It's the dominant question hovering over Saturday night's Washington State-Utah State season opener like the alien mother ship and planet earth in 'Independence Day.'

Who's will be WSU's starting quarterback?

Nick Rolovich said Wednesday that the decision between Jarrett Guarantano and Jayden de Laura likely won't be revealed until Saturday. Why? Strategic, mostly.

The Cougars want to keep Utah State guessing.

"I feel good about having two guys that can help us win. That's a good place to be," Rolovich said. "Jayden has a very quick release. He's a very twitchy athlete. Jarrett is a smooth thrower with a good knowledge of the offense and maturity in the pocket.

"You'll find out Saturday. We've gone this long. I don't think it's worth putting it out there as far as strategy. I'll let the guys know know before anybody else knows. That's just respect for the work they've put in."

Washington State opens the 2021 season hosting Utah State at Gesa Field Saturday evening. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. on the Pac-12 Network.

WSU returns 20 starters for the 2021 season and Year 2 under head coach Nick Rolovich, who saw the Cougars post a 1-3 record in a Covid-19 shortened 2020 season.

WSU returns 10 starters on defense led by senior linebacker Jahad Woods while senior running back Max Borghi and three-time All-Pac-12 second-team right tackle Abraham Lucas headline the eight starters returning on offense.

Washington State and Utah State meet for the first time since 1961 and faceoff in Pullman for the first time since the inaugural meeting in 1949.

The Cougars lead the all-time series 2-1, including a 33-0 win in Pullman in 1949. The two teams were scheduled to open the season in Logan, Utah last year before the season was delayed and limited to conference-only games.

Here's the game preview by Yahoo Sports:

Here comes the night-and-day difference in the offense.

The Aggies couldn’t seem to do much of anything right last season with one of the nation’s least-efficient passing games for an overall attack that had a hard time getting to 300 yards.

In steps new head coach Blake Anderson from Arkansas State, and he brought his former QB Logan Bonner along with him. The passing game should suddenly start to work – helped by an offensive line that gets just about everyone back – with a little more coming from the ground attack.

"The quality of coaching staff, the tempo and the uncertainties we won't know until game day," Rolovich said when asked what he was concerned most about Utah State.,

The Utah State defense is still a question mark, but most of the top tacklers return. The pass rush is going to be a positive early on, but …

The Washington State passing game is about to crank it up.

The Cougars will likely give both Tennessee transfer Jarrett Guarantano and Jayden de Laura time, and they should both be strong behind a line that gets back talent at tackle along with enough experience to be a plus.

The top receivers have to emerge, but Max Borghi is a do-it-all back who’ll play a bigger role – the Cougars can grind if they want to.

The focus will be on the offensive side, but the defense has more experience with most of the starters back around a big linebacking corps that should stuff the Utah State running game cold.

What’s Going To Happen: Utah State will start to look and play a whole lot better than it did through a strangely awful 2020, but it won’t be there quite yet. Washington State also needs to prove it can get past an awful 2020, especially on defense.

And it will.

Utah State will move the ball a bit with the revamped offense, but the Wazzu defense will start to play far, far stronger. The offense might not be as sharp as it needs to be, but it will be balanced and more explosive than it looked for most of last year.

Score Prediction: Washington State 41, Utah State 23.