The centerpiece is Devon Dampier, who's back after a 2025 season where he fought through a sports hernia and an ankle injury and still threw for 2,490 yards and 24 touchdowns while adding 835 rushing yards and 10 more scores on the ground — 34 total touchdowns in his first year in Salt Lake City. He's healthy now, and Utah built an entire new scheme around keeping him upright and moving. The offensive line spent camp shuffling combinations without ever settling on one, which is the one loose thread heading into a game nobody expects Utah to actually need its best version of anything to win.
Idaho isn't walking in cold. The Vandals opened their season on the road at Cal Poly and lost 38-34 in a track meet, which says two things at once: second-year coach Thomas Ford's offense can move the ball against a fellow Big Sky-level opponent, and the defense that gave up 38 has zero business slowing down a Big 12 favorite that just installed a faster-paced attack.
The gap here isn't really about who's hurt — it's classification. Idaho is jumping from FCS competition straight into a preseason top-25 program, and the roster and depth simply aren't built for that jump physically, regardless of scheme or health. Utah's concerns, by contrast, are self-inflicted and small: an offensive line still finding its best five, a play-caller running his install for the first time with the whistle blowing for real. Those are the kinds of things that show up as a slow first drive, not as a genuine threat to the outcome.
Stripe the Stadium is on tap for the home opener, and Rice-Eccles will be loud for a program trying to signal it's moved past the Kyle Whittingham era without missing a step. The weather won't be a factor — partly sunny and in the high 70s at kickoff — so this one comes down to whether Utah's new pieces look like a top-25 team in year one of the install, or whether Idaho's shootout offense can make it interesting for a half before the class gap takes over.