Fort Collins – Don’t blame Utah coach Kyle Whittingham for the Utes’ 63-31 decimation of Colorado State last season. Whittingham was the defensive coordinator at the time, and the Rams scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns against reserves to make the score respectable.
Don’t blame Utes safety Eric Weddle for the 2003 watershed CSU-Utah game. He was just a freshman bystander when Arnold Parker returned Marcus Houston’s fumble 80 yards for the 28-21 win that changed the course of recent Mountain West history.
Utah used the momentum to win all but one league game in 2003 and 2004. CSU, the defending conference champion in 2003, began a slide to a 7-7 two-year conference mark.
The Utes (3-2, 1-1), who visit CSU (2-2, 1-0) on Saturday, aren’t the same team Urban Meyer unleashed on the conference a year ago. Meyer is now at Florida, and Whittingham’s team plays more like mortals who turn the ball over, have special- teams breakdowns and are plagued by penalties. Utah remains a target, of course, as the MWC’s best the past two years.
And the first-year head coach knows he’ll deal with the revenge factor every week.
Whittingham said he would be angry if “I was on the other end of those beatings we gave people last year. Anybody with any competitiveness and memory certainly would.
“We have a target on our chests. I don’t believe we poured it on. I don’t believe we tried to run the scores up; maybe once or twice it happened.”
He said he wouldn’t put the CSU game a year ago in that category. But he did say, “I’d be disappointed if my own team was drilled by a team the previous year and we didn’t have a score to settle.”
Reflecting on the pivotal 2003 game, Whittingham said: “We snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. They were driving for a chip-shot field goal that would have won the game.
“It seemed to be the theme of that season. Six games went to the last play or possession. We won five of those six.”
This year, Utah’s magic has disappeared. It lost a conference opener at TCU in overtime, and also lost at North Carolina. The Utes still have many of the same players who were central to their two-year run, however.
Weddle, the 2003 MWC defensive freshman of the year, is the leader of the secondary. He expects a motivated CSU team. All he did last year, besides intercepting a pass, was do some friendly trash-talking with his former Alta Loma (Calif.) High School teammate Robert Herbert, now a CSU cornerback.
“They look at it like we rubbed it in,” Weddle said. “We didn’t. We know will get their best effort this week.”
CSU returns a veteran defense that hasn’t forgotten last year’s debacle.
“We felt bad from early on,” CSU linebacker Jahmal Hall said. “They scored (21) points in the first quarter. Just to see your teammates’ frustration … They had their way with us.”
Rams safety Miles Kochevar recalled the pain a year ago.
“It got to the point where a few felt we could not do anything more,” he said. “We got embarrassed. You wanted to get out of there.”
Hall also remembers the 2003 fumble return when CSU appeared on the verge of winning.
“It does add motivation to get this thing accomplished,” Hall said. “It’s still a very good Utah team. It’s just another obstacle in the way to a conference championship.”
This year, CSU thinks it should win, which might not have been the case last season.
“I think we have a little more swagger,” Hall said. “We definitely have more confidence than we did.”
Colorado State vs. Utah
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Utah (3-2, 1-1): Defensive lineman Steve Fifita is the latest in a long line of Utah’s NFL prospects. The Fiesta Bowl defensive MVP has been forced to play every position on the line, which was weakened by the loss of injured end Marquess Ledbetter. When Fifita is at tackle or nose guard, he’ll be a tough assignment for injury replacements on CSU’s interior line. Quarterback Brian Johnson is following the toughest act in the country as the successor to Alex Smith, the NFL’s No. 1 draft pick. Johnson is a better runner than Smith but is prone to making mistakes, especially on the road. Safety Eric Weddle is the defensive playmaker.
CSU (2-2, 1-0): QB Justin Holland finds a new 100-yard receiving target every week, with Luke Roberts the latest to join to Johnny Walker, David Anderson and Dustin Osborn. The receivers managed to overcome a decent Air Force secondary last week, but face one of the top DBs in the league this week in Weddle. RB Kyle Bell leads the MWC in rushing yardage (464) but will have a more difficult time against Utah’s front seven, considering center Albert Bimper (hamstring) is out and guard Josh Day (hamstring) is doubtful. Defensively, LB Jahmal Hall is a senior with bitter memories of last year’s humiliation. He is on the way to his best season.
KEY STAT
25.8 – Utah’s average victory margin in 2004, compared with 2.6 this season.
KEY FOR UTAH
The Utes want to stop the run first and see whether Holland will regress to throwing interceptions or build off his big game against Air Force. The Utes haven’t played well in the fourth quarter this season.
KEY FOR COLORADO STATE
Keep the running game going the way it has the past two weeks. Running the ball well builds confidence for Holland, who has no lack of receiving targets, and Utah can’t cover them all if the Utes have to concentrate on stopping the run. The defense is more familiar with Utah’s much-imitated spread offense, and key playmakers Robert Herbert, Hall and Miles Kochevar need to disrupt an offense suddenly prone to turnovers.
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-820-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
