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Boise • Teams often look at bowl games as a reward for a season well done, but right now the Aggies want another game simply to erase the lingering, awful feeling of what happened to them at Boise State Saturday.
The Aggies (9-4, 6-2) went into the game with hopes of earning a berth in the Mountain West championship game. Instead, they were sent back to Logan humbled and humiliated in a 50-19 loss.
The loss was so bad that it had the Aggies basically denying it was them out there on the blue turf.
"This was not us," a visibly dejected coach Matt Wells said. "We didn't play at the level we usually play or wanted to play."
No kidding. The Aggies gave up 498 yards to the Broncos (10-2, 7-1), including 283 on the ground. Star running back Jay Ajayi finished with 229 yards and five touchdowns as he ripped through the Aggie defense like no other back has since Nevada's Luke Lippincott ran for 244 yards against the Aggies in 2007.
"We didn't have an answer for them," Wells said. "We didn't execute well enough and hats off to them, they out physicalled us and out executed us, starting with me."
The win gave the No. 25 Broncos the right to host the MWC Championship game Saturday against Fresno State and keeps alive their chances of a New Year's Day bowl.
The Aggies will learn their bowl destination on Sunday when the bowl selections are announced, but most believe they are destined for the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 20.
Knowing they let a chance to host the title game and have it disappear like they did was hard to take, senior Frankie Sutera said.
"This year we thought we had a chance to get back there and make it happen," he said of winning the league championship. "It's disappointing, but we do still have one more game to look forward to."
Regardless of who the bowl opponent is, the Aggies must play better on all fronts to avoid another embarrassing loss like Saturday's.
Utah State went 1-of-11 on third down conversions and managed just 109 rushing yards. Quarterback Kent Myers was 16-of-28 for 159 yards and threw an interception, but he and his offensive cohorts were hardly the biggest problem for once as the Aggies simply couldn't stop the Broncos.
"It hurts," Myers said. "If it had been a close game it wouldn't have hurt as bad but they just blew us out. We didn't play to our potential. We came down here expecting a win and we didn't get it done."
Despite the disappointing loss, Wells said the Aggies shouldn't let it taint what they have done this season.
"We have a chance to go do something that has never been done in the history of this program and that is play in four straight bowls and try to win three," he said.
The Aggies will take a few days off, then get back to work with the developmental squad while they await their bowl destination.
Expect some healing in the next few days to take place, of both the emotional and physical kind.
"Every loss rips your gut out as a coach but this one will stick with me a long time," Wells said. "to get this close and to not be in it is very surprising to me. We will have to go back to work next week and try to fix it."
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