Las Vegas enchanted with New Mexico

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2002 | 9:22 a.m.

New Mexico head coach Rocky Long said Monday afternoon that when he broke the news to his team that it had been selected to play in the 11th annual Sega Sports Las Vegas Bowl "our players were so excited they could hardly stand still."

Considering it's only the Lobos' second bowl bid in 41 years, it's easy to see why.

And it was that kind of enthusiasm that ultimately was the deciding factor in the Las Vegas Bowl picking the 7-6 Lobos, who finished second in the Mountain West Conference with a 5-2 record, over a higher profile Air Force squad (8-4, 4-3) that seemed like a slam dunk for the bid last week.

However, word continued to seep back to Las Vegas Bowl selection committee members that Air Force coach Fisher DeBerry and even star quarterback Chance Harridge did not want to play on Christmas Day. An hour after the Las Vegas Bowl made its announcement, the Falcons accepted a bid to play in the inaugural San Francisco Bowl on Dec. 31 at Pacific Bell Park against a Big East Conference team, most likely Boston College.

"I can't tell you how ecstatic our football team is," DeBerry said. "When I pulled them all together a few minutes ago in the weight room, I wish you could have heard the thunderous ovation. This is really where they wanted to go."

That message was sent loud and clear to the Las Vegas Bowl. Executive director Tina Kunzer-Murphy made a point during a media conference call annoucing the selection of the Lobos to stress that New Mexico lobbied hard to play in the nationally televised game despite the fact it is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Day.

"New Mexico wants to be here on Christmas Day," Kunzer-Murphy said in listing some of the reasons why the Lobos were a unanimous pick of the 20-person selection committee, 17 of which took part in Monday's conference call.

When asked about rumors of DeBerry's objection to playing in the game, Kunzer-Murphy simply replied: "New Mexico wants to be here and they deserve to be here."

Even though the Lobos finished second in the Mountain West Conference ahead of the Falcons, the Las Vegas Bowl wasn't bound to take New Mexico. The bowl game has second choice of MWC squads. The Liberty Bowl is obligated to take conference champ Colorado State.

"Our kids took a vote after (Saturday's 49-20 win over Wyoming) and they wanted to go to Las Vegas," Long said.

The Lobos finished the season with four victories in their last five games, losing only a 20-12 decision at Colorado State two weeks ago. Meanwhile, Air Force stumbled down the stretch after a 6-0 start, winning just two of its final six games and losing to lowly San Diego State at home in its regular season finale.

"We always talk about getting a hot team, and New Mexico is playing good football and they ended on a great note," Kunzer-Murphy said.

"We feel like we're playing the best football in the conference right now," New Mexico athletic director Rudy Davalos said. "We think we will bring a lot of fans to Las Vegas. Our people love to go there. They've been carrying the Mountain West basketball tournament. You always see a lot of red in the stands there."

New Mexico fans certainly have had plenty of time to save up for the eight-hour drive from Albuquerque. The Lobos last played in a bowl in 1997, losing to old WAC rival Arizona, 20-14, in the Insight.com Bowl in Tucson. Before that, New Mexico had gone 36 years since beating Western Michigan, 28-12, in the 1961 Aviation Bowl.

The Lobos will have to wait until after this weekend to find out who their Pac-10 Conference opponent will be. The Las Vegas Bowl gets the fifth-place team from that conference with Washington, Oregon State and UCLA the top candidates.

It's fair to say that Las Vegas Bowl officials will be rooting for UCLA to upset Washington State on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, especially since a second Pac-10 team, USC, is now guaranteed a berth in one of the four BCS bowl games.

If the Cougars defeat the Bruins, they will earn a berth in the Rose Bowl and USC will play in either the Sugar or Orange Bowl. More importantly for the Las Vegas Bowl, that moves other Pac-10 teams up in the remaining bowl rotation leaving Las Vegas with only the sixth choice instead of the fifth pick of Pac-10 teams. The Holiday, Sun and Insight.com bowls all still would pick ahead of Las Vegas with one less heavyweight team in the pool to choose from.

If UCLA upsets Washington State, USC would go to the Rose Bowl and Washington State would fall out of the BCS. That means the Las Vegas Bowl could find itself in a dream-case scenario: picking between Oregon State and Washington. The Beavers, led by former Eldorado High star Steven Jackson and with the reputation of being an excellent traveling team, would likely get that nod."