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ServPro First Responder Bowl Prediction: How Can Utah State Reel Off A Win Vs Memphis?
The Aggies are going for their second consecutive bowl win when they take on 6-6 Memphis in Dallas on Tuesday, Dec. 27 [1:15 PM MST, ESPN].
3 Keys To The Game:
The Arm and Legs of junior QB Cooper Legas [3-1 as a starter since the New Mexico game]
The Last Hurrah of senior QB Calvin Tyler Jr. [He’s 73 yards from 2,000 for his career and could become the 11th back in school history to hit 2K]
The Three Phases in which Utah State is winning
The problems the Aggies had were vanquished for the most part after their much-needed bye week as they reeled off three straight wins to get bowl-eligible. I talk about it in my podcast, above.
On the basketball side, the Aggies were in Hawaii this past weekend for the Diamond Head Classic.
Everything looked great for Utah State in a quarterfinal win over Seattle U.—then they had the SMU game which brought forth allegations of “matchfixing” from several sportsbooks. I wrote about it, here:
When you have journalists and broadcasters aligning their professional interests with betting companies and sportsbooks, I talked about how that could cause problems.
The Aggies had a HUGE haul on Early Signing Day. They landed a total of 12 3-star prospects and one 4-star, highlighted by:
QB McCae Hillstead [Skyridge HS]
OLs Taliafi Ta’Ala [Alta HS] & Jr Sia [Mtn Ridge HS]
S Kadiyon Sweat [Lehi HS]
But it’s also possible that the biggest get on Early Signing Day didn’t come from all of the high school signees. In an absolute stunner, the Aggies got a commitment from Utah transfer, safety Malone Mataele.
Finally: the Aggies landed 25 total players for next year. They will have a good number of reinforcements for the 11 they will lose to graduation, as well as others who may head for the transfer portal after the bowl game on Tuesday. I like the Aggies chances in Dallas at the ServPro First Responder Bowl because they look like they’re a better team than they were in October.
Utah State 31, Memphis 20
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