When BYU travels just short of 50 miles north to take on Utah on Saturday morning at Rice-Eccles Stadium it will mark the first time the two rivals have met up with both holding a top 10 ranking. The Cougars are currently ranked No. 7 in the AP Poll and No. 9 in the recently-released College Football Playoff ranking with undefeated Utah holding down the No. 3 ranking in both polls.

The game will largely dictate which team makes a trip to the Big 12 Championship Game and secure a subsequent berth into a playoff round which the Cougars narrowly missed out on a season ago.

“The guys are really focused and there’s more energy and more effort towards the preparation for this game than than ever before,” said BYU coach Kalani Sitake. “So I’m looking forward to it be something that we can really build on.”

But it’s not going to be easy, for the Cougars, and especially with the prospect of again taking the field without the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, LJ Martin. Martin practiced on both Tuesday and Wednesday in hopes of taking the field against the Utes although his official injury designation is that he’s doubtful to play on Saturday, which could diminish BYU’s offensive arsenal considerably.

Over the past two weeks the Cougar running backs have ran for just 98 yards on 28 carries, as a group, making the return of Martin to the lineup paramount, although it seems unlikely he’ll be ready to play and will likely not be able to play at full speed even if he does.

So how does BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick plan on gaining more ground production with the prospect of going again without Martin certainly a strong possibility?

“I just need to call more run plays,” Roderick answered. “I only called eight run plays the whole game on first and second down (against Arizona State.) It’s hard to get into a rhythm doing that. And then I thought we needed to block better. The perimeter blocking was not great, and I just got to commit to it more. I got away from it a little early last game.”

The good news is that Roderick stated definitively that Preston Rex will return to the lineup after leaving last week’s game early with injury.

So a lot of the onus for increased offensive production will rest again on BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who has been limited quite a bit with his ability to run the football over the past two weeks.

“(He) just (needs to) be himself, and just to be the same guy he is every week,” Roderick said of Bachmeier. “We just try to be consistent. We want to take care of the football, be efficient in the passing game, and get us into the right plays … We don’t need him to be a hero or anything — just play his game and do do what he does for us on a weekly basis.”

All of it will have to be accomplished versus a Ute defense that Roderick believes is similar in strength to what he’s seen in years prior.

“They’re really good at stopping the run, and they play really good man coverage,” Roderick assessed. “I mean they’re good at everything. They’ve been a great defense for a long time and there’s been no drop off this year with (Utah defensive coordinator Colton) Swan, and they are very, very good defense.”

Of course what BYU faces offensively is not even half of the problem for BYU come Saturday.

On the defensive side of the football the Cougars will hope to limit Utah’s unique offense that has torched opposing defenses so far this season to the tune of 38.9 points scored per game on top of an average of 485.4 yards.

“There’s some uniqueness to them that we got to get used to repetition wise,” noted BYU defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga. “There’s some stuff that we haven’t seen all year that they do, and props to them. They have a really good scheme that challenges you in a lot of different ways.”

Foremost in Utah’s unique attack is dual-threat quarterback Devon Dampier, with the Utes also utilizing backup Bryd Ficklin to keep opposing defenses off-balance and guessing on what’s coming at them. But perhaps Utah’s top offensive weapon is running back Wayshawn Parker, who enters Saturday’s game having scored nine touchdowns while averaging 6.7 yards per carry this season.

“The running back, I think, is way better than he was a year ago,” Poppinga observed. “I think he’s running more physical, and he’s obviously been very productive. I think he’s about seven yards a carry right now, so you got that and then you got multiple quarterbacks that can run the ball … I think our guys are up to to the challenge to play these guys, and hopefully we put a good game plan out there and our guys go out there and execute.”

Execution has remained a problem for the Cougar defense over the last two weeks with the lack of tackling prowess being the chief issue, and if that problem persists, getting a win against Utah could prove extremely difficult, on top of all the other challenges that have to be overcome.

All that said, Cougar coaches and players are confident that they can come away with a win in what is certainly the a rivalry game with higher stakes involved than they’ve ever been before.