Aggies ready to turn up heat on 2008 season
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No comments [ Add Comment ]By ROY BURTON
Standard-Examiner staff
Guys hopes guys ready for Rebels
LAS VEGAS -- To replicate the oven-like conditions the Aggies expect for tonight's season opener at UNLV, Utah State coach Brent Guy had his squad practice on the turf at Romney Stadium.
Guy went to the trouble of taking the temperature on the turf in the stadium (116 degrees), where the linemen get down in their stances, and at waist level (98 degrees), and he's been monitoring temperatures in Las Vegas.
But even if it's cool and cloudy before tonight's kickoff at 8 p.m. at UNLV's Sam Boyd Stadium, the game will feature two teams -- and two coaches -- feeling the heat.
Guy and UNLV coach Mike Sanford, a former Utah assistant, were hired in the same year (2005) and have identical 6-29 records weighted with many more losses than wins on entering their fourth season.
Tonight's WAC vs. Mountain West contest comes a year to the day UNLV snatched away USU's chance to win its 2007 opener at Romney Stadium, with the Rebels scoring the tie-breaking TD with 1:02 to go.
In the offseason, Guy said winning that game could have changed the landscape of the Aggies' 2-10 season, making this year's sequel as critical. Closer to game time, however, Guy pointed out that Vegas won its opener, as he well remembers, and started 2-2 before losing eight straight. In other words, he's not putting all his metaphorical eggs in one basket.
"You don't want to put everything on one game," Guy said.
Comparisons are drawn between himself and Sanford because of their hiring date, similar situations they inherited and their identical records, Guy said.
"We are in similar situations, playing in the type of conference we are playing in," he said. "In drawing comparisons to the game, everybody wants to win their opener. They started off well and didn't finish off as well as I felt we did. So does (win.ning the opener) have a residual effect? Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't."
USU won its final two games of '07 and is looking for its first three-game win streak since early this decade (2001).
Pre-game hydration and rest are keys to prepping for the Vegas heat, Guy said, but that can only go so far.
"That's one of the things we've been concerned about from the beginning," he said. "I coached in the desert for four years (as defensive coordinator at Arizona State) and (it's about) being prepared mentally -- not so much physically, but mentally -- for the type of heat that you're going to feel coming off that surface. I think it was 101 at almost midnight last (Sunday) in Las Vegas. It doesn't cool down much after the sun goes down."
While Sanford takes his team north to Ely, Nev., for fall camp to avoid the heat, Guy said the Rebels' bodies will be still accustomed to the warmth.
Senior quarterback Sean Setzer will get his first Division I start for the Aggies, but backup Diondre Borel has been promised snaps as well.
Rebels running back Frank (rhymes with "tank") Summers pounded in the game-winner last year, but quarterback Travis Dixon, who led the drive, will come at USU from a different angle this season. Dixon lost out in camp to Omar Clayton, who also started games in 2007, and has moved to safety.
