Utah State football: Will Aggies make bowl without Jordan Love?

After disastrous 2019, can the defense bounce back?

In his first stint at Utah State, Gary Andersen built the identity of the program on solid defense and physical play and that continued when Matt Wells took over. Utah State fans are hoping that last season’s terrible defense and that Andersen can restore the defenses that these fans are accustomed to.

The defensive line is going to take a bit of a hit as six of last years top players on the line are gone. There is some hope however, as all of the new starters are seniors and one of them is Nick Heminger who had five sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss last season and could be a rising star up front.

The linebackers will take a bit of a hit as the Aggies lone first team All-Mountain West selection David Woodward Jr. is gone to the NFL and he was the best linebacker for the Aggies last season.

Kevin Meltzenheimer is back after having 90 tackles last season and he will need to bring a high level of play to try and turn around what was one of the worst run defenses in the country. One of the main reasons that the run defense struggled so much was that the linebackers and secondary had to deal with a lot of injuries, so the hope is that with better injury luck, the run defense can improve.

The secondary will return both starting safeties in Shaq Bond and Troy Legefed Jr. who both have star potential, especially the former who is coming off of a three-interception season. Legefed had 103 tackles last season and could see similar numbers in 2020.

The secondary will have to replace its starting corners and that will likely be the deciding factor on how the secondary will fare this season.