Utah State, BYU football: Ags want real rivalry with Y.

Gary Andersen doesn't need an introduction to his next opponent as Utah State's head football coach.

BYU, the team the Aggies will meet Friday night at LaVell Edwards Stadium, is more than familiar to Andersen, a coach who grew up in the Beehive State, played against the Cougars in college and coached against them for more than a decade.

What he wants, however, is to turn the series between Utah State and BYU a legitimate rivalry rather than simply a long-running series.

"It's very similar with the rivalry with the Utah series," Andersen said, acknowledging the Aggies haven't been very competitive over the last couple of decades against their instate foes. "There is no give and take with the series. We need to win ... and then it can become a rivalry again."

Utah State hasn't beaten BYU since 1993. The Aggies have only two wins against the Cougars since 1978.

The two schools are scheduled to meet for the next few seasons, but if the series is to continue much beyond, Utah State might want to reverse the trend.

"We need to be able to play well in one of these games," Andersen said. "Whenever that happens it will become an instate rivalry game instead of just an instate game."

POINSETTIA BOWL: The Western Athletic Conference announced Monday it had come to an agreement with the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego to send a WAC school to the annual game in 2011 and 2012.

This comes on the heels of an earlier agreement sending a WAC school to the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco in 2010 and 2013. The WAC also has contingency deals with the bowls to send a school to this year's Poinsettia Bowl should the Pac-10 not have enough schools with the necessary six wins to meet bowl-eligibility requirements.

The Poinsettia Bowl has contracted with Army and Navy to place one of those teams in the 2010 and 2013 games. If the service academies are not bowl eligible, however, the WAC will step in.

" Our teams are excited to have the opportunity to play in the game in the upcoming years and to travel to San Diego," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "The agreement also solidifies our bowl agreements for the next four years giving the WAC four guaranteed slots through the 2013 season."

AGGIES STAT LEADERS: Utah State's resurgent offense is earning the praise of its coach and the attention of its opponents.