This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

With football camps starting at Utah, BYU and Utah State, it's easy to get fired up about the possibilities and ponder the vulnerabilities of these programs. As the offseason work concludes and the preparations intensify for whatever it is that's coming next, simple and reasonable questions arise, questions with no specific answers at this point. But sometimes, especially after seven months of football down time, the thrill comes in the wondering.

Here, then, are three questions, one for each, hovering over the Utes, Cougars and Aggies:

Utah: Will new offensive coordinator Troy Taylor's presence and plans actually bring the offense into college football's modern age?

When overlord Kyle Whittingham was asked a year ago if he was anti-passing, he answered, "No, I'm anti-losing." For a coach who has hauled Ute football beyond a simple level of respectability in the Pac-12, to a point of being a threat to every opponent it plays, it's hard to argue with his past approach.

On the other hand, as his team has consistently finished near the bottom of league passing rankings, and the wheels have rolled off the axles in the month of November during the previous two seasons, after such promising starts, it seems that Whittingham has haltingly arrived at a determination that he's always been smart enough to find but too stubborn to acquiesce to: With the athletes he's drawn to Utah, running the football, playing for field position, relying on the kicking game and championing solid defense is good enough to get you near the pinnacle of the Pac-12 world — it's just not enough to land you at the top of it.

Turns out, the one thing Whittingham cannot abide, the thing that creases his face, turning it various steaming shades of cherry, cerise and cranberry — suffering a turnover or two or, heaven forbid, three — might, on occasion at least, grease the skids that need to be greased to get the offense going. Nobody welcomes turnovers. But if you cut back the offense in constant fear of them, if your quarterback seizes up like a bad engine because he's hammered with the notion that throwing a pick will lose him his job, if he only gets a smattering of opportunities to throw the ball in meaningful situations, when he finally does, he's more likely to mess things up.

Roll out a little tolerance then, allow that offense to diversify and grow and maybe make a couple of mistakes here and there, let Taylor do what Taylor does. The new offensive coordinator has said that's exactly what he's focused on doing.

The biggest question heading into Utah camp isn't whether the defensive secondary can or will match the prowess of the talented, accomplished guys up front. It's … well, you know what. And no matter how much the Utes are projected to leave the bygone era of 1930s football, of raccoon coats and swallowed goldfish and waved pennants and three yards and a cloud of not winning the South behind, to more fully utilize the forward pass, all of you will only believe it when you see it done.

BYU: In his second year as offensive coordinator, will Ty Detmer's attack more directly match the way he played back in the day, as opposed to the way he coached last season?

The question isn't completely different than the one hovering over the Utes. Last season, for whatever reasons, and those reasons did exist, Taysom Hill was reinstalled as the Cougars' starting quarterback. The problem with that is this: Hill couldn't much throw the ball, a problem typically not associated with playing quarterback at BYU. His numbers for the season: completions — 222, attempts — 372, yards — 2,323, touchdowns — 12. Detmer, when he played, rolled up those totals inside of a few halves.

"We won't throw the ball the way [I] did with LaVell," Detmer said. "But …"

The Cougars will get back in the passing business now. Part of the delay was due to the fact that running back Jamal Williams was BYU's best player last season, and the aforementioned fact that, for all his athletic gifts, even after suffering all his injuries, Hill struggled to drop back into the pocket, properly read the defense, get the ball up on time to the right receiver against the right coverage. That's just the way it was.

With Tanner Mangum at QB, a gifted passer more fully immersed in the offense, Detmer opened it up more during spring practices, and said he will continue to do so through camp and into the season. There are uncertainties regarding BYU's receivers, but, even against a most difficult early schedule, Mangum presumably will be counted on to make BYU's offense look more like … a BYU offense, again.

Utah State: Is this the program Gary Andersen built and the wave Matt Wells rode for a couple of seasons, or is it the program Mick Dennehy coached and for which Wells will be blamed?

It's a much more comprehensive thing to wonder about than with BYU and Utah. Sure, the Aggies have specific issues, such as a new offensive coordinator, David Yost, who is installing an offense that is designed to be explosive, picking up chunks of yardage, spreading the field, running when he wants to, and going vertical. Quarterback Kent Myers is key to that kind of success, success that was mostly absent last season, when the passing attack was neither efficient or proficient. It has to improve.

While all of that is significant, the bigger picture is … well, bigger.

The Aggies are on the brink of one of the most important seasons in recent memory. They hung up records of 7-6 in 2011, 11-2 in 2012, 9-5 in 2013, 10-4 in 2014, and then … they went 6-7 and 3-9. For an emerging outfit in Logan, that wasn't just a drop-off, it was a crater that brought back a lot of bad memories from seasons before Andersen breathed life and hope into USU football. Yes, there were injuries that plagued last year's effort to make things better. But injuries happen.

For the Aggies to float back to the surface, they must survive a schedule that has them playing three of their first four games on the road — including Wisconsin and Wake Forest — before facing BYU, Colorado State, Wyoming, and two weeks later, Boise State, at home.

There are elements that must fall into place — such as the Ags getting back to playing aggressive defense that makes opposing quarterbacks jittery and running backs frustrated. USU has some fine athletes, but does it have enough of them? Of all the best bets here, the secondary should be strong. It'll have to be.

GORDON MONSON hosts "The Big Show" with Spence Checketts weekdays from 3-7 p.m. on 97.5 FM and 1280 AM The Zone. Twitter: @GordonMonson.