College football Thursday

Big-5 futures

Buy—BYU—Northern Iowa will have its hands full with Cougars

Buy—Utah—The Utes have a real shot at beating a BCS team

Hold—Utah State—We'll find out a lot about the Aggies on Saturday

Buy—Weber State—Wildcats start optimistic season with cupcake

Sell—Southern Utah—Air Force is the first stop of a tough SUU schedule

Utah's skill players

Utah offensive players Brian Johnson, left, Matt Asiata, Brent Casteel and Darrell Mack could give the Utes a very potent offense. Only Mack was healthy for the entire 2007 season. Together, they could give Utah a much-needed lift over the still organizing Michigan defense.

Game of the week

Utah State at UNLV

These two coaches, Brent Guy and Mike Sanford have a lot in common: Both are in their fourth year. Both have yet to produce and both know winnable games are not easily mined from their 2008 schedule.

Team on the rise

Weber State

Coach Mac is in his fourth year too and expectations are on the rise. The Wildcats have all the tools on offense and defense to make a run at the Big Sky title and a berth in the Football Championship Subdivision tournament.

Talk of the subdivision

Pac 10

Two Pac-10 teams are assured of having one conference loss before the calendar even reaches September.

The opening weekend of play in the Pac-10 is highlighted by two conference tilts, with Stanford hosting Oregon State on Thursday night and Washington visiting Oregon on Saturday.

Quotable