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FACTS & STATS: Site: Bulldog Stadium (41,031) -- Fresno, California. Television: ESPN3.com. Home Record: USU 2-1, FSU 1-2. Away Record: USU 0-2, FSU 1-1. Neutral Record: USU 0-0, FSU 0-1. Conference Record: USU 0-0, FSU 1-0. Series Record: Fresno State leads, 15-10-1.

GAME NOTES: The Utah State Aggies finally get their Western Athletic Conference schedule into gear as they match up with Fresno State at Bulldog Stadium on Saturday night.

Utah State, which last won a league game back on November 13, 2010 versus San Jose State (38-34), is also gunning for back-to-back wins for the first time since defeating the Spartans and New Mexico State last year as well. The Aggies registered their second win of 2011, the first over another member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, with a resounding 63-19 thumping of Wyoming in Logan last Saturday. The scoring outburst for USU was the highest since 1997 when the squad defeated Idaho by a score of 63-17.

As for the Bulldogs, they played their second top-10 opponent of the season last week and were crushed by fifth-ranked Boise State at home, 57-7. Fresno State, which lost to the Broncos last year by a lopsided score of 51-0 while BSU was still a member of the WAC, has just two victories in six tries this season and only one of those has come against another member of the FBS (Idaho).

USU was defeated last year at home by the Bulldogs in a 41-24 final which means FSU has taken four in a row and seven of the last eight matchups, pushing the Bulldogs out to a 15-10-1 advantage in the all-time series. Utah State has not won back-to-back games against the Bulldogs since 1980-81.

Despite his freshman status, Utah State quarterback Chuckie Keeton looked like a seasoned veteran last weekend as he tied a school record with five passing touchdowns in the lopsided win over visiting Wyoming at Romney Stadium. Keeton connected on 16-of-21 passes for 228 yards before taking a seat on the bench for the Aggies, distributing his passing scores to five different receivers en route to being named the WAC Offensive Player of the Week. Robert Turbin accounted for another 111 yards and a score on 20 rushing attempts as the Aggies rolled up an impressive 303 yards and four TDs on the ground. Turbin, who is first in the WAC and 10th in the country with 119.8 ypg rushing, has the ground attack rolling along with a stunning 309.6 ypg this season which is not only tops in the league, it is also sixth in the country. Last season the Aggies managed 168.7 ypg on the ground, so their progress is beginning to pay huge dividends. Having Keeton hitting his marks certainly helps to keep opponents on their heels as well, the signal-caller having tosses seven of his nine TDs on the season in the last two outings.

The Aggies actually fell behind by 12 points in the first three minutes of the opening quarter on Saturday, allowing Wyoming to score on a rushing play and also a fumble recovery just seconds later. However, from then on the Pokes were held down almost completely, aside from a single rushing touchdowns in the second quarter which ended up being the final points scored by the visitors. Bobby Wagner, considered by many to be the top defender in the Western Athletic Conference, not only recorded a team-best 12 tackles for the Aggies, he also picked off a pass and returned it 18 yards for the hosts in the victory. Averaging better than 12 tackles per game over five outings thus far, Wagner leads the Aggies in that department and has more solo stops (30) than all but one of his teammates has total tackles thus far. Because of the efforts of Wagner and his teammates, the Aggies are allowing just 115.4 ypg on the ground to this point in the season, third in the WAC and 34th in the country.

Fresno State's offense was dreadful on Friday night against the Broncos, consistently being forced into three-and-outs and frustrating quarterback Derek Carr to the point where he couldn't maintain composure. The Bulldogs finished with just 270 yards of total offense as Carr converted just 17-of-30 passes for a mere 126 yards and was intercepted once. The usually reliable Robbie Rouse managed only 72 yards on 10 carries, 40 of those yards coming on a single run as he saw his streak of consecutive 100-yard rushing games halted at four. Rouse, who is second in the conference and 18th nationally with 112.0 ypg, registered three touchdowns on the ground in the first three games of this season, but has just a single TD since. Carr, the younger brother of former FSU standout and top NFL Draft pick David Carr, has been thrown into the fire with the Bulldogs offense and will need much more time to gain confidence and the respect of his teammates. He has thrown 10 TDs thus far, but five of those came in the win over Idaho so take that game out of the equation and he's been rather average at best.

As was the case in 2010 when the Broncos dominated Fresno State on the blue turf in Idaho, the Bulldogs defense was no match for the well-oiled machine that is Boise State. FSU allowed the Broncos to score touchdowns on four of their first six possessions, with a field goal mixed in for good measure. Had the visitors not sat Kellen Moore (254 yards, three TDs) early in the third quarter there's really no telling how many more points Boise State could have scored at full strength. Logan Harrell registered a team-best eight tackles and notched 1.5 tackles for loss, but beyond that his influence on the game meant little for the hosts. Harrell, who is second on the team in overall tackles with 41, leads the group with 10 TFLs and 3.5 sacks, not to mention seven quarterback hurries, but unless he gets more support from his teammates, opponents like Utah State will be able to overload their efforts and keep him from making a major impact. As a group, the Bulldogs are sixth in the conference and 94th nationally with just 1.33 sacks per game.

Utah State has dominated in its two wins so far this season, but scoring outbursts like the one the Aggies had last week are exceptions to the rule. In the case of FSU, this is a team that has a lot of pride and wants nothing more than to show that last week's deflating loss was also out of the ordinary and that the Bulldogs have the ability to bounce back and show some spunk this time around.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: Fresno State 28, Utah State 20