Barnes' resourcefulness is all over the project. Local volunteers secured top-quality wood from the desks in the state capital for study rooms in the complex and were enlisted to help complete the project. Barnes also plans to deploy weekday classrooms as luxury suites, a first-ever Romney Stadium option. The whole project, he says, cost a paltry $139 per square foot.

Another area of attention is scheduling for success. Rather than playing two or three "big money" non-conference road games (read: losses), Barnes' idea is simple. Instead of playing Oregon or Oklahoma for $230,000 to $500,000, play one road game that garners $800,000 to $1 million.

"Schools in the SEC, Big 12 and some in the Pac-10 will pay that," Barnes said. "Our student-athletes want to line up some of the best in the nation once a year, and we need those dollars."

In turn, Utah State could invest those dollars into scheduling a regional I-AA team like Weber State, Idaho State or Southern Utah, and schedule games against teams from the MAC, Sun Belt or lower half of the MWC — teams USU would have a chance to beat.

Barnes also wants the Ags to play BYU or Utah, but not both of them necessarily, and especially not on the road every time.

To many fans, playing I-AA cupcakes isn't what they want to see, especially with rising ticket prices at many universities. But Barnes says the question should be why hasn't Utah State scheduled them in the past, not why is it scheduling them now.

"They (I-AA games) are bowl-eligible wins. We want the opportunity to create some momentum in our program, and one of the ways to do that is to schedule some games you can win," he said. "Another thing that people forget is that we entered a conference that has had two BCS qualifiers. The top of the conference is very, very good. In addition to playing a difficult non-conference schedule, you're having to play Boise State, Hawaii and Fresno State every year."

Barnes' take-no-prisoners attitude toward his job is engaging and should be encouraging to Aggie fans. Gone are the days of scheduling Utah and BYU at any cost, even if it was a two-for-one situation.

"We don't want to lose sight of those regional rivalries and we want to keep those strong," Barnes said. "Yet, in our current situation, playing a money game, BYU and Utah at any given year all on the road isn't balanced. In the future, our plan would not include a two-for-one. There are enough teams that want to play us where we will only play teams home and home."

Last month, Barnes again set out on a trek, this time with a donor to Sportsmen's Paradise. The water was murky and he used just as much energy as before, but the outcome was different: this time, there was a lot of action and results. "It was wonderful," Barnes said. " I caught a fish and had a great experience. I'm hoping for more."

Just as he's angling for Aggie football success.

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E-mail: nnewman@desnews.com