Dave Aranda was speechless. Nearly.

The Hawaii defensive coordinator was joined by much of the Aloha Stadium crowd as Utah State backup quarterback Adam Kennedy led his team on a stunning second-half comeback from 21 points down, giving the UH defense fits in a 35-31 Aggies win on Saturday night.

"We weren’t able to affect them with pressure," Aranda said of the disastrous second half, and in particular USU’s game-winning 59-yard drive in the final minute.

"I give a lot of credit to those (USU) coaches," he added. "I think our kids gave it everything they got. I know they fought. Like I said, it’s really disappointing. I can’t even describe it."

The UH defense largely game-planned to stop the Aggies’ potent running back, Robert Turbin, who led a ground attack averaging 278 yards per contest going in. The Warriors were largely successful in doing that in taking a 28-7 halftime lead.

"Whatever we aim to take away, the problem with taking away something is that you take it away," Aranda said. "And you have to defend other things. We didn’t really spend as much time (on the pass) as we did on the run. Like I say, I have no words for it."

Some of that undoubtedly had to do with fortune smiling on an Aggies team snakebitten by close losses all season.

It seemed every loose ball on a USU drive in the second half — and there were several — bounced back into the hands of a white-and-blue uniform.

"Situations like this … I guess that’s why you like football so much," UH senior linebacker Corey Paredes said quietly. "You never know what’s going to happen. You can dictate it to an extent, but things have to go your way, too. We never got any turnovers in the second half and they got all the breaks."

Kennedy, a 6-foot-5 junior, shredded the Warriors secondary on two plays in particular. With 2:16 left in the third quarter, he found Chuck Jacobs on a 37-yard touchdown pass threaded between two UH defensive backs by the opposite pylon, cutting UH’s lead to 31-21.

On his very next touch, he fired a ball over the middle to Stanley Morrison — another seemingly sure pick into UH double coverage — which instead resulted in a devastating 71-yard score for the visitors.

UH coach Greg McMackin called the throws "howitzers."

Behind Kennedy, Utah State ended up outgaining UH in the air 239-227.

The decisive drive was all Kennedy as he hit short routes and scrambled for yardage. The Warriors were clearly back on their heels by the time Turbin broke through for the 1-yard go-ahead score with 14 seconds left.

"There’s no reason why we should have lost this game," said Paredes, who had a team-high 10 tackles.

"Utah State seemed like they wanted it more in the second half. Chips was falling their way and we never made a big play when we needed one."

Fellow senior linebacker Aaron Brown was effective early. He totaled six tackles, including three for loss, got a first-quarter interception and recovered a USU fumble.

"Next week (at Nevada) is a very important game for us," Brown said.

"We had a lot to prove tonight. We still do."