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Logan • Just a few days ago Utah State coach Matt Wells was talking about how unpredictable football seasons can be, relating it to last year's adversity when Joe Hill and quarterback Chuckie Keeton suffered season-ending injuries.

"You can't predict anything," he said.

No you can't, but you can feel a little déjà vu.

The future looks uncertain once more for the Aggies' offense as Keeton sat out the second half of the Aggies' 36-24 win over Wake Forest (1-2) Saturday in Romney Stadium with a leg injury.

Keeton came out of the locker room after the half on crutches favoring his surgically repaired left knee and watched sophomore Darell Garretson close out the win.

Keeton was 20-of-27 for 166 yards passing and a touchdown in the first half with one interception that was returned for a touchdown.

He had four carries for a loss of four yards.

Garretson finished 11-of-16 for 121 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

Wells said following the game he wasn't sure of Keeton's prognosis. Keeton was sidelined on the advice of the team doctors, Wells said.

"It's the same knee, he's banged up," Well said.

Garretson is familiar with stepping into a bad situation as he became Utah State's starting quarterback last season when Keeton suffered his season-ending knee injury against BYU on Oct. 4.

Garretson started the final seven games, going 6-1 as a starter. He was 126-of-209 for 1,446 yards and 10 touchdowns with seven interceptions.

On Saturday, Garretson's first series went badly as he threw an interception that was returned to Utah State's 10-yard line, setting up a Wake Forest touchdown.

The Demon Deacons scored again on their next possession, cutting Utah State's lead to 29-21, but Garretson settled down and threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Wyatt Houston with 5:46 remaining in the third quarter to end the slide.

"He was rusty at first and a little slow but he settled down," Wells said of Garretson.

Most expected the Aggies (2-1) to struggle last season when Keeton was hurt but Utah State went on to a 9-5 season and a 7-1 mark in league play. Wells believes the Aggies can continue to be successful no matter who is at quarterback this year too.

"We'll rally around him if he is the guy going forward," Wells said of Garretson. "But this is a team. It's not one coach or one player, it's guys playing together."

Utah State's defense was the catalyst in the win with a stingy defense that held Wake Forest to -25 yards rushing on 24 carries.

Zach Vigil returned one interception for a touchdown, Devin Centers returned a fumble recovery for a touchdown and an interception by Frankie Sutera set up another easy Aggie score, helping the Aggies lead 29-7 at halftime.

"We take pride in stopping the run," Vigil said. "We were flying around the ball and executing at a high level."

Vigil said the defense felt it was in a similar situation to last year and wanted to help out Garretson as much as possible.

"We wanted to go out there and take care of business," he said. "We weren't doing that in the second half then we came together, calmed down and got things rolling." —

Storylines

O In short • The Aggies scored on an interception and fumble return to key a victory over Wake Forest, but played the second half without quarterback Chuckie Keeton, who suffered a left leg injury. Keeton tore his left ACL last season.

Key moment • After Wake Forest scored back-to-back touchdowns, USU quarterback Darell Garretson threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Wyatt Houston to put the Aggies ahead 36-21 with 5:46 remaining in the third quarter.