State of football in 2016

Dick Harmon: Mike Empey determined to make return to BYU football staff memorable

Utah takes 'another step forward' with its best Pac-12 football season

Following sub-par season, coaching changes and losses at LB, Aggies face pivotal 2016

Sitake inherits experienced players, arduous schedule in first season at BYU

SALT LAKE CITY — The college football season wrapped up this week, so naturally the first item of business is to start talking about next season. Maybe that’s a little psycho and unhealthy, but so are cheese fries.

Yet both are oh so satisfying.

So here comes the comfort food of sports journalism — the 2016 Disturbingly Early Look at College Football in Utah:

Utah

The Utes get first mention because that’s where they finished among instate schools in 2015. But if that Las Vegas Bowl had lasted two minutes longer. …

The main thing about the Utes is that they return Kyle Whittingham, which means they’ll have a defense that makes grown men weep — in a good way. Conversely, they’ll have an offense that stalls at every stoplight. It’s almost always been that way with Whittingham’s teams. He takes his best athletes and puts them on defense, then sifts through the rest like a box of bolts.

Ute fans are excited about Troy Williams, a junior college quarterback who previously played at Washington. But in the last 40 years, the number of truly memorable quarterbacks at Utah totals three: Scott Mitchell, Alex Smith and Brian Johnson.

So the odds of anyone breaking that pattern are slim.

Meanwhile, the Utes will have to replenish and rejuvenate the receiving corps and scare up a punt return man as good as Britain Covey. The addition of receivers coach Guy Holliday should help to offset the hiring of former Utah assistant Kalani Sitake by BYU. There won’t be any real secrets when those teams meet in September.

The Utes also must address their penchant for losing to teams they shouldn’t down the stretch. This year they play Colorado on Nov. 26. It wouldn’t be shocking to see them beat Arizona State and Oregon in preceding weeks, then crash in Boulder.

Proposed theme for the season: “All games count the same.”

BYU

Ty Detmer is back in town.

Enough said.

Yet as good as Detmer was, he never played the schedule he’ll face this year: Arizona, Utah, UCLA, West Virginia, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Boise State and always dangerous Utah State. On the bright side, Detmer will be working with Tanner Mangum, a bigger and more athletic quarterback than Detmer.

It’s easy to imagine what that alchemy could produce.

Aside from its schedule, BYU has to decide what to do if Taysom Hill wants to mount another comeback. Talk about awkward. Here’s one suggestion: Put Hill as a special assistant in charge of halftime speeches.

Sitake is likable, knowledgeable and believable, but he’s no firebrand. Hill could break bricks with his forehead.

Speaking of Sitake, he’s hiring quite the staff. In Utah during summers there is an “All-Poly Camp” that attracts some of the biggest coaches in America. They come to scout top high school players, mostly of Polynesian descent. Meanwhile, Sitake is working on an almost-all-Poly staff: Himself, Steve Kaufusi, Ilaisa Tuiaki, Nu’u Tafisi and, if rumors are true, Tevita Ofahengaue as personnel director. Just a guess: Recruiting Polynesian players will be a high priority.

Making up cringe-worthy slogans like “Quest for Perfection” won’t.

Utah State

Matt Wells has lost his offensive and defensive coordinators, his defensive line coach and his safeties coach, not to mention his all-time player crush, Chuckie Keeton.

On the bright side, Keeton might be available as a volunteer or graduate assistant.

Also gone are All-Mountain West linebackers Nick Vigil and Kyler Fackrell, the team’s best players.

Last season was a mystery wrapped in an enigma, folded into a bean and cheese burrito. The Aggies beat the starch out of Boise State, only to lose five of their final seven. Next year they’ll have their usual conference schedule, along with USC and BYU.

This will be Year 4 for Wells as head coach in Logan. It’s possible he’s been living off Gary Andersen’s recruits, though not necessarily, since Wells recruited many of those players as an assistant. Regardless, Wells has his team in the vicinity of conference championships. But it’s still not there.

Losing in the Potato Bowl didn’t help.

The key for the Aggies won’t be to get to a bowl next season; they do that automatically. It will be to get someplace warm.

On a side note, the Aggies have won two of the last six against BYU and been close in two others. But unlike Utah, they don’t seem reluctant to play the Cougars. In this rivalry, the teams are ready to go again, as soon as the final gun sounds.

I feel the same way every time the football season ends.

Email: rock@desnews.com; Twitter: @therockmonster; Blog: Rockmonster Unplugged