Can Utah State football carry over momentum from its win over Wyoming?

Utah State quarterback Spencer Petras looks to throw the football during an NCAA college football game against UNLV, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024 in Logan, Utah. | Tyler Tate

Can Utah State turn its victory over Wyoming into something more? Can the win over the rival Cowboys spark something for the Aggies?

Those are some of the biggest questions surrounding USU football now, coming off its final bye week of the season with a difficult road trip to No. 20 Washington State on the slate this Saturday.

At 2-6 overall, Utah State has had a challenging season thus far, with games against four teams that have been ranked in the Top 25 at one point (Washington State will make it five).

There was also a run of six straight losses, more than a few of which were fairly uncompetitive. But did the win over Wyoming change anything, other than snapping that losing streak? Does Utah State actually have some momentum now?

Interim head coach Nate Dreiling isn’t a huge believer in momentum. At least not the positive kind.

“Momentum is real if you are mentally weak and it rolls over top of you cause you can’t stand and fight against it,” he said. “You just kind of crumble and that is when the snowball effect happens and everything just gets worse and worse. That is true.”

When it comes to winning games and having success, Dreiling is much more of a believer that hard work gets it done. Mental toughness and execution, rather than something as amorphous as momentum.

“If you have a mentally tough team, they (your opponent) might get a couple of plays, but you know that is totally irrelevant to what is going to happen on the next snap because we’ve reset and are back to zero and back to playing my way and my game,” he said.

That doesn’t mean that the Aggies haven’t been energized by their win, though.

Defensive back DJ Graham noted…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/utah-state-football-carry-over-015054723.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-11-05 01:50:54

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