SALT LAKE CITY — After opening the season with a 41-10 win over Weber State before a crowd of 45,988 fans at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the Utah Utes head to Northern Illinois next week.
The surroundings will be much different. Huskie Stadium in Dekalb, Illinois, has a seating capacity of just 23,595. Last season, the Huskies averaged only 11,291 fans despite making it to a bowl game for the 11th time in 14 years.
Utah will become the first Pac-12 team ever to play there. Question is, why are the Utes doing so?
“Don’t ask me. I don’t know. I didn’t schedule that,” said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. “I don’t know. They show me who we play and I say ‘OK, here we go.’”
Whittingham acknowledged that it’s out of Utah’s recruiting footprint but noted that games aren’t easy to get.
“It’s not like there’s just tons of games out there to select from and sometimes you’ve got a situation where the choices are very, very few,” Whittingham said. “So I’m not complaining about it and so we’ll just go play it. But it is curious.”
The two-game series between the Utes and Huskies was announced in July 2014. The return game in Salt Lake City is set for next season.