You're a successful assistant coach at a solid BCS program, however, your resume isn't nearly good enough to get a dream job. Wanting to wet your feet as a head coach, hoping to climb your way up to that dream job, you take over a tradition weak non-BCS team. The school has minimal resources, plays in a 30,000 seat stadium, yet there is potential. The school is located in a recruiting hotbed, with a growing population surrounding the campus and plans to upgrade the football facilities. It's a risk, though, since the team is coming off a 3-win season and hasn't had a winning season in nearly four years. Their bowl drought is much larger, not making the postseason in ten. The climb will be a battle, but you're ready to go at it.

When building a non-BCS program, you need to look at the best way to utilize what you have. Some programs have done this quite well, while others seem destined to toil in mediocrity. The program we're looking at -- not a real one, by the way -- fits in with the latter. So what tasks must a coach undertake when trying to build a stagnant program? Well firstly, it depends on the talent level. Some programs underperform, others have a dearth of talent and need a lot more than just motivation and good coaching. For the sake of this article, we'll say talent has been there, but the program has struggled living up to the potential on the football field.

This is something familiar to Utah fans, as we experienced this type of change with Urban Meyer. The year before he arrived, Utah went 5-6, pretty much sucked and that cost Ron McBride his job. With basically the same players, Meyer went 10-2, won an outright championship fpr the first time in 50-years and guided the Utes to their first top-25 finish in 9 years. So this fictional program is one that has talent, but for whatever reason, it just hasn't panned out on the field. That's the job of the head coach, to find a way to mold that raw, unsuccessful talent into something dramatically different.

Unlike some non-BCS programs, this one doesn't need to schedule just for the sake of making money. These bodybag games that send teams to Norman, Oklahoma or Gainsville, Florida are not necessary. So you can put together a schedule that benefits your program in different ways.

• A tough game to toughen the team up. This is not always a bad idea, since your team can learn a lot when playing a far superior team. It doesn't have to be a game against #1 LSU, but a game against a solid BCS team. And if the team is lucky, they could pull off the stunner.

• A weak opponent to soften the possibility of injury. It's a no-brainer, the tougher the team the more likelihood of an injury. They're bigger, they're stronger and they sure as hell hit harder. The weak teams, though? They're smaller, at times weaker and even though they hit hard, it's not like getting slammed by a brick house. More like a tough shed.

• A poor BCS team. Hey, a win over a BCS team is a win over a BCS team, right? So what if it's Duke or North Carolina, it's still a BCS team and that's still pretty huge for a program trying to find its identity. Imagine if Utah State could manage to knock off a BCS team...or any team for that matter.

Once the schedule is in place, you've got to set the course for program goals. Now obviously you're not going to come out of the gate expecting a BCS bowl berth and a top-5 finish. But every team, no matter how bad, should aim for a winning record. It's only 7-wins and with a schedule tailored to this, it is very possible.

So it's your first season and the schedule is mixed with a tough BCS team, a not-so-tough BCS team, a mediocre non-BCS team and a D1-AA team, along with the regular conference slate. Last year the team dropped all of its out of conference games, but won 3 in conference to finish the conference season 3-5. Not good, but it does offer some hope.

Now this season, with better coaching, the team still manages to lose that tough out of conference BCS game, but manages to beat the poor BCS team, the mediocre non-BCS team and the D1-AA team. That equals last year's record and the conference schedule hasn't even started yet. So once that rolls around, the better coached team lives up to its talent level and manages to win 5 conference games, to finish with a record of 8-4. Just like that, the once poor football program is in a bowl game and owns a winning record.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well it kind of does and it really isn't entirely realistic, though it has happened. Coaches like Urban Meyer at Utah or even Dick Tomey at San Jose State managed to do that -- and more -- in their first seasons with a poor program. The talent didn't change, but the coaching did and it paid off. This isn't to say it's this easy for every non-BCS program, because it isn't. But the foundation can be laid with the right leadership on the sidelines and if you are a non-BCS team, that's where hope should lie.

The fact is, I think many non-BCS programs just make the wrong hire and it does their programs no good. But this is the difficult aspect of college football, especially for these programs, because a hire is a gamble. Utah had the luxury of knowing what it was getting because Urban Meyer had success at Bowling Green. However, it wasn't like that when they hired Ron McBride or Kyle Whittingham -- two coaches without head coaching experience. Both turned out to be decent hires, with it still unknown if Whitt is anything better. But for smaller non-BCS schools, they have to take a risk on an assistant, hoping he has the ability to build the program and make it more attractive to other coaches if they lose their head coach to another school.

And that is ultimately where non-BCS programs struggle the most, because unlike BCS teams, they rarely are capable of poaching other head coaches from other schools. So how do you -- if you're stuck hiring assistants -- know if you have the right guy? Well firstly, it doesn't hurt if the guy has been around for a while. Urban Meyer was an assistant under some great coaches, working his way up by coaching at Ohio State, Colorado State and Notre Dame before he landed a job at Bowling Green. Kyle Whittingham is the longest serving coach with the Utes in the modern era of Utah football. But really, it is a risk and the success of a program depends on that risk. If the department fails and hires a coach not ready to take over a team, then it takes a step back once again. However, if the opposite happens, then it's in position to build a solid non-BCS program.

Here's a look at some familiar teams and the paths their coaches took.

• Utah State, Brent Guy. Guy was the defensive coordinator at Arizona State, however, had ties to Utah State as a linebackers coach in the 90s. Yet at Arizona State, it wasn't as if his defenses were known for being great. In fact, Arizona was far more an offensive oriented team, which may explain the fact he hasn't done anything in Logan yet.

• San Diego State, Chuck Long. I know I've ranked Long as a poor coach before, but I actually think he has the resume of a good one. He was Oklahoma's offensive coordinator and had great success there, yet it hasn't really spilled over to San Diego State. Regardless, it wasn't a bad hire for the Aztecs based on what he had done and may prove to be a decent on in years to come.

• UNLV, Mike Sanford. An interesting hire for the Rebels and one that hasn't lived up to its hype. Now Utah fans are familiar with Sanford, as he was the offensive coordinator here for two seasons when the Utes went 22-2. But it was Urban Meyer who saved Sanford, as he was pretty much being pushed out of the door at Stanford after a horrible season in 2002. Outside of Utah's offensive performance in 2003 and 2004, Sanford doesn't have much to hang his hat on and that has proven to be a problem, as Sanford could be canned this season.

• BYU, Bronco Mendenhall. On paper, Mendenhall was a bad hire. His defenses at Oregon State, New Mexico and BYU were not good. Yet he seems to be a completely different head coach, as he's guided BYU to their best two seasons in a very long time. Bronco, though, had trouble winning prior to taking over the Cougar program, as he was the defensive coordinator through the worst stretch of BYU football in the last 30 years, didn't do much of anything at New Mexico and was pushed out the door with the entire Oregon State football staff in 1997.

It's tough for non-BCS teams to build their programs, because they don't have nearly the money or the capabilities. But it is possible and it all starts with the hiring of a good head coach. Someone who can motivate not only the players but an apathetic fanbase. If that happens, many non-BCS programs can do what Utah, Boise State and Hawaii have been able to do. The problem is, it's not that easy and for every Dan Hawkins and Urban Meyer, there is a Mike Sanford and a Vic Koenning.

Barret Peery is no stranger to Utah, as his ties to the state were brought up yesterday. Yet it's important to not ignore his connection to Utah, since it could pay dividends when it comes to in-state recruiting, something the Utes must excel at if they are going to return to the top of the Mountain West. So here's the lowdown on Utah's new assistat, Barret Peery.

Age: 37

Hometown:  Payson, Utah

Playing Career: Snow College, Southern Utah University

Coaching Career:

• Assistant, Snow College
• Assistant, Southern Utah University
• Assistant, Utah Valley State College
• Assistant, Portland State University
• Head Coach, College of Southern Idaho

Record as Head Coach: 85-19

Conference Titles won as Head Coach: 3 (in all three years he's coached)

NJCAA National Tournaments: 3

This looks like a solid hire for Boylen, as Peery not only has deep coaching experience, but strong ties to Utah. And we need an assistant who knows the state and all the quirks that come with recruiting here. Now hopefully the turnover the Utes have experienced the past two seasons does not hinder the program's growth and they can step up their success next season.

Hey Block U,

Today is the big day. We've switched your community over to the new SB Nation sports blog platform. My name is Trei, and I'm here to help you get adjusted to the new home we've built for you. If you have questions or trouble with the new system, post a comment in this thread and myself or one of the team (lovitt, sixfoot6 or odacrem) will try to point you in the right direction.

Before we begin, I want to let you know we still consider this a beta platform, so don't be surprised if you find a few bugs or if everything isn't exactly right yet. We hope you'll take the time to report any problems you encounter at bugreport@sbnation.com. We'll be continuing to make changes and improving things.

Please take a few minutes to read about what's new below. But if you just can't wait to jump in, here are some quick things to check out:

1. Sign up for your SB Nation network account and claim your old blog accounts
2. Once you're logged in, press your  Z  key in any thread with new comments
3. Explore your dashboard and setup your profile
4. Read the guide to the new FanPost editor
5. Install the FanShot bookmarklet and post videos to Block U from YouTube or images from Flickr
6. Click the "Rec" button on posts and comments to help other people find the good stuff.
7. Customize display options on your Edit Settings page

What Has Changed

SB Nation Network Accounts - the Big Change

Readers across all of our blogs told us they wanted one account to use on every SB Nation blog. To make this work, we're requiring that everyone create a new SB Nation network account. In most cases you should be able to keep your old username, but a few of you may have to choose something new, since every other community in SB Nation will be going through this same transition. We tried to be as fair as possible in deciding who gets to keep which name, using a formula that takes into account length of membership and frequency of activity.

We want to make it as easy as possible for you to participate on all of our blogs, but we don't want to encourage everyone to start visiting rival team blogs and initiating flame wars. To maintain friendly communities we ask that you explicitly join each blog in order to participate. It's a two-click process, but it does means accepting each blog's community guidelines. Just as you join each blog individually, you can be banned on each blog individually.

You can claim old accounts from multiple SB Nation blogs, and your new username will be retroactively attached to all your old comments and diaries. So now you'll be able to access all your writings from your single profile page... like magic.

To get started, click here to claim your old blog accounts and create a new SB Nation network account.

FanPosts (the Section Formerly Known as Diaries)

We changed their name. Why? Because we took this major upgrade as an opportunity to leave behind some vocabulary that never made much sense for a sports blog. SB Nation is the network of, by and for fans, and these are the blog posts we make. So we call them FanPosts. When you're at a bar telling someone to check out your online sports opinions, you don't have to suggest they read your diary.

FanPosts are displayed differently on the homepage - we include your avatar to give more credit for the time you spend writing great posts. The new post editor has a WYSIWYG view that provides easy formatting. It also auto-saves drafts so you don't have to worry about losing your work when you compose a post within the web browser. And you can now associate teams, players and games with your posts: these tools promote your FanPosts on our new team, player and game pages - across the entire network.

The new system does not work like the old diary editor. For example, in HTML mode the new editor doesn't auto-create a new paragraph from two line breaks. But it does offer a whole array of new features. Look for the blinking help button on the right side of the FanPost editor for quick tips, and take a look at our full guide to writing FanPosts on the new platform.

IMPORTANT - if you write your posts in Microsoft Word or some other off-line editor, you will get the most reliable behavior if you cut & paste your post into the HTML view of the FanPost editor. And if you do that, remember to wrap <p></p> tags around each paragraph so your text doesn't run together.

Visual Redesign

This one is probably the most obvious change of all. Like other major websites working to improve readability for their audience, we've adopted a fixed-width layout optimized for the 1024 x 768 resolution used by the majority of Block U and SB Nation network users. Use the switcher below the user menu if you prefer the wider layout designed for 1280 monitors. We've introduced a top navigation bar with quick links into old and new sections of the site. We also polished a few edges, made some things larger, others smaller and moved a few boxes here and there. More changes and adjustments to come.

Search

We've completely replaced the old search engine with a new one. We're excited to make it easier to find old posts and comments, but we've only taken our first pass on the tools we're offering. We're focused on making search even better than what you had before, so please know that we're aware search is missing key features and we're working on it.

What's New

Schedule, Scores, Stats and Roster

Block U now has all the basic information about the Utah Running Utes and hundreds of other teams. During games you'll see a regularly updated line score, and as the season progresses we'll track team stat totals and leaders. This is just our first step, so look for us to publish more detailed and archival stats in the future. The best part about all this sports data is that we've integrated it directly into the blog so. We now have special pages that aggregate all blog posts written about games, players and teams.

Recommending FanPosts

Some writing deserves more attention and more conversation. If you want to bump a FanPost up to the top and keep it there for awhile, just click the 'Rec' link under the body of the post. When a FanPost receives enough recommendations it will make the recommended list.

Auto-refreshing Comments

You no longer need to refresh the page to see new comments. If you're logged in, new comments will automatically appear on the page every few seconds. When you post a comment, the page will not refresh either. If you want to quickly cycle through all the new comments, you can press the C key on your keyboard. Unmark a new comment after you've read it with the X key. And use the Z key if you want to umark comments as you're cycling through them.

As you use these shortcuts to cycle through comments, press the R key to reply to the current comment. All these helpful keyboard shortcuts are listed at the top of each comments section for reference.

Recommending Comments

Now you can reward those folks who take the time to look up stats and make smart arguments in the comments. Next to each comment there is an 'actions' link that you can click to find the recommend and flag options.

Flagging Comments

To help the moderators on a site, we've built-in tools that let you flag comments that are spam, trolling or just plain inappropriate. Only moderators can see those flags.

FanShots

Many members of the community just want to post that one link, video, photo or quote, but don't need a full FanPost. We've got you covered: FanShots let you share YouTube videos, Flickr or PhotoBucket photos, quotes from articles, portions of chat transcripts, top 5 lists and simple links. If it's a video or image we'll put a thumbnail on the homepage when you post it.

For those of you who are experienced internet hunter-gatherers of Utah Running Utes material, install the bookmarklet onto the links bar of your browser and share FanShots with the community from wherever on the web you find that killer quote or photo.

Archives

It's much easier to find that post about a certain deadline trade or prospect retro feature. You can browse by year and month.

Avatars

Upload an image so folks can see your custom avatar on your profile, your FanPosts, and all your comments.

Network Profiles

Now that we have unified SB Nation network accounts, your profile will be your central hub for all of your activity on any blogs where you are a member.

Network bar

The top bar stays with you on all SB Nation blogs. It's a quick way to login and logout. When you're logged in, you'll see your avatar and screen name which links to your profile. The icon to the right leads to your Dashboard area where you can edit your settings, profile, account details and any FanPosts or FanShots you've published. As we add more blogs to the new SB Nation network, the My Blogs menu will be a handy way to navigate between the blogs you've joined.

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There are plenty more small changes and additions we've made, so please take a careful look around and explore this new system. We appreciate your patience and hope you'll help us improve the new platform for this and all the other SB Nation blogs.

And in case you missed it, you'll want to start by claiming your old blog accounts and creating a new SB Nation network account.

Barret Peery, the head coach at the College of Southern Idaho, has accepted a position on Coach Boylen's staff, the Desert News is reporting. Peery's hire is the 2nd of an assistant this year, as last month Boylen hired Stan Johnson, a former assistant at Cal State Northridge. This fills the vacancies left by Marty Wilson and Chris Jones, who left the program at the end of the season.

Peery has been the head coach at CSI for 3 years and prior to that was an assistant at Southern Utah, Snow College, and Utah Valley State College. He also played basketball at both Snow and Southern Utah. Peery is a Utah native, growing up in Payson.

While at CSI, Peery has guided the Golden Eagle's to an 85-19 record, including a 26-game winning streak this past season.

Obviously we won't know the answer until the season begins, but I'm guessing I am not the only Ute fan who has questions about this year's team.

10. Can Utah beat Michigan? It's going to an awfully tough game, even if Michigan lacks the talent they have seen in the past. If there is one year to grab a win over one of the most elite programs in college football history, this is it. However, I'm still not expecting a win, because I honestly don't think the Wolverines will look past the Utes. Luckily, though, Utah should be more familiar with Michigan's offense than the Wolverine players themselves -- since it's comparable to what the team has run since the Urban Meyer days.
9. Can Utah put together a full season? And when I ask this, it isn't necessarily asking if they'll go undefeated (we'll get to that later), but rather not having a game that leaves most fans with a bad taste in their mouths. In each of the last 3 years, there have been games (sometimes multiple in a season) where the Utes should really not have lost and they definitely should not have lost the way they did. Will 2008 be any different, or will Utah drop a few games over the course of a season that costs them more than just a gaudy record?
8. Can Brian Johnson stay healthy? Last season was hyped as being the return of Brian Johnson after a season of sitting out over a leg injury. Yet, in the first game, he went down and his outlook has been questionable since. Add on the collarbone injury and the Utes' fortunes definitely cling to whether or not Johnson can be healthy enough to play as well as he did during the height of the 2007 season. If he can, Utah should be good to go, but if there is a nagging injury there, it could set Utah back this year.
7. Can the offense produce at a high level consistently? I've proven to be one of Andy Ludwig's harshest critic, but I'm also optimistic that maybe this is the year everything comes together on the offensive side of the ball. Last season, the Utes' offense played efficiently, but struggled in some key games, namely the final regular season one against BYU. Under Ludwig, Utah's offense tends to play up and down and this is the year where it probably needs to play consistently well if Utah is going to make some noise either nationally, or within the conference. If the offense continues to play up and down, well question 9 will probably not happen.
6. Can Utah go undefeated at home? It doesn't sound that important of a question, however, going undefeated at home automatically gives Utah 6-wins on the season. Couple that with the fact Utah faces some probable Mountain West Conference championship contenders (BYU and TCU) and it becomes apparent why winning at home is so important. Had Utah gone undefeated at home last year, they would have finished 10-3 and would have been a stop away from winning the Mountain West championship. Instead, they went 9-4 and finished tied for 3rd.
5. Can Utah finally win the Mountain West? Let's face it, the success of a program is tied to conference championships and since Urban Meyer left Salt Lake, Utah hasn't really been in contention for one since. That has to change and this is Utah's best shot in a few years to win it. Not only do they have a favorable schedule, they return much of their talent from last year and should be good to go. But this will require many of the above questions, which has been a problem for Utah the past 3 years. If Utah is going to become a dominant football program, it will have to start by winning the Mountain West this year. If they do that, then success should come in the future.
4. Can the Utes crack the top-25? They won't start there, but they should begin the season with votes, as they generally do. Now a win over Michigan could catapult the Utes into the top-25 and set the course for something special. But even if Utah does lose their opening game against Michigan, the schedule breaks down fairly favorable to where they can run off a pretty impressive winning streak and crack the top-25 that way. After Michigan, Utah plays very winnable games against UNLV, Utah State, Air Force, Weber State, Oregon State, Wyoming and Colorado State. If they win those games, they should easily enter the top-25 as they arrive to the meaty part of their schedule.
3. Can Utah stop the revenge factor? Wyoming is going to be pumped to play the Utes and this is a game that actually concerns me more than most any other on the schedule. It's one Utah should win, however, the Cowboys will easily remember last year's 50-0 loss to the Utes in Salt Lake and I'm willing to bet they come out charged for this one. Of course, Utah should equally remember Joe Glenn giving Kyle Whittingham -- and subsequently the team -- the one-fingered victory (not) salute. This should be a brawl.
2. Can Utah finally beat BYU? I think we can all agree BYU has had their little run and now it's time for Utah to regain the series advantage. BYU hasn't won two three in a row over the Utes in 16 years and the last time the Cougars did win two in a row, the Utes followed it up with a 4-game rivalry winning streak. This is a good year to start another Ute winning streak, right?
1. Can Utah have that special season? Probably not, but if all the above questions are answered positively, they should. That would require beating Michigan, winning all their home games, not having an offensive letdown, a healthy Brian Johnson and most importantly, winning the Mountain West. As Utah won't come close to sniffing the BCS If they can't win the conference.

As expected, there weren't any Utes taken in this years draft, however, there were a few players selected from other Mountain West schools:

San Diego State quarterback Kevin O'Connell was selected in the 3rd round by the Indianapolis Colts New England Patriots.

UNLV OLB Beau Bell was selected in the 4th round by the Cleveland Browns.

New Mexico wide receiver Marcus Smith was selected in the 4th round by the Baltimore Ravens.

BYU's OLB Bryan Kehl was selected in the 4th round by the New York Giants.

San Diego State's Tyler Schmitt was selected in the 6th round by the Seattle SeaHawks.

San Diego State's Brett Swain was selected in the 7th round by the Green Bay Packers.

San Diego State receiver Chaz Schilens was selected in the 7th round by the Oakland Raiders.

Not a great draft for Mountain West programs, but clearly San Diego State cleaned up. It's a wonder, with all this talent, how they continue to suck in football. The Aztecs consistently are at the top of the conference in terms of draft selections, yet fail to have any of that success translate into wins. So while Aztec fans are rightfully proud of getting 4 of their players picked, they have to be frustrated that all they have to show for it on the football field is a bunch of losing seasons.

Utah is a very strange place. In fact, so strange that you often wonder if this state is just one long version of the Outer Limits. Even something as innocent and normal as the NBA playoffs drifts toward unnecessary weirdness when fundamentalist polygamists stand outside the arena protesting, as was the case during game 3 and will be the case today in game 4.

But even that does not take the cake for strangeness. Instead, that honor goes to Gary Coleman and possibly his soon to be ex-wife Shannon Price. You see, last year, washed up child star Gary Coleman -- now a resident of Santaquin, Utah -- married Price and the result was a freakishly awkward appearance on the Today Show back in February. The bizarreness of their marriage now actually takes a backseat to the oddity of their possible divorce. Yes, as shocking as it may sound, the marriage seems to be on the rocks, as the two will appear in Divorce Court next week. It's unknown if this will save the marriage and surely Americans will be waiting with bated breath at the news of whether or not these two underdogs can defy the odds and continue on their disturbing journey of life. I'm guessing not.

If nothing, at least we gain the following photo capturing what could be the oddest love link since Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley.

Now that's some strange stuff.