MORGANTOWN — If ever the new age of college football meant anything it is this Saturday as West Virginia’s attempt at reacquiring its place in the power structure of the game comes in a face-to-face Big 12 Conference meeting with Utah.

Utah?

If a WVU season is to be given a direction, should it not come against Pittsburgh, Virginia Tech, Syracuse or Penn State?

Utah? Not exactly who history says should be the opponent in an important game.

The two teams have played twice, both times in bowl games, first in 1964 in, of all places, indoors in Atlantic City’s Convention Center in a Liberty Bowl that drew all of 6,059 fans, and then in the historic Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, but not for the prestigious Cotton Bowl game.

Instead, it was in something named the Heart of Dallas Bowl, which in football terms may be considered just a step or two above a mixed salad bowl.

That game conjured up such interest that just 20,207 fans showed up in the cavernous 92,100-seat Dallas landmark.

Two bowl meetings, both once-sided Utah victories 53 years apart, make up the competitive football history of these two schools which are separated by about 1,800 miles and are about as different as Utah’s Great Salt Lake and Morgantown’s Cheat Lake.

Even an effort to give this game some historical significance by using throwback uniforms to those worn by the 1965 WVU football team and setting its Hall of Fame induction on this date may offer fun and meaning to the day, it is unlikely for the game to mean so much to both teams.

Yet this is a crucial game for both teams on the bounce back.

Coach Kyle Whittingham, who is in his 21st season as Utah’s coach, brought into the conference a team that was thought to be good enough to win last year’s Big 12 crown, being the pre-season selection for that, but that came unraveled through a 2-7 league season.

And so it is that he had to put all the pieces back together again this season and seemed to be on the right path to do that until his then 3-0 team was invaded at home by a buzzsaw of a Texas Tech team that put it to them, 34-10.

With WVU coming off an equally troubling Big 12 opener, losing to Kansas, 41-10, on the road to fall to 2-2 for the season, you can see the meaning this game carries.

Interestingly, while WVU and Utah are unfamiliar rivals, WVU’s Rich Rodriguez and Kyle Whittingham are quite familiar, having faced each other six times when Rodriguez was at Arizona.

Rodriguez won four of those games and lost the last two, but of far more interest is the fact that Rodriguez’s debut at Michigan after bolting from WVU was against Utah in 2008, a game that set the tone for his reign there with the Utes eking out a 25-23 victory over Michigan.

They accomplished this by holding Rodriguez’s running attack to just 35 yards on 26 carries, which is important because WVU comes into this game without its first-string running back Jahiem White, and probably without second-string running back Tye Edwards.

“(I’ve) known Rich for a lot of years,” Whittingham said at his weekly press conference “He really had it going at Arizona there and a really good offensive mind – outstanding offensive mind. I got no doubt that he’s going to get that program where he wants to, and where he had it before he was there the last time around.”

Rodriguez expressed similar respect for Whittingham and expects a difficult assignment, as signified with the Mountaineers being a double-digit home underdog.

“Kyle says this is his best offensive line, which you can see on film; they experienced coordinators,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for him, we played against each other a lot, kind of know each other and what we are going to do.”

Both come into the game with quarterback questions. The week started at WVU with Rodriguez revealing that his starting QB, Nicco Marchiol, who has struggled, was in Colorado seeing a foot specialist for an injury that had bothered him for a while.

He was listed as questionable and Rodriguez offered no hint as to whether it would be Jaylen Henderson, who rushed for 72 yards last week after relieving Marchiol, or Khalil Wilkens, who also ran well in a limited appearance, who would play if Marchiol couldn’t.

In Utah, their transfer quarterback Devon Dampier, who had done it all through the first three games, completing 65 of 89 passes for 628 yards and seven touchdowns without an interception while rushing for 198 yards, was coming off a difficult showing against Texas Tech.

He, too, it was revealed, was playing through an injury.

“He was doing the best he could. He wasn’t able to practice Tuesday or Wednesday. Went a little bit Thursday,” Wittingham said early this week. “It definitely impacted Devon, but if you’re out there, you have to get it done. We never use that as an excuse.”

So, this is a game wrapped in a mystery blanket as they get ready to play, a game that could dictate the way the rest of the season plays out for both teams.

Kickoff is at 3:30 with the game shown on Fox.