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The trip along I-84 is not glamorous, although Boise is a much more practical destination than Honolulu for followers of the Utah State Aggies.
The event is not spectacular, while there's something to be said for the only bowl game with an adjective in the title and sour cream in the logo.
The opponent is not overwhelming, even with full credit to Akron for the program's growth.
Yet the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl offers Utah State just enough of a risk/reward opportunity to make Tuesday afternoon's game interesting at Albertsons Stadium. The Aggies continually are trying to carve out a distinction in college football, and this bowl season gives them that chance.
By the time the calendar turns to 2016, USU could emerge as the only team to have won a bowl game each of the past four seasons. That's something worth playing for against the Zips. The Aggies need a victory and losses by Texas A&M, Clemson and Michigan State to stand alone at 4-0 in bowls over four years.
Texas A&M will play Louisville in the Music City Bowl after losing its top two quarterbacks, who are transferring. Clemson meets Oklahoma, and Michigan State faces Alabama in the College Football Playoff. So that sequence of events certainly could happen.
USU (6-6) also should be motivated by knowing that a defeat would mean a losing record. The Aggies still could point to five consecutive bowl appearances, an achievement that would have seemed unlikely when this decade began. But a seventh defeat would make this season unsatisfying.
Unlike recent years, when coach Matt Wells was credited with steering the team through tough times amid a series of key injuries, USU has not distinguished itself in a year when a 52-26 rout of Boise State made the Aggies 4-2 in mid-October and seemingly opened all kinds of possibilities to them. They couldn't follow through, which is partly attributable to the rise of other programs in the Mountain West.
San Diego State, which turned out to be the MW's best team by far, crushed the Aggies. Air Force and New Mexico made significant climbs this season, and each team held off USU's comeback attempt in November.
The Aggies ended up in a four-way tie for second place in the Mountain Division at 5-3, then lost 51-28 to BYU to close the regular season. That showing resembled their 50-19 loss to Boise State in 2014, before the Aggies redeemed themselves by beating Texas-El Paso in the New Mexico Bowl.
So USU needs a good performance in Boise, in another checkpoint for the program. Making a Potato Bowl appearance in 2011 was a major breakthrough for the Aggies. USU lost to Ohio that year, but then beat Toledo in a return trip to Boise, downed Northern Illinois in San Diego and topped UTEP in Albuquerque.
So here comes Akron of the Mid-American Conference — like Ohio, Toledo and Northern Illinois. The MAC is a good bowl partner for the Mountain West, and this is another decent matchup.
Potato Bowl tradition dictates the naming of an MVP from each team, and USU's selections have been running backs Michael Smith in 2011 and Kerwynn Williams in 2012. That trend is unlikely to continue against Akron's No. 3-ranked rushing defense, so some combination of USU quarterbacks Chuckie Keeton and Kent Myers will have to deliver.
Myers received the New Mexico Bowl's outstanding offensive player award last December — mostly because of a 48-yard run, while he passed for only 68 yards. Myers is a much more advanced passer now, although he missed the BYU game with a shoulder injury. Keeton made his first start since Sept. 19, having recovered from a knee injury. His mixed performance made that Senior Day "memorable … but not 100 percent for the right reasons," Keeton said.
The Aggies hope to increase that rate, in their last showing of 2015.
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