Dec. 20, 1999

LAS VEGAS -- Cletus Tommy Truhe, the University of Utah's senior place-kicker, was a little nervous as he lined up for a 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter of Saturday night's Las Vegas Bowl football game.

So was his coach, Ron McBride. And hey, who could blame them?

After all, two of Truhe's earlier field goal attempts had already been blocked from virtually the same distance.

But, with little more than five minutes remaining to play and his team trailing Fresno State by a 16-14 score, Truhe drilled the go-ahead field goal to help give the Utes a 17-16 victory over the Bulldogs.

His name is pronounced "True-hee," and true he was on the decisive kick that gave Utah its first postseason bowl triumph since 1994.

"The dream came true, finally," Truhe said. "It took five years, but it finally came true."

Truhe had two earlier 34-yard field goal attempts blocked by the Bulldogs' Terence Brown, one of which was returned 75 yards for Fresno State's first touchdown in the first quarter.

Late in the second quarter, Brown and the Bulldogs' special teams -- coached by McBride's son-in-law, John Baxter -- struck again, knocking down another 34-yarder by Truhe to prevent the Utes from taking a 10-7 halftime lead.

"Give my son-in-law credit for that," McBride said. ""He knows too much about me."

Outside the Utes' postgame locker room, McBride embraced his son-in-law and then asked him what was the big idea with the Bulldogs blocking those two kicks.

"That's my job," Baxter said.

Thanks to a workhorse performance by Utah senior running back Mike Anderson, who pounded away at Fresno State's defense for a school-record 254 yards and two touchdowns, and a strong defensive effort which held the Bulldogs' vaunted quarterback Billy Volek in check, the Utes trailed by just two points, 16-14, midway through the fourth period.

But this hadn't been a good night for place-kickers in general. In addition to those two Truhe attempts that the Bulldogs blocked, the Utes had also swatted down an FSU field goal attempt and an extra-point try themselves.

"We blocked two of theirs, too, so I guess that makes us even," McBride said.

And when Utah (9-3) drove inside the Bulldogs' 15-yard line before being stalled by a penalty, Truhe got a chance at some sweet redemption. He definitely made the most of that chance.

"Every kick's the same for me," Truhe said. ""They're all extra points.

"It felt good, I'll tell ya, but all of 'em felt good tonight when I kicked 'em, every single one. They were just getting a lot of push up the middle."

But not on that last one.

"Yeah, I was real nervous about it," McBride admitted. ""But on that last one, the guys blocked better and Tommy kicked it better. It was perfect, right down the middle."

And it provided a perfect ending to the Utes' solid season.