Aggies finish regular season with school-record 10th win

There was one step left in finishing the regular season on a record-setting note for Utah State, and all it took was a win over an Idaho team that is pretty much dead men walking.

The first half opened up a little bit sloppy, leaving a tiny bit of a threat of that letdown that sometimes comes after a big win. The offense was held to a three-and-out on its first possession, then ended USU's second possession with an interception thrown by Chuckie Keeton on the second play.

The defense was getting its job done though, even if they gave up an unsavory amount of yards to Idaho in the first half. Three plays after Keeton threw his first pick, Bojay Filimoeatu got in on pickfest 2012 with an interception of his own, which he broke a handful of tackles to return 48 yards to Idaho's 11-yard line. Three plays later, Kerwynn Williams took a Keeton pass into the end zone for the score.

The defense kept things going, allowing Idaho just one yard before they were forced to punt on the next possession. The offense kept on struggling though, punting again after gaining just 19 yards. But B.J. Larsen got in on the turnovers with an interception of his own, setting up another short scoring drive for the offense, this time with the score coming from Keeton's legs.

Then Will Davis seemed to finally get tired of that whole 'not having a pick-6 yet' thing. Davis jumped a route, picked off Idaho for the third time, stumbled for about 10 yards and somehow kept his feet to take it home for six!! It was one of those things where once he picked it, everyone could tell that if he did keep his feet, nobody had a chance of getting him, and once he got back to running fully upright, madness in the crowd ensued. To say the least, the play was bad ass.

Idaho put together long drives resulting in field goals on its next three possessions, then only gained 35 more total yards in the game. Or in other words, USU finally quit messing around with them.

The Aggies clearly came out with new focus in the second half, and wrapped up the outright conference championship we had all more or less been celebrating since the La Tech game ended last week.

CELEBRATION
It wasn't a sellout crowd, but for a November home game, over Thanksgiving weekend, the crowd on hand was spectacular. As the final seconds ticked away, fans made their way onto the field to celebrate Utah State's first outright conference title since 1936

In the spirit of the Western Athletic Conference, things were horribly disorganized, with commissioner Jeff Hurd taking what seemed like 10 minutes to get to the stage they rolled out to mid-field for the trophy presentation. It may or may not have gotten a little bit awkward waiting down there, but I suppose that a quality trophy presentation is part of what we have to look forward to in conquering a new conference next year.

Regardless, being down there, with the best USU team in school history, the WAC championship trophy, friends, coaches, players, and everyone else... That all was special. One thing left to do now, and that's take care of unfinished business from last year up in Boise.

NOTES

• It was a bummer to have to see three guys not get to take the field for senior day. McKade Brady was forced to sit out for his last home game, Oscar Molina-Sanchez missed almost his entire last season, and Stetson Tenney didn't even get to really have a playing at all.
   
• There might have been other players doing it, but I noticed Al Lapuaho first rocking a 36 and a 67 painted on his arm in honor of Brady and Molina-Sanchez. That's nothing short of bad ass.
   
• Will Davis had an interception for his fifth straight game. Three of those have come in USU's own end zone and this one was taken to the house. At this point, you've got to seriously consider Davis for the WAC's Defensive Player of the Year.
   
• Jake Doughty had 12 tackles, leading the team again this week and giving him 30 total over the past two games. Another guy you kinda gotta consider for Player of the Year. A few other teams might have guys sporting better stats, but given USU's outright title, one of either the offensive or defensive POY awards has got to go to an Aggie.
• At the end of the regular season, the top three tacklers on this team are Jake Doughty, Zach Vigil, and McKade Brady... all former walk-ons. That is insane!!! Hell yeah to those guys and the coaches who got them here.
• Kerwynn Williams is only 60 total yards away from 2,000 in total offense for the season.
• Chuckie Keeton should be the WAC's Offensive Player of the Year, without question. Colby Cameron and Kenneth Dixon both put some great numbers while running up the score on teams, but Keeton quarterbacked the WAC's top team to the title in impressive fashion.
• I know it was mentioned before, but Bojay's interception was easily one of the most exciting plays of the season. Had he beaten those last few guys to take it to the house, my head wouldn't have been the only one to explode out there.
• Regular season concluded without USU allowing a 1st quarter touchdown. Amazing.

Players of the Game: Will Davis

For a guy who has made big plays all year, he finally came through with a pick-six Saturday. And for a guy as vocal about his love for Utah State on Twitter and in interviews, you've gotta love him already at that point. Couple that with the fact that he seems to have a smile on his face 100 percent of the time, it makes him that much more of a stud. This guy just freaking rules, and that play was the biggest one in a record-setting game.