What others are saying: Utah Utes football looks to open season with 15th straight win

SALT LAKE CITY — Kyle Whittingham feels much more comfortable with this long winning streak than the last one he was part of at Utah.

The 19th-ranked Utes open the season Thursday night against Utah State, which is playing its first game under new coach and longtime Utah assistant Gary Andersen.

Andersen was Whittingham's defensive coordinator when he inherited the original BCS Busters of 2004 after Urban Meyer was hired away by Florida. The Utes had won 16 straight entering Whittingham's debut and stretched it to 18 in a row before finally losing.

Utah's current winning streak is 14 and Whittingham feels the Utes are in a much better position than they were entering his first year.

"I personally think that our roster is more talented this year than it was in '05 — just from top to bottom," Whittingham said.

Nine months after finishing with the highest rank in school history, the Utes are ranked in the AP preseason poll for the first time.

Utah finished at No. 2 last year with a 13-0 record, capping it with a 31-17 win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl as the Utes busted the BCS for the second time in four years. The Utes needed a season-opening victory at Michigan last year before cracking the polls, then continued moving up the rest of the way.

"It's great accolades but we've got to look at it just like we looked last year when we weren't ranked. It's nothing. Don't look at it," linebacker Stevenson Sylvester said. "It doesn't have any effect on this team. I don't think the people lining up against you care that much either."

Actually, that could be an incentive for Utah State, which is 1-48 against ranked opponents. The Aggies don't need much more motivation than the rivalry, which Utah has won 11 straight times.

Andersen was on the Utes' sideline for many of those and gets to open his tenure in a rivalry that his new school hasn't won since 1997.

"In our situation we need to go out and play our game and do what we do. We can't sit and worry about what tunnel we are coming out of," Andersen said. "There will be some emotion attached to it obviously just because of the kids I know on the other side and the coaches. I have spent a lot of my coaching career there."

Utah won last season's meeting 58-10 — after falling behind 7-0 in the first quarter.