The 123rd season of Utah high school football officially kicks off this Thursday when Skyline hosts Hurricane, followed by 49 other endowment games on Friday.
Like the previous 122 seasons, optimism abounds across the state. An offseason of weightlifting and countless hours on the field this summer has every program believing this is their year.
For some programs, three or four victories would be considered a step in the right direction, while others have the same state-championship-or-bust mentality they do every year.
To get fans geared up for what should be another fantastic season, here are 10 notable stories worth paying attention to this season.

1. Big shoes to fill
The landscape has definitely changed for three of the state’s most successful programs in 2014.
Bingham, Dixie and South Summit all won their respective state championships last season, but in a definite oddity, all three have new head coaches in 2015. An assistant was bumped up to head coach at all three programs, so the adjustment shouldn’t be huge for any program.
But the rookies have huge shoes to fill.
Long-time Bingham assistant John Lambourne is taking over for Dave Peck, who led the Miners to five 5A titles in the past nine years.
“I am comfortable with the expectations,” said Lambourne, who was a head coach at Hunter from 1994 to 1998. “That comes with having been part of the program, but it also comes with a lot of years (coaching). Nobody from the outside is going to put more pressure on me than I put on me.”
Blaine Monkres led Dixie to a pair of championships in the past three years, but he took a job at Dixie State and was replaced by offensive line coach Andy Stokes.
After 10 years as an assistant coach at South Summit, Aaron Tillett takes over for Jerry Parker who led the program to titles in 2013 and 2014. Parker is staying on as an assistant coach.
2. Northern shake-up

The biggest impact from the latest wave of UHSAA realignment was felt up North.
For programs like Sky View, Roy, Mountain Crest and Clearfield it involved a jump to 5A. For Logan, it’s a move down to 3AA.
And for those who stayed in the same classification, the regions are markedly different. Fremont, Northridge and Weber are staying put in Region 1 and are joined by former Region 5 teams. As for Davis, Syracuse, Layton and Viewmont, they're now being lumped into Region 2 with West Valley City schools Hunter and Granger in addition to West.
The old Region 1 was always a very defensive region, but with high-scoring former 4A teams like Sky View, Roy and Mountain Crest joining the region, it might take on a new flare.
The same goes for Region 2, which was always regarded as the weakest 5A region. With Davis and Syracuse in the mix, the region is definitely better.
And as for Box Elder and Bonneville, instead of driving to Cache County for most of its league games, those two will now drive toward the Southern end of Davis County and Salt Lake City for its league games.

3. More national respect
A year after finishing 14th in the final MaxPreps national high school football rankings, the Bingham Miners begin the season on the national radar yet again.
Despite a coaching change this past offseason, the Miners open the season ranked No. 13 in MaxPreps’ preseason rankings.
Bingham takes on Westlake and Herriman in the first two weeks of the season, but a Week 3 game against visiting Bishop Gorman (Nevada) High is the game the players probably have circled.
The Las Vegas school finished last season as the No. 1 team in the country according to USA Today — and No. 2 by MaxPreps. One of its marquee wins was a 23-20 overtime win over Bingham in Las Vegas. The Miners get to host the highly-anticipated rematch on Sept. 4.

4. Timpview pursues fourth
Timpview High School is one of just six high schools in state history that has won four consecutive state championships. This season, it’s hoping to become the first school to accomplish the feat twice.
The T-Birds won four straight titles from 2006 to 2009, and now the program is in the midst of a three-year streak with championships in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Winning again certainly won’t be easy without marquee players like Britain Covey and Gabe Reid, but there’s plenty of returning talent offensively and defensively for Timpview to pull off the four-peat.
"You're used to replacing seniors every year, but guys like Britain Covey and Gabe Reid, replacing guys like that are tougher to replace than your usual seniors," said coach Cary Whittingham. "But we have some good young kids, talented kids that we like a lot. Guys who we'll ask a lot from."
Class 4A has been diluted a bit with Sky View, Mountain Crest, Roy and Logan shifting to different classifications.

5. Balance for 3AA
Realignment has changed the landscape for most classifications, and in 3AA it might threaten the dominance of the Southern Utah schools.
In the past four years, Hurricane, Dixie, Desert Hills and Dixie again have captured state titles. In fact, all four semifinal berths last year went to 3AA South schools.
They’re all expected to be great again, but there’s a new challenger. Logan is moving from 4A down to 3AA this season, and year after year it was always one of the best programs in 4A. It even won the 4A title in 2011 with a perfect 14-0 record.
The Grizzlies immediately raise the overall quality in 3AA, and give the Southern programs something else to think about as they assess who the championship contenders are.
Judge is another program that could increase the quality after being bumped up from 3A to 3AA after back-to-back championships.

6. Next man up at Jordan
From Alex Hart to McCoy Hill to Austin Kafentzis, Jordan’s quarterbacks have been at the head of the 5A pack the past seven seasons.
Hart was voted Deseret News 5A first team in back-to-back seasons in 2008 and 2009, and Hill followed it up with a first-team nod in 2010. Kafentzis topped them all. During his record-breaking four-year run at Jordan from 2011-2014, he was either Mr. Football, MVP or first team all four years.
So will the trend of dominant quarterbacks under coach Eric Kjar continue in 2015? Possibly.
Drew Lisk was a backup to Kafentzis last season, and Kjar said he’s excited about the new challenge facing his program.
“We loved having Austin around, and it will definitely be a new challenge for us. Austin was great for us over the four years. But I’m happy for Drew (Lisk), a guy who’s been in our program for four years and has done a really good job at the lower levels,” said Kjar.

7. Noteworthy coaching changes
Over the past decade there’s consistently been an annual coaching change rate of about 20 percent. This year is no different with 18 programs being guided by new coaches.
Some of the outgoing coaches were among the most tenured in the state.
Cedar’s Todd Peacock retired after 28 total years as head coach, including the past 24 at Cedar. One of his region rivals, Dixie’s Blaine Monkres, accepted a college coaching job after 25 years as a high school head coach, with the last seven at Dixie.
Dave Peck retired from coaching after 15 years at Bingham (and 20 overall), while Riverton’s Mike Miller stepped down as Riverton’s head coach after 11 years (and 17 overall).
The only remaining coaches in the 20-plus club are Bountiful’s Larry Wall (31 years), Emery’s Jim Jones (28 years), Juan Diego’s John Colosimo (28 years), Mountain Crest’s Mark Wootton (25 years) and Hunter’s Scott Henderson (20 years).

8. Rags to riches
Roy’s march to last year’s 4A championship game was arguably the best story of the season, made all the more sensational by decades of futility from the Royals.
Success didn’t come overnight though, as coach Fred Fernandes laid the foundation for the program before its 12-1 campaign in year four.
Is Murray the next traditional doormat poised for a breakout year?
Mike Richmond is entering his fourth year as head coach at Murray, and after 1-9 and 1-8 records his first two years, his team went a solid 6-4 last year.
It could be another uptick for the Spartans this season.
“I think we’ve got the program headed in the right direction,” Richmond said. “We made the playoffs last year for the first time in a lot of years. We’re excited because we keep most of our staff, and we have a great group of returning players.”

9. Stability for 1A
In 2010, 1A football was on life support with only eight teams, and the always uncertain future about whether or not Monument Valley and Whitehorse would play an independent schedule.
Five years later, the state’s smallest classification is as stable as ever.
Despite Monument Valley and Whitehorse indeed playing an independent schedule this year, 1A is in great shape with 10 teams thanks to realignment and a new school playing football this fall.
Parowan is dropping from 2A to 1A, but the biggest story of 1A is Wayne starting to play varsity football this fall after competing at the junior varsity level last year.
“Our win-loss record will be whatever it is at the end of the season, but we can’t lose track of what these kids are doing, what they’ve accomplished to be able to play high school football down here,” said Wayne coach Rick McCartney.

10. Expectations are hit or miss
Each season the Deseret News asks coaches around the state to project how they think teams will finish within their own region. It’s no guarantee of success.
Of the 16 teams projected to win their respective region titles last year, only nine did. American Fork’s undefeated Region 4 title is a perfect example that things don’t always play out as expected.
In fact, Bingham was the only projected region champ in 5A last year that actually won its region. Three of the four projected champs won in 4A, with one of two winning in 3AA.
Both projected champs won in 3A and 2A last year, while neither won in 1A.
So with the season starting this week, preseason rankings shouldn’t be taken too seriously, because as Logan coach Mike Favero said, “Anybody that tries to make a prediction of this year’s success based upon previous teams is purely guessing. It’s a compliment, not an accomplishment.”