0-3 starts didn’t bode very well for Heels, Aztecs

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 11, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.

Ted Tollner and Carl Torbush were both glad to be in Las Vegas Thursday, and it wasn't just because they got to pose for pictures with a couple of attractive showgirls.

Tollner, head coach of the San Diego State Aztecs, and Torbush, the first-year coach at North Carolina, were in town to promote next Saturday's Las Vegas Bowl VII match-up at Sam Boyd Stadium. And considering their teams began the season with 0-3 records, the prospect of meeting in a bowl game in Las Vegas is probably more than either Tollner or Torbush could have hoped for.

"We're delighted to be here," Tollner said. "When I was at USC and we beat Washington to earn a trip to the (1985) Rose Bowl, our locker room was wild. ... But when you announced that you were going to take us on our banquet night ... the excitement and enthusiasm exceeded that."

"I've had the opportunity to go to seven bowl games in a row," Torbush said. "I really believe the excitement that this football team had when it was announced that they were going to the Las Vegas Bowl was the most that we have had since I've been there."

A big reason for that was because it looked like the injury-plagued Tar Heels (6-5), who lost starting quarterback Oscar Davenport to a knee injury for much of the season on just their fourth play from scrimmage, had virtually no bowl hopes after opening with consecutive losses to Miami of Ohio, Stanford and Georgia Tech.

"When you're 0-3, you're not sure you're going to have an opportunity for your first win," Torbush said. "Then when we had the opportunity to win our sixth ballgame, we weren't sure we would be wanted. But one bowl game we fantasized about was Las Vegas. I've never been here and most of our players haven't been here."

"The two football teams are similar in this respect," Tollner said. "Both of us started 0-3. If you're a football coach and you start 0-3, you've got some problems now. A lot of negative things can happen. You better have an awfully unique group of young men on your team that have great character ... to come back and have a year that warrants being invited to a bowl."

Following its 0-3 start, San Diego State won seven of its final eight games, losing only to WAC Pacific Division winner BYU, 13-0, in Provo.

North Carolina rebounded to win six of its final eight games, including a dramatic 37-34 overtime win over archrival North Carolina State in the season finale to finish with a winning record for the ninth straight season.

San Diego State will fly into Las Vegas late Tuesday night and practice Wednesday and Thursday on the practice fields adjacent to Sam Boyd Stadium. North Carolina will fly in Wednesday and hold just one practice on Thursday afternoon at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Notes

San Diego State officials said they had sold 7,000 tickets for the game as of Tuesday. The school is hoping to sell as many as 10,000 tickets. ... North Carolina booster groups have purchased a block of tickets that will be distributed for free to any Tar Heel student who makes the long sojourn to Las Vegas. "They have to show up here and show their I.D. to get one ticket," Tar Heel athletic director Dick Baddour said. "We won't be giving them out back there or before the game here." ... Torbush said highly touted freshman quarterback recruit Ron Curry, the USA Today national prep player of the year in 1997, will rotate "every third or fourth series" with Davenport. Curry also is a member of the Tar Heel basketball team. ... Tickets are available at $10, $30, $45, $75 and $125 and can be reserved by calling Ticketmaster at 474-4000 or the Thomas & Mack Center Box Office at 895-3900. ... New UNLV head football coach John Robinson will host the Las Vegas Bowl VII Kickoff Luncheon next Friday at noon in the Premier Ballroom at the MGM Grand Hotel. Former NFL quarterback and current ABC Monday Night Football analyst Boomer Esiason will be the keynote speaker. Tickets for the luncheon are priced at $30 and are available at the MGM Grand box office at 891-7777.