Utah State planned for Nick Vigil to be a running back since July

When Utah State linebacker Nick Vigil entered the first offensive drive for the Aggies and then was given a handoff on the second play of the game it felt like just a one off play for Vigil to mess with BYU. That first run was a nice 8-yard gain and it would be far from the last time Vigil would carry the ball.

Vigil ended up running the ball for a team high 16 attempts and rushed for a team high 57 yards and a touchdown.

Nick Vigil scores his 1st-career TD and the Aggies keep rolling. Utah St. leads, 35-17, entering the 4th. http://t.co/Tm26JcEZJ3 #USUvsBYU

— ESPN CollegeFootball (@ESPNCFB) October 4, 2014

Putting Vigil at running back -- where he also showed some moves with a cutback rushing attempt -- was not something that head coach Matt Wells just decided to do int he bye week. In fact this was something that had been planned all the back in July.

"We decided on that package this summer," Well said in his post game coaches show. "Nick [Vigil] sustained a tweak to an injury, [so] we put that on the shelf in training camp because he was nicked up, and just said we would put it out there first day of bye week, we did it. We were waiting for bye week to get here and get him healed up, and it was a perfect time."

Keeping this under wraps since July is a great feat because usually this type of thing will come out sooner than later. However, make no mistake that pulling out this trick was clearly aimed at BYU. Wells does say that they waited for the bye week to pull this out all along and the first game after the bye week just coincidentally came against in-state foe BYU.

Putting Vigil at running back helped spark a lethargic running attack which has struggled for the Aggies this year. It is unclear if seeing Vigil as a regular running back will continue with double-digit carries, but at the very least it will give opposing teams one more thing to prepare for when they face Utah State.