USU football: Aggies take hard WAC hit

New Mexico State's Chris Buckner tackles Utah State' Robert Turbin during an NCAA college football game in Las Cruces, N.M. on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009. (AP Photo/Las Cruces Sun-News, Niki Rhynes)

Las Cruces, N.M.» It took one simple sentence -- just 14 words -- for Utah State coach Gary Andersen to sum up his feelings about the Aggies' 20-17 loss to New Mexico State Saturday night.

Kyle Hughes kicked New Mexico State to the win with a 28 yard field goal as time expired.

"This is the hardest loss I've ever had to deal with in my life."

And that pretty much sums up how the rest of the team feels. Utah State came into its Western Athletic Conference opener with high hopes of starting the league schedule off with a win and hopefully propelling itself into contention for an upper division finish.

Instead, those hopes took a huge hit in a game that USU entered as an 11-point favorite. Instead of heading into next week's home matchup with Nevada on a high note, Utah State is now forced to pick up the pieces from its most disheartening defeat of the season.

"I don't know where we go from here," sophomore running back Robert Turbin said. "There's no way we should've lost this game."

But Hughes' game-winner was really the culmination of a series of events.

Marques Anderson set up Hughes's kick with a 58-yard punt return. Peter Caldwell's kick was supposed to pin NMSU inside its own 20. Instead, the low line drive out-kicked the USU coverage and gave Anderson the opening he needed.

"It was a bad punt," Andersen said. "We were thinking that with time running

A big factor, and maybe the biggest factor, were the penalties USU garnered. Utah State was flagged 12 times for 128 yards, many of those wiping out huge plays. It was enough to offset a 429-230 total yardage advantage held by Utah State.

"We were an undisciplined football team tonight," Andersen said. "It's unfortunate because we haven't been an undisciplined team all season. But we were tonight."

Lost in the scope of the defeat was Robert Turbin's play. The sophomore running back, once again, turned in a huge performance, running 24 times for 184 yards. That was enough to put him over the 1,000 yard mark for his career.

"That means nothing because we didn't win the game," Turbin said.

With the score tied at 10-all, it looked as if USU would take control when Diondre Borel hit Xavier Bowman for a 21 yard touchdown pass. The score gave Utah State a 17-10 lead and marked the 17th consecutive point scored by the Aggies.

But with chances to take over and push the lead out, New Mexico State responded with a 1 yard run by Seth Smith. The game stayed tied until Hughes hit the game-winner.