‘I love Vegas’

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Dec. 14, 2001 | 10:15 a.m.

Ron McBride says he can't think of anything he'd rather be doing on Christmas Day than coaching his University of Utah football team against the USC Trojans in the Las Vegas Bowl at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"Everybody is saying to me, 'You want to play in a bowl game on Christmas Day in Las Vegas?' " McBride said. "And I say, 'Hell, yes I want to play in a bowl game on Christmas Day!' What better Christmas present can your players have? Players remember the bowl games for a lifetime. It's a great opportunity.

"I love Vegas. There's no place I'd rather be on that day than in this bowl game."

McBride and USC head coach Pete Carroll were in town on Thursday for a press conference at the ESPN Zone to drum up interest for the game that will be televised nationally by ABC at 12:30 p.m.

USC (6-5), which has a poor traveling reputation for bowl games, has already sold more than 4,000 of its required 12,500 tickets, according to sports information director Tim Tessalone. Utah (7-4) has not sold nearly that amount but brought a large contingent for its 17-16 victory over Fresno State in the 1999 Las Vegas Bowl.

"I'm going to make them all feel guilty if they don't leave their Christmas tree and show up for the game," McBride promised.

This is the first time in its 10 years that the Las Vegas Bowl has been played on Christmas Day. Normally, that slot was filled by the Aloha and Oahu bowls in Honolulu, but both bolted for the mainland and non-Christmas dates after poor turnouts in recent years. The Aloha Bowl is now the Seattle Bowl and will be played at Safeco Field while the Oahu Bowl will not be played this year after failing to garner a sponsor and stadium site.

"Realistically, if we can get 15,000 to 20,000 fans in the stands I'd be delighted," Las Vegas Bowl executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy said.

If the fans of both schools get as fired up as their coaches are about the contest, she should reach her goal.

"(Playing USC) is great for us," McBride said. "You want to play a school with some history like they do. ... By my estimation, they were playing as well as any team in the Pac-10 at the end of the season."

Carroll, the former New York Jets and New England Patriots head coach who will be coaching his first bowl game since the 1979 Rose Bowl when he was an assistant for Ohio State's Earle Bruce, is treating the game like an NFL postseason contest.

"We're going to take it like a playoff game," he said. "We're going to take great care in how we prepare for it, knowing that we are on the road and in an environment like this. We'll get all the game planning done before we get here. It's really an important game for us. We've really built a lot of momentum in the latter part of the season. To get a win here would allow us to extend that momentum into the off-season. And getting the seventh win is important, too."

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