Warriors hope to ride Brennan to win over hapless Aggies

NCAA Football Betting Lines

10/03/2007 - Honolulu, HI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Losers of 11 straight games, the Utah State Aggies have the unenviable task of taking on the 16th-ranked Hawaii Warriors in Western Athletic Conference play from Aloha Stadium this weekend.

The Aggies, who are tied with Colorado State for the second-longest slide among teams at the Football Bowl Subdivision level, have not won since posting a 13-12 victory against Fresno State in league play on October 7, 2006. Last week, USU went down to Utah in a Beehive State battle, 34-18.

Due to so many upsets in the rankings last weekend, Hawaii advanced three spots even though the team did not perform all that well against Idaho. While it is true that the Warriors posted a 48-20 victory on the road versus the Vandals, there still has to be some concern about Colt Brennan's lackluster performance. Nevertheless, the gunslinger did what he needed to do to get the team into the win column again, marking the squad's sixth straight victory dating back to last year's postseason.

As far as the all-time series between these two teams is concerned, the Aggies are ahead by a count of 4-3 and have split the four games played out on the island. However, Hawaii head coach June Jones has won both of his meetings against the Aggies, guiding the Warriors to a commanding 63-10 triumph last season. In fact, in those last two meetings Hawaii has outscored USU by a combined 113-33 after scoring a combined 51 points in the five previous encounters.

Leon Jackson scored the first points of the game on Saturday versus the Utes, making it into the end zone on a one-yard run, but after that the game belonged to Utah. Jackson finished the contest second on the unit with 60 yards rushing, seven behind Derrvin Speight who carried the ball 22 times. Jackson also connected on 17-of-24 passing for 139 yards and a score, with Kevin Robinson collecting seven balls for 71 yards. Robinson is more than just a receiver though, ranking second in the NCAA this week in punt returns with 22.2 yards per attempt. Add that to everything else he does on the field and it should not come as a surprise that he is third in the country in all-purpose yards as well with just over 200 yards per outing. However, as great as Robinson has again been this season, it is impossible for him to do it all for the Aggies, which is why the squad is ranked eighth in the Western Athletic Conference and 116th out of 119 Football Bowl Subdivision programs with a mere 15 ppg.

The Aggies limited Utah to less than 27 minutes of possession on Saturday and held the home team to just 5-of-14 on third down, yet that still wasn't enough to get USU into the win column for the first time this season. De'Von Hall recorded 11 tackles for the Aggies, as did Paul Igboeli, while Caleb Taylor made two of his five stops behind the line of scrimmage. Carl Singleton had just a single tackle, but it ended up as the team's lone sack. Unfortunately, sacks have been extremely hard to come by this season, with the team posting just one per game to rank 103rd in the country entering play this week. Getting a strong push up the field in order to blow up plays before they begin is not a strength of the Aggies either, with the team averaging only five tackles for loss per game, currently seventh in the WAC and 97th in the country. Hall leads the unit with 44 tackles over five games, while Caleb Taylor checks in with a team-best five TFLs.

Extending his streak of consecutive games with at least one touchdown pass to 30 games and at least two TDs or more in 22 games in a row in the win over Idaho, Colt Brennan didn't exactly set the world on fire Saturday. Based on previous performances, Brennan's 30-of-45 passing effort for 369 yards and three touchdowns was rather average, but his five interceptions were not as they tied a school record for the most picks in a single game. Davone Bess turned up as Brennan's favorite target, collecting 12 passes for 162 yards and a score in the win. Brennan may not have had one of his better games last weekend, but the bottom line is that the Warriors remained undefeated and in the hunt for a better option once bowl bids and sent out. The signal-caller has the passing attack ranked second in the nation this week, generating 448.2 ypg and now if the rushing attack could do better than just 83.2 ypg (112th in the country) some of the pressure might be lifted from his shoulders. Unlike last season and in year's past for Hawaii quarterback, Brennan's been given some opportunities to actually run the ball himself, resulting in a team-high five rushing scores.

Trailing for almost the entire game last Saturday, the Vandals, like most other teams that are subjected to the aggressive play of Brennan, were forced to try and play catchup and pass the ball more than they would have liked. As a result, the Hawaii defense turned up the heat and came away with five interceptions, one of which was returned 40 yards for a score by Adam Leonard in the first period and another 76 yards for a touchdown by Myron Newberry, this week's WAC Defensive Player of the Week, late in the second frame. Leonard finished the contest with a team-high 10 tackles and a pair of stops behind the line of scrimmage. Ranked second on the team with 39 tackles over five starts, Leonard is among the team leaders with five TFLs and is one of three players on the roster with at least a pair of interceptions. Ranked fourth in the conference this week, Solomon Elimimian is posting almost 11 tackles per game for a unit that has the top pass efficiency defense in the WAC (ninth nationally) with a mark of 94.04.