|
|
|
Utah Accepts Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Berth The 2006 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will be Utah's second post-season appearance in the state of Texas and 13th overall.
Nov. 27, 2006 FORT WORTH, Texas - The University of Utah will be competing in its fourth-straight post-season bowl game as the Utes have accepted an invitation to represent the Mountain West Conference in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl where they will face Tulsa from Conference USA. The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, an ESPN Regional Television owned-and-operated event, will be played for the fourth-straight year on December 23 and will be aired by ESPN from Amon G. Carter Stadium with a 7 p.m. (CST) kickoff for the Saturday night game. "We are excited about the Tulsa-Utah match up," said Tom Starr, the Executive Director of the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, "since both teams won bowl games last season against quality competition. Tulsa captured the Conference USA championship last season in their first year in the league before winning the Liberty Bowl. Utah won the 2005 Emerald Bowl after the school's best-ever football season in 2004 when they captured Mountain West championship and won a BCS bowl game." The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl meeting will be the fourth between the two schools. Tulsa holds a 2-1 edge in the series as the Hurricane scored both wins at home in Northeast Oklahoma in 1943 (55-0) and 1997 (21-13). The Utes' lone victory was a 45-19 in 1996 at Salt Lake City. Utah is 1-1 in Fort Worth as the Utes won in 1997 over TCU before the Horned Frogs' snapped Utah's 18-game winning streak with a 23-20 overtime win in September 2005. Tulsa will be playing at Amon G. Carter Stadium for the eighth-time as the Hurricane posted a pair of wins (1980 and 1997) in seven meetings with TCU. "We are thrilled to have Utah as the Mountain West representative," said Starr. "Coach Whittingham and the Utah football team have played a big part in the Fort Worth football scene the past two seasons due to their games against conference rival TCU. And, Utah's Eric Weddle is one of the most versatile athletes in the college football today."
Utah, which will be playing its third game in Fort Worth since 1997, saw TCU end the Utes' 18-game winning streak at Amon G. Carter Stadium when the Horned Frogs posted a 23-20 overtime win September 15, 2005. The Utes avenged that setback earlier this season (October 5) in Salt Lake City by defeating TCU 20-7.
Led by second-year coach Kyle Whittingham, Utah posted a 7-5 mark this season and is currently tied with Wyoming in Mountain West standings with a 5-3 conference record after dropping a 33-31 decision to conference champions BYU last Saturday in Salt Lake City on a touchdown pass on the last play of the game.
The 2006 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will be Utah's second post-season appearance in the state of Texas and 13th overall. The Utes, who defeated New Mexico 26-0 in their first bowl game in El Paso at the Sun Bowl in 1939, have posted an 8-4 record in post-season games with five-straight wins.
After missing a post-season berth in 2002, the Utes have now earned four-straight bowl berths starting with their 17-0 Liberty Bowl win in 2003 over Southern Miss. The 2004 Utah squad captured a Bowl Championship Series spot in the Fiesta Bowl where the Utes completed a 12-0 season by defeating Pittsburgh 35-7 to end the campaign as the fourth-ranked team in the country.
Whittingham, who has been on the Utah staff since 1994 where he has now been a part of eight bowl games in 13 seasons, led Utah to a 38-10 win over Georgia Tech in the 2005 Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, Calif. Whittingham was an all-league performer at BYU where he was named the Western Athletic Conference's top defender in 1981.
After having a three-game winning streak snapped in the regular-season finale, Utah is currently averaging 28.2 points a game with 365.3 total yards per game on offense. The Utes, who held nine of their 12 opponents to under 400 yards in total offense this season, are allowing 20.4 points and 327.8 total yards on defense with a plus-8 turnover margin.
Senior quarterback Brett Ratliff leads the Utah offense by averaging 213.0 total yards per game. A junior college transfer from Chico, Calif., Ratliff has completed 57.4 percent of his passes this season (205 of 357) for 2,198 yards with 22 touchdown passes and only eight interceptions. He has rushed for 229 yards and one score.
Ratliff set Emerald and Utah bowl records last December for completions (30), yards (381) and touchdowns (4) in only his second career start. In the 2005 regular-season finale, Ratliff led the Utes to a 41-34 win over BYU to earn MWC player-of-the-week honors by rushing for 112 yards and a touchdown along with completing 17 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns.
A defensive back, Weddle leads the Ute defense. The 2005 MWC Defensive player-of-the-year and Emerald Bowl defensive player-of-the-game, Weddle has 17 career interceptions to rank second on Utah's all-time list. With 44 career starts, Weddle has 271 total tackles in his four-year career.
Tickets for the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl are $40 (sideline) and $15 (end zone) and can be purchased by visiting the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Web site, www.armedforcesbowl.com. Discount tickets are available to all branches of U.S. armed services veterans and may be obtained ONLY by calling the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl ticket office at 817/810-0012.
|
|
