Hlas column: A four-letter national power visits ISU Saturday night: Utah

Then-Iowa State athletic director Bruce Van De Velde and football coach Dan McCarney had no idea what they were signing for in 2001 when they agreed to a home-and-home series with Utah in 2010 and 2011.

The Utes were 8-4 in 2001 under Ron McBride, but had a losing season in 2000 and again in 2002. Then Urban Meyer came to Salt Lake City from Bowling Green, and Utah's football world changed.

Utah went 10-2 in 2003, and 12-0 with a 35-7 Fiesta Bowl rout of Pittsburgh in 2004. An honest-to-goodness national football power had surfaced.

Meyer left for Florida after that glorious ‘04 season, and the Utes suffered some brief slippage. But under Kyle Whittingham, the program has climbed right back to where it was in Meyer's spectacular two-year term.

The Utes were 13-0 and finished No. 2 in the rankings in 2008. That season was capped with a 31-17 handling of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Last year, Utah was 10-3 and beat California in the Poinsettia Bowl. This year? A 4-0 record and a No. 10 ranking.

Iowa State (or any other sane program) wouldn't have wanted to tangle with the nation's No. 10 team had it known the game would be immediately before trips to Oklahoma and Texas. No one would have dreamed Utah would look like a more formidable foe than Texas, in any year.

But if you want to make some waves in college football, you have to do it against the big boys. Just like Utah has done.

Since the BCS began in 1998, Utah has the best record (20-11) against BCS schools of any NAQ program. NAQ stands for non-automatic qualifier conferences. Whittingham's teams are 11-4 against BCS schools.

Utah has won nine straight bowl games, which is fairly phenomenal. Winning two BCS bowls decisively in that pretty impressive, too.

While many are speculating Boise State and TCU could run the table in the regular season and advance to the national-title game, what about Utah? The Utes play TCU at home on Nov. 6, a week before they visit Notre Dame. Win those two games, and who knows?

That is, if Utah beats Iowa State. Many said Texas Tech would do so last Saturday and were surprised.

Funny, four months ago it looked like ISU would be fortunate if it could find shelter in the same conference as Utah. The Big 12 was crumbling, or so it appeared. Nebraska was going to the Big Ten, and six Big 12 schools seemed headed to the Pac-10. The five leftovers would be fending for themselves, and no options looked especially appealing.

The best of the bunch would have been the Mountain West Conference that Utah called home, and that's if the MWC would take ISU along with Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State and Baylor. But the University of Texas closed the door on the Pac-10's attempted land grab and kept the Big 12 afloat, though with Nebraska and Colorado out the door.

Utah then happily seized a Pac-10 invitation and is spending its last season as an NAQ.

Iowa State is still in a major conference, and won't even have to play its return date at Utah. Both programs face 9-game league schedules next year and decided they couldn't make the return date work. That isn't the worst thing in the world for the Cyclones.