Greetings from the Athens of Utah

CEDAR CITY, Utah -- I handed the pregame depth chart to UC Davis media relations director Mike Robles this morning and he pretended to cross out all the names. It's not that bad of course, but it appears as though just about every gametime decision has gone against the Aggies.

So here are the updates:

--Defensive lineman John Faletoese has not dressed for the game.

--Running back Joe Trombetta is here, but his status is still a developing situation. He's going through the warm-up as I write this.

--Middle linebacker Dave Heckman is out and cornerback Kenny Griffin are both out with injuries.

--Greg Denham will back up Matt Engle at quarterback.

--Punter Brett Dickinson is here after all. UCD had been auditioning back-ups given that it was bringing some players with injury concerns with it. But it sounds like all the injuries freed up some plane tickets.

--Today's officiating crew is the same one that worked UCD's game against Eastern Washington. That group called a combined 19 penalties in that game.

--A small crowd is expected as today is the opening of deer season in the Utah.

The good news is that the weather is going to be pretty good. That last forecast I saw was for temperatures in the 60s, which is a far cry from the 44 and rainy that had been predicted early in the week. There does appear to be a pretty determined wind, which is the one condition that always seems to give the Aggies problems. The field here looks to be in pretty bad shape, so footing could be an issue. Watching the punters warm up sand appeared to kick up every time the ball bounced. There are definite brown patches between the hash marks pretty much all the way down the field. The last time the Aggies played here in 2004, it failed to score the go-ahead touchdown when Aaron Hines slipped near the goal line on a fourth-down play on which he had a clear field in front of him.

On a personal note, this is a pretty spectacular press box view. The Cedar Mountains in the background sit beyond the campus a couple of miles away and offer a lot of different colors. The leaves are in full fal mode, so there's plenty of color there as well. The campus architecture borrows heavily from ancient Greece, so there are columns and statues pretty much everywhere. The Olympic Flame is here as well,leftover from when the torch relay stopped in town back in 2002.