LOGAN, Utah – It would be natural to assume that the Utah State Aggies are pretty excited about cracking the AP and coaches poll this week for the first time since 2012. Surprisingly however, head coach Matt Wells was not overly enthused when talking about the Aggies’ jump to the No. 18 ranking in the AP poll.

“The polls are nice and the rankings are nice. It’s for my wife and her friends, my mom and her friends, all of you guys and for all the students up on campus. Mr. (John) Hartwell loves it. The bottom line is this: We don’t go through offseason in January and February and break every team huddle down by saying, ‘Top 25 ranking on three. One-two-three,’” said Wells.

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— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 28, 2018

Bigger Goals In Mind

He did concede that it is recognition for what the 7-1 Aggies have accomplished in their best start to a season since 1965, but that winning the conference and being ranked at the end of the year is far more important to his team.

“If we continue to strive and take steps toward our number one goal, there’s a chance for that at the end of the year. Is it nice? Yeah, I get that. I recognize that,” added Wells.

According to Wells, the “pats on the back” ended just before his press conference Monday afternoon when he met his team to discuss the week ahead.

His players echoed that feeling.

“That was great waking up to that. I honestly didn’t know that we were that close. It’s a good feeling, but talking with Coach Wells, it’s good, but also, we need to focus on taking one week at a time. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what we’re ranked in the middle of the season, it matters how we finish the season. It’s nice, but we’re not done yet,” said senior offensive lineman Roman Andrus.

While it’s excited to be ranked, the goal, according to senior safety Jontrell Rocquemore, is to win the Mountain West Conference championship, something that the AP poll has no bearing on.

“It’s really cool. It’s a salute to our program on how we do things and how the season has been going. At the end of the day, it doesn’t affect the Mountain West Championship, and that’s our goal. It’s cool and an honor to be in the top 25. We still have big plans for the rest of the season,’ said Rocquemore.

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— USU Football (@USUFootball) October 29, 2018

Up Next

The Aggies will look to continue climbing the polls and making waves in the Mountain West when they travel to face Hawaii on Saturday. The game will be broadcast on the Stadium mobile app and kick off at 10 p.m.