Three games in, do the Aggies have an identity?

At Mountain West Conference media days in the summer, interim Utah State football coach Nate Dreiling said he thought it would take three or four games to determine exactly what sort of team the Aggies would be this season.
He amended that projection considerably before USU’s season opener against Robert Morris, stating unequivocally that the Aggies were going to be tough this season. He hoped one of the toughest teams in the country.
And after each game so far this year — the season opening win over Robert Morris, the blowout loss at USC and the hot-and-cold rivalry loss to Utah — Dreiling has repeated that idea.
“The toughness was there the whole game,” Dreiling said Saturday following the loss to the Utes. “I don’t think anyone is ever going to question our toughness. Proud of how they played.”
Of course, for as tough as the Aggies are proving to be in the Dreiling era — through three games USU has visibly had the same effort level in the first quarter as the fourth quarter, regardless of the score — being tough by itself doesn’t make a team good, bad or mediocre.
Wins and losses are the ultimate judge, and myriad other things determine the quality of a team in the end, toughness among them.
All of which begs the question — Is Utah State a good team, undone by a difficult schedule? A bad team, exposed by elite teams? Or something in between, like the Aggies have been for multiple seasons now?
In truth, it may still be too early to tell. It at least looks like it is going to take more than three games to figure that out. Utah State, after all, was such an unknown entering the season, with 50-plus new players on the roster, half of the coaching staff replaced from a season ago and a new head coach.
“I would say that in this era of college football, it is kind of hard,” safety Jordan Vincent said. “You have a lot of guys that come from all over the place with the transfer portal, so you don’t really know what you have (as a team) until the bullets are flying and you are in the game.
“I think we are at a point now where we are starting to find out our identity and trying to find out who we want to be as a team.”
As far as wins and losses go, Utah State isn’t doing too hot to start the year. It isn’t surprising, considering the trip to Los Angeles to play the Trojans — who appear better this year than many expected coming in — and the game at home against the Utes.
But, USU’s 1-2 record puts them in the same tier in the MW as teams such as Colorado State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State and Air Force. Not close to the top of the league where UNLV (3-0) and San Jose State (3-0) currently sit and only slightly ahead of the dregs in New Mexico (0-3) and Wyoming (0-3).
Wins and losses at this point seem to be a pretty awful indicator of how good a team like Utah State is, though. The schedule simply hasn’t done them any favors.
Moving on to statistics, well, the Aggies are kind of all over the place, good, bad and in between.
Here’s a smattering of their current rankings nationally:
There are plenty of more statistics that could be looked at, but the combined score of 86-21 in losses to USC and Utah hasn’t hurt Utah State greatly in terms of numbers.
Watch the games and Utah State isn’t nearly as bad as those numbers or its record indicate. Against Robert Morris, things were bleak early, but a dominant second half let the Aggies run away with an easy win over an outmatched opponent.
The Aggies were shut out by USC — their defense struggled to much of anything to slow down the Trojans and looked fairly inept on offense — but Dreiling admitted to some coaching failures in that game.
And by the next week, USU hung tough with the rival Utes for three quarters, an impressive feat even if Utah was starting a true freshman at quarterback.
Through three games, Utah State has been considerably improved on defense from a year ago, and the offense has shown flashes of brilliance, while also being too turnover and penalty prone.
Are the Aggies are good team, a bad team or a middle-of-the-road team?
Whatever the answer at this point — and realistically that is up to individual interpretation — Utah State believes it has real potential this season.
Linebacker Jon Ross Maye is but one of many players who has suggested a run to the MW championship is a real possibility for USU. Wide receiver Jalen Royals has said the same thing, and so has quarterback Spencer Petras and running back Rahsul Faison.
Belief isn’t lacking in Logan, we’ll put it that way.
Special is the word Dreiling has used more than once and he used it again after the loss to Utah.
“We have to do more,” Dreiling said Saturday. “It really comes down to handling the little details and doing them consistently. You saw a lot of good stuff tonight, things we’ve wanted to see, but we just aren’t doing it consistently enough. When you are playing a team like Utah and you have your backup quarterback, things have to go pretty perfect.
“In the first half we played pretty good football. We did miss a couple of field goals and threw a couple interceptions, but that alone did not change this game. If we can eliminate those mistakes and get out of our own way on offense and defense, we have a chance to be special. Until then, it is just going to be the postgame speech every week.”
Maybe the Aggies never eliminate those mistakes, and if not they probably end up being somewhere between bad and mediocre. Maybe they do and they make a run in the MW and are remembered as a good team, with one of the more incredible stories of resilience in Aggie history.
Three games in, though, and whatever Utah State ends up being in 2024 is still anyone’s best guess.