When the University of Utah hosts the University of Idaho tonight in Rice Stadium, no one will be surprised to see Blaine Berger anchoring the defensive right tackle position for the Utes.
Not the Utes, who have started Berger at that spot for 25 of their last 26 games stretching over the past 2 1/2 years.Not the Idaho Vandals, who still lament the fact they let a big one get away.
And neither Blaine's mother or his father, who have spent the past five falls memorizing every inch of the highway and the convenience stores between either Kemmerer, Wyo., or Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Blaine's parents separated when he was young, after which his father, Greg, remained in Wyoming and his mother, Kathy, moved to Idaho Falls, where Blaine went to school. Neither parent stopped being a parent, which not only helped create a well-rounded upbringing for Blaine but also - as it turned out - a spirited recruiting war. When Blaine graduated in 1989 from Idaho Falls High School as one of the cornerstones of one of the best high school teams in Idaho prep history (33 straight wins and two straight state championships), the state universities of Wyoming, Idaho and Utah all thought they had an inalienable right to Blaine Berger.
Wyoming because that's where he was born; Idaho because that's where he went to high school; and Utah because . . . well, because it was right in between.
Wyoming leaned heavily on the father-lives-in-Kemmerer angle. Idaho leaned heavily on the Gem State pride angle - as well as invoking the use of an inside source, Idaho coach John L. Smith's brother-in-law, who was the defensive coordinator at Idaho Falls High. And Utah leaned heavily on the halfway-between-Kemmerer-and-Idaho Falls angle.
"It was a tough decision," says Berger, still remembering the anxiety more than four years later. "I spent two weeks just thinking about it.
"But I finally thought, `I'm 18, and I should stay as close to home as possible,"' he says. "So I chose Utah."
Virtually every home game since, his mother has made the 3 1/2-hour drive from I.F. and his dad the two-hour drive from Kemmerer. In his first season in 1989 when all he did was reshirt, his mom even made those games too.
They have thus been able to chronicle their son's career, which has been meteoric enough. He made the Ute defense's two-deep chart as a freshman in 1990 and became a starter in 1991, which has been his habit ever since until an ankle injury forced him to miss this fall's season opener at Arizona State. By the Utes' second game, and first win, against Utah State, he was back in the lineup, however, and has been ever since. In last week's game at Wyoming he went over the 200-tackle barrier for his career (he has 203) and, not surprisingly, was a defensive standout despite Utah's 28-12 loss. It was his block of a Cowboy punt that set up Utah's safety against the School That Wanted Him.
Berger has reason to be just as inspired playing tonight against The Other School That Wanted Him. He has great respect for the Vandals' program, for Smith, the head coach, and for Idaho's All-America candidate quarterback Doug Nussmeier, with whom Berger has participated in kids camps the past two summers back home in Idaho.
"I wouldn't want to play bad against them," says Berger. "This is a chance to convert some fans up there. People in Idaho, and Idaho Falls in particular, are either Idaho fans or BYU fans. There aren't a lot of Utah fans."
Blaine's mom being a big exception, of course. Kathy has made the most of Salt Lake's "close" proximity to Idaho Falls. Besides making her regular weekend trips, she calls Blaine every morning to make sure he's up and going to class.
"Twenty-two years old and she still does that. Every day," says Berger, smiling.
"That goes back to seventh grade," he says, "when she worked for the power company. She'd wake me up before she left, and then when she got to work she'd call again to make sure I hadn't gone back to bed."
"Both my parents have worked hard all their lives. They've worked two jobs and all that," says Berger. "It's had a big impact on me to work hard. Neither of them got to do what they've made sure I've been able to do. I have to hand it to both of them. They're what keep me going."