Old friends, colleagues reunite

A lot is new for first-year University of Wyoming football coach Dave Christensen this season.

First time as a head coach, first time through the Mountain West Conference, etc.

But there will be some familiarity Saturday when Christensen’s Cowboys play at No. 19 Utah.

Christensen and Utah coach Kyle Whittingham worked together as assistants at Idaho State in the early 1990s. Christensen was the offensive line, tight ends and running backs coach there from 1990-91. Whittingham was the linebackers and special teams coach from 1988-91 and then defensive coordinator from 1992-93.

“We’ve always been good friends,” Christensen said. “I’ve always stayed in touch with im after I left (Idaho State). Our wives are great friends. I’ve always had the utmost respect for him.”

The two haven’t talked since the season started, which isn’t uncommon, but often catch up at numerous coaching and media functions in the off-season. The two will likely have a brief conversation before and after the game, don’t expect much other than that until after the season.

That’s just how football coaches work.

“Dave has brought a toughness and a discipline to the team,” Whittingham said. ”You can see fundamentally they’re very good. I think he’s done a great job.”

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Was a little surprised to hear Monday that junior left guard Sam Sterner was going to be benched this week in favor of sophomore John Hutchins.

Sterner has played and started all 31 games of his career at UW at left guard. Sterner isn’t hurt, he just hasn’t been as productive as the coaches would like him to be.

Hutchins has played tackle the last two years with the Cowboys. He started at right tackle in the season-opener against Weber State, and played in every game there as a backup until the Oct. 17 game at Air Force.

Will be interesting to see how that change goes. I would expect Sterner to play in a rotating basis, or if Hutchins struggles.

On a side note, both Hutchins and Sterner are from Minnesota. Hutchins from Inner Grove Heights and Sterner from Waconia.

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Halloween has a special meaning to UW and Utah.

The first-ever meeting between the two teams back in 1904 was on Halloween in Laramie. Utah won 23-0.

The two teams have played 81 games and Saturday will mark just the second time they’ve met on Halloween.

More Halloween football stuff later in the week.

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Couple of other interesting tidbits:

–UW is 25-14-1 all-time coming off a bye week, and 5-6 this decade.

–ESPN.com college football writer Mark Schlabach projects UW playing Nevada in the New Mexico Bowl.

–UW true freshman Austyn Carta-Samuels has his own blog. It was set up during the recruiting process when he was in high school by his family, and they are the ones that maintain it. It has some pictures and links to stories on some of Carta-Samuels’ successes at UW. Check it out at http://austyncartasamuels.blogspot.com/

–Utah is bowl eligible for the seventh straight season and has the nation’s longest bowl winning streak at eight.

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See Wednesday’s paper about how TCU (No. 6 in the BCS poll) is handling the national spotlight after its 38-7 drubbing at BYU last week. Also look for a feature on the latest UW true freshman to play this season — defensive lineman Mike Purcell.