Utah yearning for friendly skies

When the Utah football players and coaches step on a plane Thursday for their trip to North Carolina, it will mark the farthest east the Utes have traveled in 38 years for a football game.

You have to go back to 1967 when the Mike Giddings-coached Utah team traveled to West Point to take on Army to find a trip farther east.

Since then the Utes have made a few trips to the Eastern time zone, including Gainesville, Fla., in 1977, Knoxville, Tenn., in 1979 and 1984, Columbus, Ohio, in 1986 and Louisville, Kent., in 1997.

But trips to the east are rare and are likely to become even less common, despite the fact that the NCAA is expanding schedules to 12 games beginning next year.

Even though the trip is nearly 2,000 miles, the Utes are excited about the journey. The fact that the plane ride is close to four hours, plus a bus ride to Chapel Hill, and Saturday's game is in the afternoon, means the Utes are leaving a day earlier than usual to get properly acclimated.

"The distance is a challenge, that's why we opted to go Thursday," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "It will give us a better transition to the time change to have two days in the area. We're taking the right approach."

While it might make more sense to stay out West to play non-conference games, Whittingham likes the idea of occasional games like this one.

"It's good for our players," he said. "It's similar to when we went back to Michigan (in 2002). It's a great experience for our players to experience the game-day atmosphere in a different conference like the ACC."

The trip will be the first to North Carolina for most of the players and the farthest many have been from home.

"It's going to be a fun opportunity to go there — I've never been that far east," said Ute safety Casey Evans, who doesn't believe the long trip will be a problem. "The biggest challenge is going to be playing the kind of athletes we'll face at North Carolina."

"It's exciting, but you kind of have to look at it like it's a conference game," said quarterback Brian Johnson. "I don't think (the distance) will be a problem. We'll adjust accordingly. I'm looking forward to it."

Utah athletic director Chris Hill doesn't quite remember the details of how the Utes got North Carolina on the schedule the past two years. He thought there was a connection that former U. president Bernie Machen had and said that North Carolina is a school that isn't afraid to play different teams from around the country.

Hill also says there's no rhyme or reason to how scheduling is done, comparing it to being a fisherman.

"You're out fishing all the time, always asking," Hill said. "You're putting your line out there and seeing if you can get a bite."