
Upon entry into the sport, each quarterbacks sparked the Aggies to a number of first downs. In a recreation when Utah State had solely seven complete first downs, that success was notable.
Furthermore, each flashed succesful operating capability.
Legas reeled off a 9-yard run up the center that required a number of Alabama defenders to deliver him down, whereas Williams proved adept at operating to the sideline, gaining a pair yards right here and there.
When it got here to operating the offense, in arguably probably the most hostile surroundings both will ever play in, Anderson was content material with each.
“In that sense, I believed each did nicely,” Anderson mentioned. “That (Bryant-Denny Stadium) is a fairly chaotic surroundings to be in. They have been beneath duress a very good bit. To not have thrown a decide... they did a very good job.”
Williams did fumble as soon as — the Aggies fumbled 3 times within the recreation however recovered all of them — but it surely wasn’t an excusable miscue, so far as any close to turnover will be excused.
“We did have one ball find yourself on the bottom,” Anderson mentioned, “but it surely was a fairly bodily hit that triggered it.”
Anderson was happy with how the sign callers communicated play calls to their teammates, given the duress of enjoying in entrance of 100,000-plus individuals, towards the top-ranked staff within the nation, an surroundings security Ike Larsen admitted elicited butterflies.
“They communicated nicely, bought a few first downs alongside the way in which,” Anderson mentioned. “They each did tremendous.”