Estimated read time: 9-10 minutes
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SALT LAKE CITY — For college football fans, today is the equivalent of Christmas morning — game day.
Tonight the Utah Utes and the Utah State Aggies kick off the 2013 season in Rice-Eccles Stadium. To help you get the scoop on what each team needs to do to win, we brought in Utah insiders Mike Grant and Robert Jackson and Utah State insider Matt Glade.
Here are five keys for each team to come away with the all important 'W' in the season opener.
Utah State's strength was Utah's primary weakness in 2012 - mobile quarterbacks. The Utes struggled against a slew of dual threat stars that based most of their success on their ability to extend plays and scramble for first downs.
In last season's game vs. Utah State in Logan, Aggie quarterback Chuckie Keeton was terrific, throwing for 216 yards with two touchdowns while adding an additional 94 yards on the ground.
As a result, containing Keeton is priority one, two, three and four according to Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham.
"He is a great competitor, and I have all the respect in the world for him," Whittingham added.
How in the world do you slow down a dual threat quarterback that is on two Heisman award watch lists?
"We have to contain him. We can't let him get out of the pocket," Utah defensive tackle Tenny Palepoi said. "He's dangerous in the run game."
This might possibly be the most interesting part of the game on both sides of the ball. Utah State clearly has the edge on the experience factor. The Aggies are returning all five starters on the offensive line and almost all the defensive front seven, save Bojay Filimoeatu.
In 2012, the Utes offensive line struggled in fall camp and that struggling continued in season. That was clearly evident during the game against Utah State. Now, the offensive line has seen consistency and has been together since the spring and all through fall camp. All five starters have practiced together every day. They are anchored by left tackle Jeremiah Poutasi.
Utah is also replacing 75% of the defensive line. Tenny Palepoi is the next man in line for the Utes at defensive tackle.
While Utah State is a proven commodity, Utah has great talent and it is time to put it together. The Utes think they have one of the best offensive and defensive lines in the conference but like most of the team are unproven. It will be interesting to watch whether experience wins out, or if size, strength, and raw talent win out.
Since Dennis Erickson was hired the hype has been building about how explosive the offense can be.
What impact will Erickson have?
In his best year statistical years at Arizona State, 2007 and 2011 respectively, the Sun Devils averaged 73 and 75 plays/game. In 2007, Erickson had Rudy Carpenter who threw most of the passes. The Sun Devils averaged 262 yards/game with 2 TD's. Carpenter also threw 25 TD's and had 10 interceptions.
Would Utah fans be okay with seeing a stat line of 20/32, 262 yards, and two touchdowns from Travis Wilson?
Whittingham has mentioned that having Erickson on staff has not only helped the offense develop, but helps in regard to him having a sounding board to bounce ideas off of. Pretty cool that he can ask a two time national champion and three time Pac-10 Coach of the Year for advice.
If you are going strictly off talent, this is a game the Utes win 10 times out of 10, but they got beat last year. Why?
The Utes did not take the game as serious as they needed to and they went to Logan and got their lunch sacks handed to them.
Part of the in-state rivalry game preparation needs to be spent on getting ready for the mentally. There is trash talk, cheap shots, penalties, etc. Which team can keep their head? It didn't help in 2012 when Joe Kruger got kicked out of the game for losing his head. The Utes get ready for this every year when they play BYU, but for some reason they weren't mentally prepared for the Aggies in 2012.
Will they be ready this year?
Home-field advantage at Rice-Eccles Stadium is real. Just ask TCU in 2008. Traditionally a low penalized team, the Horned Frogs racked up six false start penalties — three of which on one drive — and missed two field goals in the final six minutes as the Utes scored a game winning touchdown with less than a minute remaining.
Chaos.
Pandemonium.
For the Utes to get the W against the Aggies, it will be key to get the crowd into the game early. Start fast and keep the foot on the throttle, and hopefully the MUSS will be adding additional false start signs on the front row.
It has been preached every day of fall camp, stop the run. It's the primary goal of the Aggies' defense every time they take the field. It was the key to beating the Utes in 2012; they held John White to 3.6 yards per carry, and the Utes as a team, to 2.3 yards per carry.
This year, it might not be so easy. The Utes' offensive line averages 320 pounds and their starting running back, Kelvin York, weighs in at a trim 220 pounds; that is a road grater of running game. And don't forget Travis Wilson, 6'6 and 240 lbs.; not easy to bring down.
If the Utes are able to get five yards a pop, it will be a long night for Utah State.
The Aggies two biggest deep threats from 2012, Matt Austin and Chuck Jacobs, are gone and their returning receivers have not yet proven they can take the top off the defense. Combined, Austin and Jacobs had 28 catches greater than 15 yards with 14 of them greater than 25 yards.
With the receivers returning this year, who saw significant time in 2012; Travis Reynolds, Travis Van Leeuwen, and Bruce Natson combined for 12 catches greater than 15 yards with only one catch greater than 25 yards (coincidentally enough, it was Van Leeuwen's 28 yard catch against Utah). You could say with Jacobs and Austin on the team, the remaining receivers weren't asked to be deep threats, but the fact is, until they prove it in the game tonight, Utah will stack the box with eight defenders.
I expect Matt Wells and Kevin McGiven to air it out more than you're expecting to see to loosen up Utah's defense
"He's gonna be the anchor, he's gonna be the heart of that team," were Chuckie Keeton's words at the Monday press conference; and he's absolutely right. The Utes defense will go as Trevor Reilly does. He is an animal on the field and extremely versatile; I mean, not a lot of players are listed twice on a depth chart as a starter.
He'll be lined up against left tackle Kevin Whimpey the majority of the game, which is good news for the Aggies considering Whimpey only allowed two sacks in 2012. In addition, I expect to see a lot of running plays right at Reilly; he's a bit under-sized at 255 lbs. and the Aggies will try and take advantage of that.
It's impossible to talk about the Utah State's defense and not talk about linebacker Kyler Fackrell; he is, simply put, the best player on the field. Not taking anything away from anyone else on that defense but Fackrell is on another level of play making.
"Kyler is a heck of an athlete and you see him do some freaky things," his teammate Connor Williams said of the sophomore.
I couldn't agree more. One thing that surprised me at fall camp was how much better Fackrell looked. He made everything he did look easy and dominated everyone he lined up against.
"Even if the game plan isn't for him to make all the plays, he tends to make a lot of the plays," Williams added.
If the Utes want to win, they need to keep Fackrell away from Wilson and try to stop him from making all those plays; and since I heard they had a Ute player wearing a blue #52 jersey at practice this past week, I'm pretty sure the Utes know that too.
What tends to get lost in all the talk about player match ups and talent, is the fact that this is Matt Wells' first game as head coach of Utah State. For me, going into Rice-Eccles as my first game at the helm of a program would not be my ideal choice; neither would be going head to head with Kyle Whittingham and Dennis Erickson. I believe Wells has the potential to be a great head coach but even the great ones have growing pains in their first year; Gary Andersen only won eight games in his first two seasons combined (granted, he didn't have the talent Wells has right now).
Fortunately for Wells he has Chuckie Keeton and a great offensive line, but he still has little room for error. Any miscues or bad decisions will be magnified facing veteran coaches like Whittingham and Erickson and they'll take full advantage; much like Andersen took advantage of Brian Johnson in the first half of their game last year.
It's a lot to ask of a first time head coach to be perfect in his first game, but Wells will need to be close to that in order for Utah State to come away with the win.
