Utah State coach Mick Dennehy is very aware that Utah has a new offensive coordinator in Craig Ver Steeg, which is why his staff has spent time looking at film of Illinois, where Ver Steeg used to coach. Dennehy also knows how good Utah's defense was last year and will be again this year, and he expects the Utes will add a few wrinkles this week.
What really concerns Dennehy the most, however, are the Utes' special teams.
That's because Utah has a new special teams coordinator for the first time in more than 20 years — Gary Andersen replacing Sean McNabb — and Dennehy doesn't know what to expect.
"Probably the biggest concern is in the special teams area, because that's where you are less likely to be able to anticipate," he said. "That's the one area that scares you the most in terms of making one mistake that changes the whole complexion of the game."
Dennehy said his staff has tried to give the Aggie players several different looks so they'll be able to react to anything. Still, despite any changes the Utes show on offense, defense or special teams, it shouldn't make a difference in how the Aggies play.
"It all boils down to going out and playing hard and playing smart for 60 minutes and not making a whole lot of mistakes," said Dennehy.
SCHEDULE WOES: All summer, Dennehy has fretted about the daunting schedule his Aggies face this fall with the likes of LSU, a consensus Top 20 team, and Oregon, a consensus Top 10 team.
So imagine how he felt after watching a couple of games over the weekend and seeing BYU, his Oct. 5 opponent, put 70 points on the board against Tulane, and Fresno State, his Sept. 15 opponent, upset Colorado on the road. Now the Aggie schedule looks worse than ever.
"That was the first thing I mentioned in our staff meeting this morning," said Dennehy. "Golly, you've got to give congratulations to coach Crowton for the great start that they got off to. We've got to play Fresno the third game of the season and that was a great win for their program, no question.
"But we knew we had our work cut out for us before the season started, so it's really no surprise."
OLD RIVALS: Ade Jimoh will start for the second straight year in the defensive backfield when the Aggies line up against Utah Saturday night. Over in the Ute secondary will be one of Jimoh's high school rivals, Airabin Justin.
Both players played high school football in Woodland Hills, Calif. Jimoh played for El Camino Real High School and Justin played for Taft High School and the two became friends after playing together in all-star games.
"We were rivals in high school and had the same colors — I was blue and white and he was red and white," said Jimoh. "We've kind of kept in touch ever since. We probably won't talk that much this week, at least until after the game."
AGNOTES: The Aggies don't have a great overall record against Utah, with only four wins since 1980. However, when they've played the Utes in their opening game, they've fared well, at least lately. In both 1996 and 1997 the Aggies knocked off the Utes in the opening game, and in 1998 they kept it close in a 20-12 loss . . . Dennehy will be in Salt Lake Thursday for a noon luncheon at the Wasatch Properties Building at 299 S. Main . . . ToddSleight, the new ticket manager at Utah State, estimates he'll sell between 600 and 1,000 tickets for Saturday night's game . . . The Aggies have been remarkably free of injuries this fall with just one reserve offensive lineman missing any significant amount of time . . . The Aggie depth chart has changed little the past couple of weeks. One of the few changes was EricGwilliam beating out GrantCalverley for one of the starting tackle spots.
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