On paper, a win by Oregon would be hard to be any less in doubt. Utah State almost never wins against ranked opponents. No. 18 Oregon, under head coach Mike Bellotti, almost never loses to nonconference teams at home.
Neither of which, of course, mean anything to the players or coaches.
“We don’t really pay any attention to stuff like that,” cornerback Walter Thurmond III said. “Utah State is still dangerous. They’re one of those teams that’s looking for the upset, and if we slack they could take advantage of that.”
Oregon will look to win its second game of the season Saturday at a 12:30 p.m. kickoff at Autzen Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on the Oregon Sports Network.
Oregon jumped up three spots in the Associated Press poll on Tuesday after beating Washington 44-10 in the season opener last Saturday. Conversely, before the Aggies even opened the season last week, media outlets such as Sports Illustrated ranked the Utah State Aggies at or near the bottom of all 119 NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision teams. They didn’t help their case by losing to UNLV last week, dropping the program’s 11th straight season-opening game. Despite their poor reputation, the Aggies will have the Ducks’ attention because of their dual-quarterback system on offense and an aggressive defense that head coach Brent Guy had already said will blitz the Oregon offense often.
“We have talked all along that it’s something our team must be prepared for,” Bellotti said during his Tuesday morning press conference. “The most important thing is that we continue to spread the field and run the option.”
Utah State will return the favor, moving its receivers and running backs on offense before the snap for “empty sets,” Bellotti said.
“That puts a lot of stress on your coverage,” he said.
When starting quarterback senior Sean Setzer is in the game, the offense is more of a classic passing attack, and Setzer is accurate. Against UNLV, he started the game completing nine of his first 10 passes. Sophomore quarterback Diondre Borel gained 70 yards on 15 carries last week and added 80 yards passing, completing 50 percent of his passes.
“I think in my opinion right now, the backup quarterback right now is more concerning,” Bellotti said. “Setzer can get rid of the ball in face of pressure, Borel, he can just run away from the pressure.”
A week after preparing for Washington’s Jake Locker, Oregon defenders haven’t changed their gameplan much to limit Utah State’s two signal-callers.
“They do that same stuff that Washington does,” linebacker Jerome Boyd said. “We pretty much have the same schemes.”
Guy, who served as defensive coordinator for Arizona State from 2001-2004, doesn’t have any illusions about the type of environment his Aggies will step into Saturday.
“It is a very hard place for an offensive team to go into and execute,” Guy said. “It will be a challenge for our offense because of the type of environment that they have and they are as impressive an Oregon team as I have seen.”
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