Chad Goff has been in this situation before.

His Cheyenne East Thunderbirds are opening the regular season with a conference game against a team with a new coach.

Last year, Goff and the T-Birds traveled down Interstate 80 and spoiled coach Darren Howard's first game with Green River.

This year, new Laramie coach Bob Knapton will bring his Plainsmen over the summit to face East in the Week 1 kick-off.

And Goff is hoping for the same result this year that he got last year.

Technically, Knapton opened his Laramie coaching career last Friday in a 21-14 loss to Steamboat Springs, Colo. In that game, Goff said, the Plainsmen broke out a new wing-T offense, which focuses on running the ball early and often.

Goff said the misdirection and line shifts the Plainsmen employ - and the fact that they stick with the game plan - make them tough to defend.

"They just keep running at you and running at you until they pop one loose," Goff said.

Knapton did not return phone messages left at his home and school numbers by the Star-Tribune this week.

East, meanwhile, isn't planning any big changes on offense this season. Goff said the offense the Thunderbirds installed last year - a shotgun offense that produces a good mix of run and pass - will produce some different dividends this year as the players learn more intricacies of the system.

"They remembered some things from last year and were able to pick some new things up this year," Goff said. "It's been a little bit smoother (in practice) just because it's not brand new."

Today's Laramie-East game is also the only Class 5A conference game of the week. Goff said it wasn't a perfect arrangement and it was something the T-Birds faced last year with Green River.

But rather than worry about what's out of his control, Goff and the Thunderbirds are trying more to relish the challenge the Plainsmen - and their new approach - will present tonight.

"It's a matter of learning how to play at the highest level you can," Goff said.

LARAMIE'S POWER RATINGS GAMES ARE JUGGLED: Laramie's game with Steamboat Springs, Colo., last Friday - a 21-14 loss for the Plainsmen - will not count as part of Laramie's power rating, Wyoming High School Activities Association Commissioner Ron Laird said Thursday.

Instead, Laramie's Sept. 26 home game against Scottsbluff, Neb., will count for the power ratings. Power ratings are combined with conference standings for playoff seeding.

Laird said the decision to make the Scottsbluff game count for the power ratings - and to make the Steamboat Springs game not count - was made last spring after Nebraska's schools finalized their schedules.

The game will still count in Laramie's overall season record but the loss will not factor into the power ratings.

Contact high school sports coordinator Patrick Schmiedt at (307) 266-0615 or patrick.schmiedt@trib.com.

Game Tracker

WHAT: Laramie (0-1) at Cheyenne East (0-0)

WHEN: 7 p.m. today

WHERE: Okie Blanchard Stadium, Cheyenne

LAST TIME THEY MET: Cheyenne East beat Laramie 28-12 on Sept. 21, 2007, in Laramie.