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The four Mountain West Conference football coaches who have faced both Utah and TCU this season won't pick a winner in Saturday's epic showdown, but all four predict a close, defensive struggle.
The No. 5 Utes play host to the No. 3 Horned Frogs at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and obviously the entire conference will be watching — although the 1:30 p.m. MDT game conflicts at least partially with the noon BYU-UNLV game and the 4 p.m. Wyoming-New Mexico game.
The 10 a.m. Air Force-Army game should be done by the time the Utes and Frogs kick off, and the Utah-TCU game will be finished before Colorado State and San Diego State clash at 8 p.m. out West.
"I think it does help Utah, playing in Salt Lake," said Air Force coach Troy Calhoun.
Wyoming, Colorado State and UNLV have also faced both teams, along with Air Force. The Utes outscored those four teams 155-45, while TCU outscored them 158-13.
"I have all the respect in the world for [Utah coach] Kyle Whittingham and [TCU coach] Gary Patterson," said CSU coach Steve Fairchild. "Both are very good coaches and football teams. I'll be anxious to see the outcome."
Wyoming coach Dave Christensen said the teams have "a lot of similarities in the type of players they have, the skill sets they have." He said turnover margin will probably be the deciding factor in the game.
"I think it is going to be a tremendous football game," he said.
While Wyoming, CSU and UNLV were blown out by both teams, Air Force almost upset Utah (28-23) a week after losing badly at TCU (38-7).
"Both of them have a bunch of guys on those respective units who are going to play beyond college," Calhoun said. "So just overall, in general, it ought to be one terrific football game."
From a rival player's perspective, BYU defensive back Brian Logan said he wants Utah to win so the Utes will be undefeated when the Cougars get a shot at them Nov. 27 in Salt Lake City.
Replay snafu explained
In a private letter to SDSU president Stephen Weber that was obtained by San Diego media outlets, MWC commissioner Craig Thompson said members of the video replay crew at last month's BYU-SDSU game in Provo "weren't sufficiently aggressive" enough in pointing out that conclusive video evidence showed a non-fumble call was wrong.
Thompson's letter explained why the league chose to suspend head replay official Mike Angelis, replay communicator Chad Bunn and replay technician Rob Moon although its investigation found "no malfeasance" by those in the replay booth that day.
BYU issued a statement last week saying that "insinuations" that the crew, which included a BYU employee (Bunn) and a BYU graduate (Moon), purposefully engaged in wrongdoing were erroneous.
Another key contest
The TCU-Utah game won't be the only one in the West garnering national attention this week. For the first time, the Pac-10's Stanford and Arizona will meet as nationally ranked teams on Saturday at Stanford Stadium (6 p.m.). Both teams are 7-1. Stanford is No. 13 in the BCS standings, while Arizona is No. 15.
It's a classic matchup of Arizona's stingy defense and Stanford's high-powered offense.
"No question, this is the best defense we've played, or will play," Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said.
Briefly
New Mexico part-time starting quarterback Brad Gruner is out for the season after slicing the pinkie finger on his throwing hand prior to the Lobos' 38-14 loss at CSU last week. Gruner suffered the injury while carving a pumpkin for Halloween. … SDSU's Ronnie Hillman has moved to fourth on the league's all-time list for most rushing yards for a freshman, with 893. BYU's Harvey Unga is No. 1 with 1,227 in 2007. … First place in the Western Athletic Conference is on the line Saturday when Boise State plays host to streaking Hawaii at 1:30 p.m. on ESPNU. Boise has won 21 straight games, while Hawaii has won six in a row after a 1-2 start.
drew@sltrib.com Twitter: @drewjay