LOGAN, UTAH >>

Utah State played fast, faster and then sped away to a 38-0 football rout of Hawaii in a Saturday matinee at Maverik Stadium.

The Aggies averaged 61 seconds for each of their five touchdown drives to become bowl eligible for the sixth time in the past seven seasons. They improved to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the Mountain West. The Rainbow Warriors lost for the eighth time in the past nine games to drop to 3-8 and 1-7.

“There’s not a whole lot to say other than an apology to our fans for us playing that way and coaching that way,” UH coach Nick Rolovich said. “And it starts with me. I’ve got to take a hard look. No points, awful on third and fourth downs. Some of those were in desperation mode. Just a bad-looking performance by us.”

The Warriors showed fight — in pregame warm-ups, when players from both sides were involved in a hold-me-back scuffle. There was a hana hou between the teams late in the second quarter.

But other than that, the Warriors could not muster any production in the red zone (scoreless in three trips in the first half), on third down (5-for-19) and in fourth-down situations (one of five). It was the second shutout in Rolovich’s 120-game Division I coaching career.

The Warriors could not slow the Aggies’ rat-a-tat offense. David Yost, USU’s first-year offensive coordinator, implemented up-tempo, zone-read schemes he poached from working at Oregon and Washington State the previous four seasons. The Warriors controlled the ball for 38 minutes, 25 seconds, but the Aggies owned the pace, scoring on half of their 12 full possessions. The Aggies ran a play every 22 seconds.

“Obviously, they were effective with it,” Rolovich said. “I thought our stagnant offense didn’t help our defense. I know the time of possession and all that … we didn’t move the ball.”

Five “chunk” plays of 25 or more yards accounted for 43.8 percent of the Aggies’ 475 yards.

Backup running back Gerold Bright opened the scoring with a 60-yard run in which he hit the heart of UH’s defensive line, then bounced outside to daylight.

Wideout Braelon Roberts’ 49-yard touchdown reception from reserve quarterback Kent Myers made it 21-0 in the first half. Four years ago, Myers, as a third-string freshman, came off the sideline to lead the Aggies to a victory in Honolulu. Now a senior, Myers ceded the starting job to second-year freshman Jordan Love, who was 9-for-14 for 113 yards and a touchdown. Love, who was not sacked, also rushed for 47 yards on six carries and a touchdown. The past five seasons, the Aggies are 14-3 when a freshman starts at quarterback.

“When you give up big plays and big touchdown plays, you’re not going to win football games,” UH defensive coordinator Legi Suiaunoa said. “It’s tough because they’re good kids. They work their butts off. At the same time, we didn’t make enough plays to win this football game. We didn’t do a good enough job preparing these guys to play.”

Rolovich lamented the opportunities that got away. “We should (have been), in my mind, 21-21 (at halftime), Rolovich said. “But, obviously, it wasn’t.”

Most telling was in the final seconds of the first half, when the Warriors were down 21-0 but would receive the kickoff to start the second half. They drove to the 1, but on third down, opted not to call a timeout. Running back Diocemy Saint Juste fumbled at the doorstep of the goal line, and Utah State’s Justus Te’i recovered with five seconds remaining in the first half.

In deciding against calling for a timeout, Rolovich recalled thinking: “We felt with this team, if we could go fast, we could eliminate some of their movement stuff (on defense). So that was kind of our thought process. In hindsight, I should have used (a timeout). “

While Saint Juste accepted blame for the turnover, Rolovich said: “It’s not his fault. It’s none of these kids’ fault. This is on us as coaches, I believe.”

Saint Juste said: “He can say it’s not my fault. But I think at the end of the day, I’m the runner with the ball in my hands. If it comes out, that’s my fault.”

The Warriors went three-and-out on the opening drive of the second half.

“I expected more than zero yards on that first series,” Rolovich said. The Warriors actually netted 2 yards before punting.

Dru Brown, who made his 21st consecutive start at quarterback, was under heavy pressure behind a makeshift offensive line. Starting guards John Wa‘a and J.R. Hensley exited with ailments. Brown was 16-for-29 for 128 yards. He was sacked four times by a defense that added blitzers and pass rushers to a three-lineman front.

Cole McDonald, the No. 2 quarterback, played most of the fourth quarter. Rolovich said there is no quarterback controversy and Brown remains as the starter for the regular-season finale against Brigham Young.

“I’m trying to get as many reps as I can, learn the offense, and get that game-time experience,” said McDonald, a second-year freshman who was 3-for-5 passing and rushed for 45 yards on eight carries.

The Warriors, who were eliminated from bowl consideration last week, had hoped to use the Utah State and BYU games as a springboard to the offseason conditioning program.

“As of that last 60 minutes, that didn’t take place,” slotback Dylan Collie said. “So we’ve got one more week to figure it out for one more game. We can either show up or sit down and take a beating, like we did today. I hope it’s the first one. I hope we stand up and make something happen.”

FIRST QUARTER

UTAH STATE
>> Gerold Bright 60 run. Dominik Eberle kick.
>> Drive: 3 plays, 66 yards, 0:38 elapsed time.
>> Time: 9:33
>> Score: Utah State 7, Hawaii 0

UTAH STATE
>> Ron’Quavion Tarver 10 pass from Jordan Love. Eberle kick.
>> Drive: 8 plays, 67 yards, 2:17 elapsed time.
>> Time: 5:32
>> Score: Utah State 14, Hawaii 0

SECOND QUARTER

UTAH STATE
>> Braelon Roberts 49 pass from Kent Myers. Eberle kick.
>> Drive: 4 plays, 75 yards, 0:54 elapsed time.
>> Time: 14:01
>> Score: Utah State 21, Hawaii 0

THIRD QUARTER

UTAH STATE
>> LaJuan Hunt 48 run. Eberle kick.
>> Drive: 1 plays, 48 yards, 0:10 elapsed time.
>> Time: 13:25
>> Score: Utah State 28, Hawaii 0

UTAH STATE
>> Love 15 run. Eberle kick.
>> Drive: 3 plays, 53 yards, 1:02 elapsed time.
>> Time: 3:29
>> Score: Utah State 35, Hawaii 0

FOURTH QUARTER

UTAH STATE
>> Eberle 20 field goal.
>> Drive: 9 plays, 63 yards, 3:26 elapsed time.
>> Time: 13:10
>> Score: Utah State 38, Hawaii 0

UH | UTAH ST.

• First downs: 20, 20
• Rushes-yards: 47-172, 39-311
• Passing: 146, 164
• Comp-Att-Int: 19-35-0, 12-20-1
• Return Yards: 96, 16
• Punts-Avg.: 6-0.0, 4-0.0
• Fumbles-Lost: 2-1, 0-0
• Penalties-Yards: 8-60, 2-10
• Time of Poss.: 38:25, 21:35

TEAM STATISTICS

RUSHING—Hawaii, Saint Juste 28-122, McDonald 8-45, Tuiasoa 6-32, Brown 5-(minus 27). Utah St., Hunt 13-111, Bright 8-93, Love 6-47, Myers 4-30, Miller 4-19, D.Nelson 1-12, Vaughns 1-2, Nathan 1-0, (Team) 1-(minus 3).

PASSING—Hawaii, Brown 16-29-0-128, McDonald 3-5-0-18, Ewaliko 0-1-0-0. Utah St., Love 9-14-1-113, Myers 3-6-0-51.

RECEIVING—Hawaii, Collie 7-59, Ewaliko 3-21, Barker 3-20, Saint Juste 2-20, Timoteo 2-13, Torres 1-12, Tuiasoa 1-1. Utah St., Roberts 2-55, Tarver 2-14, Hunt 1-26, Colston-Green 1-24, Raymond 1-15, Nathan 1-14, Scarver 1-12, Bright 1-5, Terrell 1-2, Miller 1-(minus 3).

MISSED FIELD GOALS—Hawaii, Trifonovitch 41. Utah St., Eberle 46.