Instead, the Utes come home after a 24-7 loss to Oregon State looking for a replacement for their would-be star.

With Asiata out for the year with a broken leg, Thursday's opener against the Beavers became a tryout session for the rest of Utah's running game.

What they saw wasn't good.

Utah managed just 18 net yards rushing to Oregon State's 241. Ray Stowers, who had his first college start, had 11 carries for 26 yards with a long of six. Asiata left after four rushes for a gain of 16 yards.

After that it was all negative, statistically and descriptively. Before he left with a shoulder injury, Brian Johnson was tagged with a loss of nine, his replacement Tommy Grady had a loss of two and Brent Casteel had a loss of 13.

Granted, some of those losses came in sacks and tackles that the running attempts couldn't account for alone, but the fact that there were breakdowns up front as well as with the runners was even more unsettling to coach Kyle Whittingham.

"We've got to knock guys off the ball and we didn't do that," he said. "Our offensive line has got to do a better job of that. Granted, we don't know how good Oregon State's defense is, but our guys have to do a better job themselves."

Interestingly, Utah didn't give last year's leading rusher, Darryl Poston, a carry.

"The gameplan called for him to be out third-down back," Whittingham said. "We weren't anticipating losing Matt like we did. We wanted to use Darryl on pass protection and third downs and let Ray be the primary ball carrier."

Originally the Utes were planning to redshirt junior Darrell Mack. Now with Asiata out, Whittingham said that plan will have to change.

"It's hard to get through the season with just two backs," he said.