High school football: Felt's Facts Week 1

Felt's Facts – Week 1

With Herriman High opening, the 118th season of Utah prep football will see a record 100 teams fighting for state championships. On Friday, a record 49 Opening Week games launch the season. When "Endowment" games began in 2000, just 41 of 92 schools took advantage of the extra contest. This week, only Canyon View and Rich have byes.

East vs. West is back, but…

This season, it's good to see the Leopards and Panthers battling for the 110th time after a one-year hiatus. However, for the first time since 1960 when Bonneville opened, the Lakers and Weber won't meet, ending a 50-game series. That was the fifth-longest, active uninterrupted rivalry. Also, prep fans will miss the "Battle of the Bones" between Highland and Skyline for the first time since 1982 as Skyline grabbed an invitation to play in Hawaii during Week 3.

Rivalry Games

Several schools that play in different regions or classifications take advantage of the endowment game this week to continue longtime rivalries:

Logan and Bear River clash for the 79th time since 1925; the Grizzlies have a 47-28-3 edge over the Bears.

Box Elder plays Weber for the 71st time; the Bees lead 50-17-3 since 1922.

Millard and North Sanpete battle for the 53rd time; Millard leads 46-5-1 and has won seven straight, although before last year, they hadn't met since 1991.

Wasatch and Grantsville square off for the 51st time; the Wasps own a 34-15-1 series advantage.

Judge and Tooele meet for the 49th time with Judge leading 27-21.

First-time Matchups

Week 1 generally features return games from 2009, but this week will still see seven first-time meetings: Carbon at Monticello, Hillcrest at Herriman, Jordan at Fremont, Northridge vs. Sky View (at Utah State), Park City at Riverton, Pine View at East, Snow Canyon at Olympus.

Other Game Notes

Bountiful and Lone Peak have played at least annually since '02; the Braves lead the series 6-4 and won 30-9 in '09.

Alta leads its series with Cottonwood 8-1 and whipped the Colts 59-20 and 37-13 (quarterfinals) last year.

Brighton and Davis have battled annually since '98; the Bengals are 8-5 over the Darts since then and lead the series 10-8.

Hunter leads its series with Kearns 15-5 in annual meetings since 1990.

Lehi has defeated Uintah in 25 of the 33 games between the two; they haven't clashed since 2002.

Highland and Mountain Crest have battled at least annually since 2006 and twice in each of '08 and '09. MC leads the series 5-4 and has won three straight.

State records

Utah is filled with a number of major college football prospects, but the one with the greatest likelihood of setting some new records is Mountain Crest senior quarterback Alex Kuresa. He has 6,968 passing yards, third all-time but just 18 yards behind second-place Riley Nelson (Logan, 2003-05). Record holder Ryan Zimmerman (2000-02), also from MC, passed for 8,636 yards, so Kuresa needs 1,668 passing yards this season to match. He's tossed for 63 TDs, seventh all-time and needs 17 to surpass all-time leaders Nelson and James Lark (Pine View, 2003-05). He'll also challenge the career attempts and completions marks.

Milestones

Payson kicks off its 100th season with a game at Timpanogos while Clearfield starts its 50th year by hosting Taylorsville…. Lone Peak is going for its 100th win…. San Juan is playing its 550th game, South Sevier, its 450th and Copper Hills, its 150th.

Mountain Crest's Mark Wootton has a variety of landmarks this week: He begins his 20th season (seventh at MC) with his 200th all-time game and is trying for his 50th win at MC when the Mustangs host Highland. He joins eight other active coaches with at least 20 years experience and becomes just the 41st coach in Utah history to coach for at least 20 seasons. The other 20-year, active coaches: Roger DuPaix (34th season, 25th at Skyline), Larry Wall (26th at Bountiful), Todd Peacock (24th, 20th at Cedar), John Colosimo (23rd, 11th at Juan Diego), Jimmy Jones (23rd at Emery), Ray Groth (22nd, third at Tooele), Jerre Holmes (22nd, 11th at North Summit) and Blaine Monkres (21st, third at Dixie).

Along with Wootton, Monte Morgan is coaching his 200th game as he starts his 19th year overall and third at Salem Hills….. Mike Smith, in his second season at Olympus and 10th overall, is coaching his 100th game while Highland's Brody Benson and Hillcrest's Kirk Merhish are directing their 50th games.

More Coaches

Long-time coaches Davis Knight at American Fork (28 seasons), Rhett Jackson at Gunnison (16 years) and Jim Dandy at Monument Valley (12 seasons) won't be pacing the sidelines this year; they are three of just 14 coaching changes this season – the fewest since 11 changes in 2002.

Fifty-nine of Utah's 100 head coaches are in at least their fifth year. Meanwhile, Carbon has its eighth new head coach in 10 seasons.

Winning Streaks:

Bingham and Rich own 11-game win skeins, Timpview has won 10 straight, San Juan, eight and Juan Diego seven. Eight other teams, which won their final game last season but failed to qualify for the playoffs, share one-game winning streaks: American Fork, Layton, Ogden, Payson, Snow Canyon, Timpanogos, Tooele and Westlake.

Meanwhile

Carbon will try and snap a 25-game losing streak, the 16th longest in state history, when the Dinos invade Monticello. Roy (at Woods Cross) and Taylorsville (at Clearfield) travel in their attempts to break 17-game losing skids. Lehi (vs. Uintah) goes for its first win after 16 straight losses, at home.

Consistency

Skyline and Timpview embark on what they hope to be their 21st and 20th consecutive winning seasons, respectively. Those two have had the top of their coaching staffs for longer than their current players have been alive. Meanwhile, 5A powers Bingham has had just six straight winning campaigns and Alta, five. That's right – Bingham was 4-7 in '03 (Dave Peck's fourth year) and Alta went 4-6 in '04 (Les Hamilton took over in '05).

Playoff Brackets

Alta and Bingham meet in a much-anticipated game at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Aug. 28. Should those two go on to win their respective regions, they'd be on a collision course to meet again in the finals as the Region 1 and 4 champs are in one bracket and Region 2 and 3 winners in the other….. In 4A, Region 5's preseason favorite, Mountain Crest, and four-time defending-champ Timpview will be in opposite brackets if both capture region titles.

Extra Points

In designing a school, one obvious consideration is the placement of the football field, with a north-south axis the preferred orientation, which is favored by 91 of Utah's 100 gridirons.

But because of geography (or poor planning), five high schools – Altamont, Canyon View, North Summit, Roy and Whitehorse – have renegade fields with an east-west axis and that makes games in the setting sun interesting.

Four others have a northwest-southeast orientation: Brighton, Clearfield, Copper Hills and Weber.

Seven are slightly, but not noticeably, off direct north-south: American Leadership, Highland, Jordan, Morgan, Murray, Pleasant Grove and Salem Hills.

Finally

Herriman becomes the eighth football-playing high school to open in the last five seasons. And the Mustangs will play on a north-south field.