Utah State football: Aggie coach too busy to be excited for opener

Fans might be excited.

After all, the college football season kicks off locally with one of the nation's oldest rivalries Thursday night when Utah State breaks in its latest new coach against the No. 19-ranked, BCS-busting University of Utah.

One person who might not be feeling the excitement of the moment, though, is Gary Andersen.

"I don't know if you have time for excitement," Andersen, who takes over a USU team that has won only nine games in the past four seasons, said as he prepared for his first game as a Division I head coach. "But going out on the field will be a little bit different."

The new Aggie coach is as big a football fan as you'll find. But this is business and facing the Utes has left Andersen with precious little time to do much other than coach.

"Camp was about what we expected," Andersen said. "We got some quality practices out of the kids."

Andersen's first game as Utah State's coach will be a unique one. After spending several years as an assistant coach at Utah, the 45-year-old Utah grad wants his team to not be intimidated by what he calls one of the "best programs in football."

"We've got to make sure we go in and are relaxed," Andersen said. "You can get a team too tight."

BROTHERLY LOVE: Utah State has lost 11 straight games to the Utes.

Not since John L. Smith took a Humanitarian-Bowl bound team to Salt Lake City in 1997 have the Aggies tasted success. That game, a 21-14 win in front of 33,804 fans, was during Smith's final season in Logan before he took off to Louisville.

Since then, USU has lost by fewer than 20 points only four times.

During the 1997 season Utah was breaking in a new defensive line coach — Gary Andersen.

Thursday night's game will be the 109th meeting between the two schools. Utah leads the series 76-28-4 but the two familiar foes won't see each other for a couple of seasons. In order to allow the Utes to schedule games against opponents such as Notre Dame and the Aggies to build a schedule more conducive to establishing a tradition more resembling success, Utah and Utah State will not meet again until 2012.

That will end a series of annual games stretching back to 1943.

RANKED OPPONENTS, RANK RESULTS: Utah State will play a team ranked in the national polls for the 50th time when the Aggies take the field against No. 19 Utah Thursday night.