Beavers eager for trip to Las Vegas

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Dec. 8, 2003 | 9:44 a.m.

LOS ANGELES --- Steven Jackson walked off the field at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday afternoon as hundreds of little sugar cubes came flying from the stands.

USC fans were celebrating what they thought would be a certain Sugar Bowl invitation and a place in the BCS national championship game on Jan. 4. Turns out they should have been tossing rose petals instead after the Trojans' impressive 52-28 victory against Jackson's Oregon State squad.

But Jackson, an Eldorado High graduate who led the Pac-10 in rushing for the second consecutive year and churned out 62 yards and a touchdown against a stingy Trojans run defense, had his mind focused on a different bowl game as he started the long walk up the Coliseum tunnel.

"That's what you play for, to get into a bowl game," Jackson said about the Las Vegas Bowl that will feature the Beavers and New Mexico on Dec. 24. "Unfortunately we didn't win the conference title, but we made it into a bowl game, which is a great accomplishment for this program."

Jackson is one of eight Las Vegas prep graduates who dot the Oregon State roster. And despite tough back-to-back season ending losses to the Trojans and in-state rival Oregon, he's happy to be spending the holidays playing in Sam Boyd Stadium.

You could say he's an eager Beaver.

"It's going to be fun," Jackson said. "I've already had a ton of people hit me up for tickets."

Senior middle linebacker Richard Seigler, a Chaparral High product who used to ride his bike to Sam Boyd Stadium, is looking forward to playing his final college game in his hometown.

"We've had kind of a rough three weeks where we lost two big games," Seigler, who has been invited to play in the East-West Shrine Game, said. "Hopefully, when we get out to the Vegas Bowl we can really get that thing going. Hopefully, a lot of people who live in Vegas will come out and represent the colors of Oregon State."

Both Jackson and Seigler played Pop Warner football games at Sam Boyd Stadium while growing up.

"And we played Gorman there when I was in high school," Seigler said. "This is a great way to finish my college career, playing my last game in Las Vegas like this. I'm really looking forward to it."

Seigler said the Beavers had nothing to be ashamed of for the way they played against USC.

"We showed up," he said. "We felt confident, but things didn't go our way. They beat us. They played excellent. They made a lot of plays when they had to which is the sign of a good team. But we gave it our all."

Jackson won't have to wait until Christmas Eve to return to his hometown. He is scheduled at attend a press conference on Thursday along with New Mexico running back DonTrell Moore and head coaches Mike Riley and Rocky Long to help promote the Las Vegas Bowl.