Aggies, Cougars rivalry returns Saturday

By DOUG ALDEN AP Sports Writer

PROVO, Utah (AP) -- When it came down to a scholarship offer from Utah State or a chance to walk on at Brigham Young, linebacker Kelly Poppinga made a financially sound decision.

"I didn't want to walk on. I wanted to get my school paid for, so I went to Utah State. I thought that was a good fit for me," Poppinga said.

And it was a good fit, until Poppinga reconsidered and decided to transfer to BYU after his sophomore season. On Saturday, Poppinga will be playing against his former teammates when the Cougars (1-2) host the Aggies (0-3).

"Nothing bad against Utah State. No hard feelings," Poppinga said. "I respect everybody up there, but it's been a great experience here and I'm glad I made that decision to come here."

He may be even more happy about it after Saturday's game. While the Cougars have struggled to finish off games they could have won against Arizona and Boston College this season, the Aggies have yet to score even a point on offense.

Utah State is averaging just 158.7 yards of offense and has been shut out the past two weeks, 20-0 at Arkansas and 48-0 against Utah last weekend.

But the struggles aren't the reason Poppinga is happy to be in Provo, where his older brother, Brady, and father, Dennis, also played.

Poppinga said the decision was primarily to play for Bronco Mendenhall, who had just been hired as BYU's coach.

Brady Poppinga played for Mendenhall when he was coach Gary Crowton's defensive coordinator. Kelly Poppinga was talking to his older brother after the 2004 season and decided to transfer, even though it meant he had to sit out last fall under NCAA rules.

"He just said, 'Hey, man. You need to get down here. You belong here,"' Kelly Poppinga said.

Coaches are not allowed to contact players from other schools about transferring, so Kelly called Mendenhall and quickly saw what his brother meant.

"He told me there would be no other coach that would expect more out of you and that would be able to get the potential out of you that was in each player," Poppinga said. "There was some way that Bronco got across to each player to play at your highest level and play with your highest effort. Brady didn't know how he did it, but he got that theory around to everybody."

BYU has been preparing this week for Jason Beck to make his first start at quarterback. John Beck (no relation) has a sprained right ankle and Mendenhall said his status may not be known until just before Saturday's 1 p.m. kickoff.

Even if there is a new quarterback, the Cougars will still have running backs Curtis Brown and Fui Vakapuna and the entire receiving corps to carry the offense if John Beck isn't healthy enough to play.

Saturday will be the first meeting between BYU and Utah State since 2002, when BYU rallied to win 35-34 in Logan.

That was before Mendenhall was part of the staff and back when Utah State was coached by Mick Dennehy. Brent Guy was hired to replace Dennehy in 2004 and turning the program around has been slow.

Last week against Utah, the Aggies committed six turnovers and had just 98 yards of offense. Utah, meanwhile, gained 401 yards and became the third straight team to hold the Aggies without an offensive point.

Playing each other makes geographic sense for the Aggies and Cougars. The schools are about 120 miles apart and are two of the three Division I-A teams in the state. Utah is the other.

BYU and Utah went to bowl games last season. Utah State finished 3-8 and still has a way to go to restore the in-state matchups as real rivalries.

"In our situation right now, trying to build a program it is not easy to be playing against a good program like them," Guy said. "Overall in the grand scheme of things, it is good for Utah State to play this game. Our fans want to see this game. The state of Utah should want to see this game."

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-09-22-06 1124MDT

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