Instead, he got all riled up.

The Utah coach said he grew irritated when he heard broadcasters on ESPN - namely, analyst Trev Alberts - suggest that the No. 11 Utes play a weak schedule or would struggle if they played in a better league than the Mountain West Conference. Meyer was still annoyed when he arrived for his

weekly press conference on Monday, and he was not shy about sharing his feelings - though it's possible he did so, in part, to motivate his players after their week off.

"It's just amazing," Meyer said. "I'll watch ESPN, and I'll hear the people who have absolutely no idea about college athletics - and they're actually getting paid to give you their opinion on college athletics - and what they consider a quality opponent."

Meyer acknowledged he did not hear some of the supposedly offensive comments himself, but rather from others.

However, he said he did hear broadcasters deride the strength of the Utah schedule and suggest the Utes would lose a matchup against Fresno State - which later lost to UTEP.

"I watched a lot of college football on Saturday," Meyer said, "and I just hear some of the comments [from] people wearing a tie behind a desk that really have no, absolutely no clue. And I can say it, because I do have a clue, because that's my job. . . . But their job is they're supposed to have a clue."

Meyer implied the Utes' schedule cannot be considered weak, when it includes Texas A&M and North Carolina.

The Aggies have won four straight games since an opening loss to the Utes - "you watch where they finish at the end of the year," Meyer said - while the Tar Heels visit Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday with a 3-3 record that includes victories over Georgia Tech and North Carolina State.

"North Carolina is an excellent team," he said.

According to the NCAA, though, the Utes do have one of the weaker schedules in the nation. Judging by the current records of their opponents this season, the Utes' schedule ranks 95th out of 117 teams.

Nevertheless, Meyer insinuated that the analysts on ESPN don't know how to judge talent.

"I've done this for a few years," he said. "I can usually identify Top 25 talent and coaches, a little better than some other people. But I'm not on ESPN giving my opinion, I guess, which is good.

"What I think people need to do is go travel around and look at the personnel" of teams, he added. "Watch 'em practice. Get up from behind that desk and playing golf and doing whatever those people do and go evaluate. That's why I have great respect for the people who do go out and watch practice and study it and have comments. The people who have comments that really don't know? I guess it's good talk, it gets people like me stirred up, because I sit there and watch that trash. And that's what it is, it's trash."

At first, Meyer said he wasn't going to name names.

But as he complained, he eventually mentioned Alberts - though a network spokesman said he believed Alberts has been fair to the Utes as they have climbed the polls this season.

Though Alberts has questioned how the Utes would fare in one of the more powerful conferences, spokesman Michael Hume said the broadcaster said on one of the network's pregame shows that Utah has been more impressive than Florida State, which prompted fellow analyst Mark May to say that Florida State would beat the Utes if they played. Alberts is a former All-America linebacker at Nebraska, while May won the Outland Trophy at Pittsburgh and two Super Bowls with the Washington Redskins.

Alberts was unavailable for comment Monday.

"I know I shouldn't let these things bother me," Meyer said, "but my job is to protect these guys [his players], stick up for these guys and fight for these guys. And they work awful hard."

mcl@sltrib.com