Two local college teams venture into Pac-10 territory Saturday, another travels to Cornhusker country, while two others square off in the second in-state battle of the season.
Utah takes the only winning record in the state to play Oregon State, BYU tries to get untracked against UCLA in the Rose Bowl, Utah State makes another visit to Nebraska, while Southern Utah and Weber State go at it in Ogden.Utah (1-0) at Oregon State (0-0), 2 p.m. MDT - The opening game of Utah's Pac-10 schedule pits the Utes against the league's worst team (1-10) of a year ago. Later this year, the Utes play Oregon at home and Arizona State on the road, games much more formidable than this one.
The Beavers have a new coach in Jerry Pettibone, who brings his spread option offense from Northern Illinois. He admits that it's going to take some time to get his offense implemented at OSU.
"It's been a big change for all the players, especially the quarterback," said Pettibone, who saw two of the three returning quarterbacks transfer. He'll go with Ed Browning, who has never played the option offense.
The Beavers will also open with three running backs who have never played a down of college football on offense. On defense, the Beavers will be more experienced with seven of their top 10 point producers back from last year.
Utah Coach Ron McBride was pleased on the whole with his team's performance against Utah State, but added, "We've still got a lot of things to solve as a team." Most important for the Utes is taking advantage of scoring opportunities inside the 20, said McBride.
BYU (0-1) at UCLA (0-0), 8 p.m. MDT - The Cougars are hoping they can bounce back like they have in recent years following lackluster opening games.
"I've always felt like you make the most progress between the first and second weeks," said BYU's LaVell Edwards. "Hopefully we'll be able to do that."
The Cougars will be facing a Bruin team that is trying to bounce back from a couple of down seasons.
"The last two years have been very disappointing and devastating," said UCLA Coach Terry Donahue. "We're trying to get our program back to the level it once was when we won seven straight bowl games."
Donahue said his team was "appreciably better" last year and this year is "a little deeper and a step quicker."
The Bruins' top player is quarterback Tommy Maddox, a sophomore who set Pac-10 and UCLA freshman records for passing yards and total offense.
BYU only suffered one injury last week when defensive tackle Brad Hunter hurt his knee on the first series against Florida State. Hunter is questionable this week. Also linebacker Jared Leavitt, who has a bad ankle, might be back.
Southern Utah (0-0) at Weber State (0-1), 6 p.m. - After stepping up a level last week to play Air Force of Division I-A, the I-AA Wildcats go down a level to play the T-Birds of Division II this week.
Although the Wildcats played well against the Falcons, Weber Coach Dave Arslanian isn't worried about his team overlooking the T-Birds.
"We've always taken the stance whether its Air Force or Southern Utah, it's not who we play it's how we play," said Arslanian. "We try to be consistent in our performance."
SU Coach Jack Bishop's teams have usually played Weber State close, at least for a half, but he'a taking a different approach to this year's game.
"It's a big game for us, but we've overemphasized it in the past," he said. "We don't want an emotional letdown after the Weber game."
Weber is led by quarterback Jamie Martin, who had more than 400 yards of total offense against Air Force. Southern Utah will go with James Armendariz, who beat out expected starter Bret Barben for the QB spot in fall camp. Zed Robinson, a transfer from Dixie College, will be the T-Birds' main running threat.
Utah State (0-1) at Nebraska (0-0) - The Aggies will be making their third trip to Lincoln in the past five seasons when they play the 14th-ranked Cornhuskers. And though they're not counting on winning, they'd like to make a better showing than the last two games when they lost 56-12 and 63-13.
"This should be the best team we've taken into Nebraska," said USU Coach Chuck Shelton, still smarting from the 12-7 loss at Utah Saturday. "If we can get our passing game untracked then hopefully we can stay out on the field with our offense a little bit."
While Shelton and the Ags are concerned with their offense (just 222 yards against Utah), they need to be wary of the Cornhuskers' option attack.
"We think they will be the same Nebraska team as always," said Shelton. "They run that triple option look, the "I" formation with the great running backs. It's going to be another big, strong, typical Nebraska team."
The Aggies most serious injury last week was a broken wrist to starting fullback Jim Ray. Chad Tigert will take over as the starter.