Looking for bright spots regarding Utah State football? Here are a few

Ultimately, college football is about the final results.

Wins and losses almost exclusively (unless the College Football Playoff committee is involved but this isn’t the story for that conversation).

And as far as wins and losses go, Utah State football is in a rough way right now.

Following the Aggies’ loss at home Saturday against New Mexico, USU is now 1-6 on the season and 0-3 in Mountain West Conference play.

Although bowl eligibility is still technically possible — were they to win out to close out the season — it is a long shot at best.

Contention for the conference championship is gone for Utah State, barring an absurd final month and a half of the season throughout the MW.

And the odds are that Nate Dreiling and much, if not all, of the current coaching staff won’t be around next season.

As The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman wrote last week , the Aggies are all but certain to “be starting over this winter.”

Starting over in the current landscape of college football can be daunting given the NCAA transfer portal and importance of NIL, which make predicting which players will be suiting up Utah State next season a near impossibility.

Given all that, it would be forgivable to not be all that excited about Utah State football right now. And that is before you think about standout seasons that are happening in Boise and Provo.

And yet, there are reasons for optimism still.

Not about this year’s team. That ship has all but sailed.

But about the future of football in Logan. Even with the threat of transfer portal defections.

One of those bright spots is true freshman running back Herschel Turner.

Turner isn’t exactly an unknown at this point, having taken over the No. 2 spot at running back after Robert Briggs was lost for the season.

Turner has shown flashes in different games this year, but his performance against New Mexico may have been his best yet.

Turner only carried the ball four times against the Lobos but he was nothing short of incredible every time he touched the ball. He finished the game with 54 rushing yards and a touchdown, and had a the longest run of the game (43 yards) by any player on either team.

Outside of that breakaway run, though, he proved incredibly difficult for New Mexico to get down and even flashed in the passing game with a reception for 11 yards.

A prolific runner in high school, Turner has a real chance to be a star for the Aggies (with the understandable caveat that he has to stay in Logan).

“Isn’t he (Turner) awesome,” Dreiling said. “He is going to be so special at this place. I’ve said this before, but if you actually get around him, he’s an even better person than he is player. He has a chance to play for a long time. He is what this team needs. He has unbelievable energy every single day. He is always smiling. He is someone that Aggie nation should be very proud of.”

Turner doesn’t have the success he had without strong play from the Aggies’ offensive line. And most of that group could, maybe even should, be back next season.

It is a unit that has become the best position group on the team, bar none, even with a substandard performance against New Mexico that included too many holding penalties.

USU’s O-line has only surrendered 12 sacks this season, and that is with Spencer Petras — a largely immobile quarterback — playing in four and a half games.

Plus USU’s rushing attack is averaging five yards per carry, a mark nearly every coach in college football would be happy with.

That can all be credited, largely to the play of USU’s offensive line, and the majority of the line is populated with players with plenty of eligibility remaining.

There’s more, though.

Four of Utah State’s seven most productive pass catchers this season — Jack Hestera, Otto Tia, Grant Page and Will Monney — could be back next year and each has flashed real potential this season, though none consistently.

Given Utah State’s track record with finding and developing skill position talent, though, any of those players could be the next breakout offensive star for Utah State. The potential is there at least.

Defensively things have gone pretty abysmally for Utah State this season, but even on that side of the ball reasons for optimism can be found. Players like John Miller, Bronson Olevao Jr., JD Drew, Lawrence Falatea and Isaiah Bruce have made good use of new-found playing time, showing they are capable of playing real minutes for Utah State going forward.

The bad surrounding Utah State football right now is pretty overwhelming. The Aggies aren’t winning games and it has now cost them any real chance of achieving any of their goals this season. And on paper, wins will be hard to come by the remainder of the season. The Aggies haven’t really provided much evidence that they deserve the benefit of the doubt in upcoming matchups against Wyoming, Hawaii, Colorado and San Diego State — the final four conference games of the season.

And yet there are still bright spots to be found every week. Players making strides and teasing potential. Giving some hope for the future.

And that might be all that USU has right now. The future.