LOGAN, Utah - Utah State football head coach Matt Wells, along with senior offensive tackle Kevin Whimpey and junior linebacker Zach Vigil, held a press conference Monday to preview its game this weekend at BYU. A complete transcript of Wells', Whimpey's and Vigil's remarks can be found below.

Head Coach Matt Wells
Recapping the bye week:
"The bye was at a good time for us from a physical standpoint. We were able to regroup a little bit emotionally. You take bye week for what it's worth. You can get a little ahead of the opponent, start to study them a little bit, work on recruiting and actually get out and go recruiting a little bit. We get our veterans a lot of rest and gave the young guys a lot of reps. That's what we did. Our guys will hopefully come back today feeling refreshed mentally and physically. We've got a long grind ahead of us in these next nine weeks."

"This is our only in-state rivalry game this year. It will be an emotional game, especially for our in-state kids. We have a lot of kids on our team from the state of Utah. It's on a national television stage that I think we'll all be excited to play on. From there on, you head into eight-straight weeks of Mountain West play. The grind is officially here."

Previewing BYU:
"As I look ahead at BYU, I see an extremely talented team. Quite frankly, it's maybe the best BYU team I've seen since I've been back at Utah State and in the last eight or nine years of playing them at New Mexico and Tulsa. It's a typical Bronco Mendenhall defense. They're very sound and smart. I think they do a good job in the back end of covering up all their pressures and covering guys. They're extremely well-coached. They have long, athletic defensive ends and linebackers as usual. I think those guys understand the scheme and do a good job. They're very talented."

"Offensively is where they've made the most strides. You've got a guy in Taysom Hill that if he played linebacker, would be on the Bronko Nagurski Trophy Watch List right now. He runs like a tailback and throws like a quarterback. The guy is playing at a high level. I think that every bit of Heisman talk is absolutely deserved, based on his numbers and being 4-0. He's increased his pass efficiency and is very accurate. It takes a small army to bring him down. That's a major challenge. The biggest place that you see a bunch of guys is in the receivers. There are multiple guys catching the ball. They're very effective. Jamaal (Williams) is an elite tailback and playing at a high level. They've got all three phases. The receivers are playing well, they have a big-time running back and they've got a really good quarterback. We've got a major challenge on our hands to try and be able to slow them down."

On playing Provo:
"I haven't been very successful down there and neither has 36 years of Aggie football. I don't know if I can say that I enjoy it, because you usually enjoy it when you come out with a win. I've never won in Provo as a coach or a player."

On the quarterback decision:
"It'll happen in the next few days. We'll see how Chuckie (Keeton) is early this week. We'll get him out practicing today and see what's going on. I'll talk to our medical staff, those guys are experts in what they do. I'll lean on them really heavily. I wouldn't put a number on the reps or anything, we'll just see how he is. If he can go through practice today and tomorrow, the reps will be close to 50/50. If he can't go, then he can't go. We'll see where he's at."

On the offense finding its identity:
"I think you say that when you're struggling in one phase or another. I think you also say that when you have a new quarterback like we did last week, and when you have new running backs. We had to sit Joe Hill out with an ankle injury. We had some banged up running backs. We have to be effective with what we do in both the run and passing game."

On Hunter Sharp:
"He has really played well. When Brandon Swindall went down with his season-ending injury, we said we needed the receivers to step up and play quality reps. Hunter has done that. He's played at a high level, catching the ball well and making contested catches. He's run the ball well and he's blocked well on the perimeter. I'm happy with his progress so far."

On the BYU receivers:
"They're big and long. Mitch Mathews is a good player who hurt us on several critical downs last year and made some good plays. He's a talented wide-out. He uses his height to his advantage. They're well-coached out there and do a really good job. They use their height and their bodies to their advantage."

On the kicking teams:
"I told you last week, I thought we stunk, quite frankly. It's been an area of emphasis this last week, and will be the next few weeks moving forward. Whether it's protection, the snap, holding, a little bit of everything. Hopefully the emphasis and pointed interest in techniques and effort will improve. I can't pinpoint one guy or blame it on one area. You can't blame it just on the kicks, because we've had some breakdowns in protection. Anytime you get stressed and you're not doing what you're supposed to do, you get stressed on both edges. It just takes a concerted effort. That is an area that we need to make strides in. I'm not turning away from Nick (Diaz) yet, Jake (Thompson) hasn't kicked much better. But it's not all their fault. It's protection, it's the guards, it's the snap, it's all of the above. Their success is going to determine who will kick."

On Frankie Sutera:
"That kid is like Coach (Todd) Orlando, Jr. out there. Everything out of his mouth is just like Coach Orlando, from his coaching points to his sarcasm. He's the mini-me, which is a compliment to Frankie. He knows where linebackers are supposed to fit, he knows the calls to the corner, he just does a really good job. He's always in position and is a courageous player. He's a captain and played a lot on special teams in the last few years. He's a guy that has worked for everything he's gotten. He's evolved maybe more than anyone I've ever seen in this program, right up there with Jake Doughty. He's changed his body, his ability to make plays in space and has become a really solid football player for us."

On the Utah State vs. BYU game being the only big in-state game this year:
"We're excited about playing BYU and I promise you our players are too. They're excited about playing us? Cool. You've got a team that's undefeated and deservedly in the playoff talks. They're going to have to beat Utah State to do that. Our kids are excited and I don't have any reason to doubt they will be. It will be a great atmosphere. LaVell Edwards Stadium will be loud and with a national TV audience. It will be fun. It's a great opportunity for us."

On the running game:
"Right now it's still a little bit by committee. Joe Hill is day-to-day right now. Between him, Rashad Hall, LaJuan Hunt and JoJo Natson, they just need to continue to be consistent. They need to run the ball through arm tackles, that's what great running backs do. You're not going to get blocked up front every time, it's not going to be perfect. Elite backs run through those tackles and that's what we want for them. That's what they want. They have to do it down after down. It's still early into those two young guys' careers and they're making progress. You just want them to take steps forward each week and they're getting the carries to do it."

Senior Offensive Tackle Kevin Whimpey
Previewing the BYU game:
"So BYU, their base defense is a 3-4 defense and they're a really active defense. I think Craig Bills is really good at locking down the middle of the field, so we'll have challenges there. Remington Peck is a two-year starter now. Bronson Kaufusi is good. He'll be back off injury I assume to play against us. He's athletic. He's big, tall and fast. Alani Fua, I like him. We played against him last year. I like the effort he plays with. He's a good player as well. It's going to be a fun week. Obviously, it's a rivalry. There's going to be a lot of emotion. We're both fresh off bye weeks. We're refreshed mentally and physically. Hopefully we can hit the ground running quickly on offense, and we know our defense is going to show up, they always do."

On how he feels after a bye week:
"A week off for me is big time, just to kind of take a step away from the physical contact. But it also allows us to spend a lot more time in the weight room, so I feel like I'm stronger and more refreshed. My knees and my body feel better, so it was a big bye week for me."

On what the rivalry means to the Aggies now that the games are more competitive:
"Well, the last time we beat them was before I got here, so I'm looking for my first win, and what better place for it to come than down in Provo. It's really important for us, and probably for the coaches for in-state recruiting, but for us for bragging rights. We know a lot of guys on the team, they know us, so it makes it kind of fun. It makes the game a little bit more personal."

On his memories from the BYU game last year:
"Well, Chuckie (Keeton) blowing his knee out, number one. That was rough for us as a team. Obviously, we went on to overcome some of the challenges that presented. It was still a fun game. It was a game that I played with a lot of passion and energy. I thought our whole team came to the game. We were prepared, we were ready to go, things just didn't' go our way. We're looking this year to steer things our direction a little bit."

On what he remembers about their defense last year:
"They're like our defense. They look to stop the run first. They want to force you to pass. They want to play physical. They want to control the line of scrimmage. They trying to say, `Hey, look we're going to control the line of scrimmage with three guys.' They blitz, and they bring some exotic blitzes, but for the most part its field dog, which is one guy coming from the field, or boundary dog, which is one guy coming from the boundary. They will bring fill blitz, which is six-man pressure or more. We're just going to have to be on our toes. We're going to have to look at the linebackers and read our keys. Some of those keys will help us see where those blitzes are coming from. Hopefully, we can capitalize on them."

On what the coaches going for it on fourth down means to the offense:
"Well, our mentality on the offensive line is to do what the coaches call. So, when they do go for it in those short-yardage situations, it's kind of a confidence boost for us because they are saying, `Look, I know you can do it. We're on our 30-yard line, if you don't get it, its going to be a big deal.' So they were just telling us through play-calling that they believed in us no matter what. We did rush the ball really well against Arkansas State. Obviously, we didn't perform well in key moments, and that's something that we're going to have to improve on this week in order to get a win in Provo."

On whether the offensive line is getting better:
"We are. There's no real quick fix or substitution for in-game, live reps, and I've referred to this before. We have to be able to take the reps and let the reps add up. So as we get deeper and deeper into the season, we have gotten better and better. We ran the ball much better against Arkansas State than we did in games previous."

"Tyshon (Mosley)'s there right now, and we're excited to have him there. Bill (Vavau) is in the rotation. Bill's practicing really hard, Tyshon's practicing really hard. It's just a matter of getting that execution to fit together. Maybe we have four guys doing the right thing on any given play, and one guy messes up. Or, if you look at it from an offensive perspective, 10 guys are doing the right thing, and one guy messes up. We're looking to be able to string together a series of all 11 guys executing on every play."

On the offense looking for it's identity:
"We still are. To put it as simply as I can, we still are. We haven't been the offense that we've wanted to be. Have we put in the time? Yes. Do we practice hard? Yes. Do we care? Yes. Do we want to make Aggie Nation proud? Yes we do. But things haven't fit together the way that we've wanted them to. Does that mean that we're not positive at practice, that we try less? No, it doesn't. We actually meet more. We do a lot more behind the scenes. We thought we would be prepared. The coaches have put is in a position to be prepared, but things haven't clicked. So that means that we as players, and we as leaders on the offense need to do more, and that's something that we are doing."

On his thoughts on why it hasn't clicked yet:
"Just in-game, live reps. I guess some guys need more than others. I'm not saying it's just the young guys because there are vets who make mistakes, too. I'm not trying to say it's this guy or that guy, but once we all collectively take enough reps together, and hopefully learn how to play together, our performance will improve. On the bright side of things, though, I think we're playing at a championship level on defense. That's why I haven't really panicked yet as one of the leaders on the offense. I know Zach (Vigil) has his guys right. I know the defensive line is going to come off the ball and stop the run, so as soon as we click, we'll be the team that we want to be. I know it."

On the emotions of the Arkansas State game moving forward:
"It was hard because you heard Coach (Matt) Wells refer to 10 times that we could have won the game, and we didn't. It's always a hard game to lose when you can look back at film and see, `If I would have gone a little harder here, we could have won the game.' It was emotionally hard, but it's not something that's going to damage our mental make up going into the rest of the season."

On how much the personnel changes on offense have affected how the offense plays together:
"We've played with two quarterbacks before. It affects it a little bit. There's a little bit of change, but for the most part our offense doesn't change with whoever's behind center. At running back, it's just hard because Joe Hill's kind of that senior leader, the guy who's taken the reps. Somebody just has to step up in the running backs group, and I think the running backs as a whole came to play last week. But it has affected us."

On what the BYU game means since neither team is playing against Utah this season:
"It's a huge game for us. We're excited to play them. They're finally admitting that they're excited to play us, so that's cool. We're excited to get down to Provo and play a good game. It is the only in-state game, so there's going to be a lot of eyes on it."

Senior Offensive Tackle Zach Vigil
Previewing the BYU game:
"We're looking forward to playing BYU. Obviously, they're rolling. They're one of the better teams in the country, top-20 team. Their offense is very dynamic. They have really good players all over the field. The wide receivers are really good, obviously No. 4 (Taysom Hill), their running back is really talented and their fullbacks block well. We face a lot of challenges as a defense this week to be able to stop what they like to do. We are looking forward to what should be a good challenge for us."

On stopping Taysom Hill:
"Well, he's built like a linebacker, runs like a running back, he's really smart and he can throw the ball. I think he's underrated. I was watching some film on him this morning, and he's pretty accurate with the football. He makes some really good long throws. He's obviously hard to bring down. One guy's not going to do it. If we're going to stop Taysom Hill in the run game, we're going to have to run to the ball as a swarming defense. We're going to have to be able to take our shots and know that somebody's there behind us if we miss."

On replicating Taysom Hill in practice this week:
"You can't. He's a guy that, in my opinion, should be talked about in the Heisman talk. He's a really good player. You can't replicate that. All you can do is know what you're going to be up against. In practice, you have to think about what No. 4 is going to look like, and not what the scout guy's going to look like coming at you."

On the big plays given up last year vs. BYU:
"The run play where they caught us, we didn't have the best call in, and they ended up creasing us. As far as their passing game, No. 10, he was their main target last year, and he's been really good for them this year. Their wide receivers are really good all around. They catch everything and they're big-bodied. They know how to get up field, so we're going to have our hands full all over the field. You have the quarterback who can run, the running back who's a really good running back and the wide outs who can catch it and get up field, and they do a really good job of that."

On how the by week helped him and the rest of the defense:
"The bye week was awesome to be able to just step away and soak it in because it's our only one this year. It's nice to get some time away from football and get your mind clear. Now we're back to work, and honestly, I'm happy to be back to work and getting ready to play BYU."

On any physical recovery during the bye week:
"I do feel a lot better. My legs were tired after last week. I ended up getting some work done on my body, and just refreshing it that way. When you play 80-90 reps a game for four weeks, it takes a toll on your body. Moving forward, we're going to have to do a really good job as a team taking care of our bodies on an individual basis. Eating right and sleeping right if we're going to be fresh week in and week out for nine weeks."

On facing no-huddle and hurry-up offenses:
"It's different, but it's something this defense has done pretty often since I've been here. This is my third year playing as a starter. We've seen a lot of pace offense, but as the season goes on and you see these pace offenses, the defense also gets in better shape, too. We become more equally matched. Early on in the season, if the offense is really pushing the pace, I think it's a huge advantage to them, but as the defenses get in shape, it evens out a little bit. It's still hard to get the plays in, know what you're doing, get lined up and stuff like that, so it poses a challenge."

On the play of senior safety Frankie Sutera:
"Frankie, I've always said, is the smartest player on the field. Frankie sees a lot of things. What he lacks in athletic ability, he makes up for in knowledge of the game and his assignment. Frankie can hit, too, that's what I like about Frankie. From where he started as a walk-on to where he is today, it's a great story. Frankie's a good friend of mine and I'm proud of him."

On how big the Utah State-BYU game is from the Aggies' perspective:
"It's a big game. Every game's a big game. BYU's obviously very talented this year. They're rolling. For us, we need to pick up and start playing Aggie football again. From the defensive standpoint, we need to play at a really high level on Friday night if we're going to give ourselves an opportunity to win this game. I think we can win this game. We just have to fly around, make plays and play at an elite level of defense that I know we're capable of. We've shown glimpses of it, but we have to execute at an even higher level."

On the youth in the Aggie secondary:
"The biggest thing is we're going to have to be able to pressure. They know and everybody in the country knows we bring pressure. But just because we bring pressure doesn't mean we're getting home, so we have to win our one-on-one battles up front. Those guys in the back end are young, but they're very talented. The Aggies are lucky to have them for multiple years to come. They're going to be really good, and they're really good now. We're going to have to be able to pressure No. 4 and be able to get home. That's going to give us our best opportunity to play really strong in the back end."

On his memories of the 6-3 game in 2012:
"I just remember that it was a defensive battle. I remember me and Jake (Doughty) laughed at one point because we were like, `This has got to be the worst game to be watching right now.' It was six to three, nobody wants to watch a defensive battle. From our standpoint, we were playing good defense. Not good enough to win. They scored too many points, scoring six points that game. We took that upon ourselves."

On any frustrations the defense has when the offense struggles to put up points:
"Yeah it can possibly be frustrating, but at the same time as a defensive player, you have to keep your guys going. You have to trust your offense. We have to trust our coaches. That's what we have to do as players. As a defensive leader, you let your guys know, `Hey, we have to go out there, fly around and do what we do. Don't worry about what the offense is doing. All we can control is your job. Do your job and play at a high level.'"

On what this game means, considering that a long run of conference play follows it:
"This is the last game before we get into our run. We want to get off on a strong foot. I think we have a really good opportunity to play really good defense. And our offense, you heard it from Kevin (Whimpey), he thinks it's on the up-and-up from here. I'm looking forward to this game. It's an in-state rival. We don't play Utah this year. We don't play Weber State, we don't play any of those guys, so everybody in the state is going to be tuning into this game. It'll be fun. I really like playing in Provo. I played down there in the 6-3 game. It's a good atmosphere. The fans are into it. I've always said I like playing in hostile environments, and that's a nice hostile environment. I like playing in Provo."