Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - 2007 SEASON IN REVIEW: Brent Guy might be happy to have a head coaching position in college football, but he must have been having second thoughts when his Utah State Aggies began the 2007 campaign with 10 consecutive losses.

The team had a realistic shot against UNLV in the season opener, losing by just a single touchdown, but only a handful of games after that could have been considered competitive. The Aggies then went to Laramie and dropped a 14- point (32-18) decision to Wyoming, which was just the beginning of the ugliness. A week later USU found itself locked up with nationally-ranked Oklahoma on the road, a meeting that resulted in an unsightly 54-3 score. Altogether the Aggies faced off against three ranked programs a season ago and none of those affairs looked very pretty. The first week of October Utah State took on WAC foe and nationally-ranked Hawaii in Honolulu and was turned away in a 52-37 decision. Five weeks later the program hosted 19th-ranked Boise State and ran into a well-oiled machine that registered a 52-0 shutout. The setback to the Broncos may have been a wake-up call though, because the following week the Aggies recorded their first win of the campaign, a 35-17 victory versus New Mexico State on the road. With a little bit of confidence and nothing really to lose, USU then marched into Idaho and captured a 24-19 win to close out the season with a 2-6 mark in Western Athletic Conference action.

2008 ANALYSIS:

OFFENSE: Heading into the preseason the depth chart listed Sean Setzer or Jase McCormick as the starter at quarterback, but really the decision has now been made for coach Guy after McCormick decided to leave the program for personal reasons the first week of August. Sophomore signal-caller Diondre Borel comes in as the backup.

The squad doesn't have much in the way of experienced tailbacks either, listing Curtis Marsh as the starter and Robert Turbin and Derrvin Speight coming in relief. The latter is actually the top returning runner for Utah State after producing 504 yards and three scores on 129 carries. The fullback spot has Jacob Actkinson, Brian Mason and Chris Forbes listed, but of the six guys who will carry the ball the most for the Aggies, not a single one of them is an upper classman, which may not be that much of a concern for coach Guy if he plays his cards right.

"We've got a lot of guys to use who can be a really good, effective runner inside, or else a combination of any of those guys that will help us a lot. A weapon that people often don't think of that we still have is Rob Myers, who is one of the fastest tight ends in this league, as far as his speed and ability."

A senior this year, Myers is the top returning receiver for the unit after reeling in 21 catches for 320 yards and three touchdowns, despite playing in only nine games. Expect Myers, now a senior, to be a key component in the offense as Setzer gets settled in and tries to learn more about his wideouts (Otis Nelson and Stanley Morrison).

DEFENSE: The Aggies return as many as nine starters on defense from a year ago. Unlike the offensive unit, this group is chock full of juniors and seniors, with senior linebacker Jake Hutton drawing most of the attention. Hutton started all 12 games for the Aggies in 2007 and led the squad with his 102 tackles, ranking him eight in the conference. His 58 solo stops were also tied for fifth in the WAC and were the most by a USU player since 2002. Senior Devon Hall was also a starter at linebacker a year ago, but it has been decided that he'll move back to the safety position and share some time with James Brindley. Brindley (84 tackles) keeps himself in the mix after leading the team with two recovered fumbles and tying for the lead with a trio of picks.

"The one area that we have a lot of depth at is our secondary," says the head coach. "We've got a lot of seniors and we have a lot of guys with significant playing experience, a lot of guys who have started."

With sacks such a rare commodity for the Aggies, senior defensive end Ben Calderwood needs to pick up the pace and make up for the departed Carl Singleton who lead the program with six sacks and ended up with four forced fumbles as well.

SPECIAL TEAMS: The loss of Kevin Robinson cannot be understated. He was not only one of the nation's top producers in the kick return game, he was the most visible part of the Utah State offense overall and will be sorely missed in every aspect. Of the 89 combined punt and kickoff returns logged by the Aggies a year ago, 63 of those were handled by Robinson, resulting in four touchdowns and one spectacular play after another.

"We don't have Kevin Robinson," coach Guy has pointed out. "He set the NCAA (career yards per play) record for a reason. There aren't too many people around like Kevin Robinson. We're not going to say we've got another Kevin Robinson, we're going to spread things around and spread those touches out between running backs and tight ends as well as the wide receivers."

Kickoff returns will probably be handled by Marsh this time around, with punts being collected primarily by Kejon Murphy and perhaps Morrison, a redshirt freshman who is listed at a sprite 156 pounds. After leading the team in scoring a year ago, Peter Caldwell has locked up the place kicking duties once again and is also the choice for punter, while junior Chris Ulinski takes care of kickoff responsibilities. Each of those players is listed as the backup for the other in the three aforementioned areas.

OUTLOOK: The back-to-back wins over New Mexico State and Idaho at the end of last season have the Aggies searching for their first three-game road winning streak since the team turned the trick in similar fashion between the 1996 and 1997 seasons. Even though the offense is going to sputter quite a bit throughout 2008, the team has a decent chance of getting that opening-day win with their meeting against UNLV, a team that has won a total of six games over the last three seasons. But that's probably it as far as good news is concerned. Utah State faces a total of seven teams that played in the postseason last year and will have to mix it up with five teams that ended up in the final poll.