Jordan Love named MW’s 2019 preseason Offensive Player of the Year
Jordan Love’s season of hype is upon us
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Even after sweeping offseason changes, Jordan Love draft hype is all the rage
The Aggies are in for a grand experiment this fall.
Nine offensive starters and an entire coaching staff responsible for the most staggering offensive output in program history have all but dissipated. What remains is a mere handful of key position players tasked with continuing last season’s Top-25 momentum, and a concerning cloud of uncertainty obscuring what exactly the 2019 Utah State Aggies will look like.
Well, that and a dude under center who can freaking sling it.
Jordan Love is Utah State’s best shot at maintaining program excellence in what would otherwise certainly qualify as a rebuilding year. Expectations for the redshirt junior QB have already inflated to Heisman-hopeful levels of gaudy anticipation, despite a rough fall lineup and an even rougher exodus of offensive talent. Even head coach Gary Andersen, technically back in familiar digs, is still new to this team and this iteration of the Mountain West in general.
For better or worse, it’s going to be a year of thrilling chaos for the USU faithful — and there’s no one, not even a new/old coach, with as much opportunity to guide this team through treacherous terrain as effectively as Love.
That’s not to say Utah State’s cupboard was left completely bare — the team is still stocked with All-MW caliber talent in the front seven, a pair of 2018 All-Americans and one oft-overlooked Gerold Bright. And as we’re so often reminded, football is still a team sport, which was exactly Love’s message last year after shattering every single-season program record and will continue to be the third-year starter’s mantra in every postgame interview from now until the crushing grip of the universe extinguishes the cold dead sun.
He’s right, of course, but two things can be true at once — even in a team sport, there’s simply no denying the impact a special QB can have on a program, as fans predating the 2012 Aggie renaissance can attest.
For Utah State to mount any semblance of an attack on the conference crown this fall, it begins with the bedrock foundation that is Jordan Love.
