It’s USC vs. Utah

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2001 | 10:42 a.m.

What a difference four years makes.

Back in 1997, a 6-5 USC football team turned down a chance to play in the Las Vegas Bowl and stayed home instead because school administrators felt the game wasn't up to the school's standards.

This morning, a 6-5 Trojan team gleefully accepted a bid to play in the 10th annual Las Vegas Bowl on Christmas Day against Mountain West Conference runner-up Utah (7-3) at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Either this is a case of how the mighty have fallen or just how far the Las Vegas Bowl, which will be televised nationally on ABC, has come in that span.

Probably a little of both.

"We're excited about this matchup," Tina Kunzer-Murphy, executive director of the Las Vegas Bowl, said. "We think we have two great teams playing here on Christmas."

The Trojans overcame a 2-5 start and won their final four games, including a stunningly one-sided 27-0 thrashing of crosstown rival UCLA, to garner their first bowl berth since the 1998 Sun Bowl, when USC was upset by 16-point underdog TCU, 28-19.

Only Alabama (28) has won more bowl games than the Trojans (25) in NCAA history. However, this will only be USC's second bowl appearance since the John Robinson-coached Trojans knocked off Gary Barnett's Northwestern Wildcats, 41-32, in the 1996 Rose Bowl.

"We're excited to have a team with the tradition that USC brings to the game," Kunzer-Murphy said. "(Head coach) Pete Carroll is fired up about coming here. I think SC will be a great draw for us."

Utah, which concludes its regular season on Saturday with a game at Air Force, will be making its second Las Vegas Bowl appearance in the last three years. The Mike Anderson-led Utes edged Fresno State, 17-16, in the 1999 game.

The Utes also will be making their second appearance in less than two months in Las Vegas. Utah crushed UNLV, 42-14, on Nov. 3 at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"We are happy to be able to get a great University of Utah team," Kunzer-Murphy said. "And there is no better salesman for the game than Ron McBride."

Besides the fact the game should garner good TV ratings with a team from the large Los Angeles market, Kunzer-Murphy said the fact both schools are also within driving distance played a key role in their selections.

"The first thing we wanted was to have the best matchup," she said. "But obviously it's important to be able to get people here. After the events of Sept. 11, more and more people are driving now. Los Angeles and Salt Lake City ... people can get in a car and drive here in four or five hours."

This will be the second time in the last decade that USC and Utah have hooked up in a bowl game. The Trojans, led by quarterback Rob Johnson, All-American wide receiver Johnnie Morton and cornerback Jason Sehorn, held on for a 28-21 victory over the Jamal Anderson-led Utes in the 1993 Freedom Bowl at Anaheim Stadium.