Cancel the eulogy. Forget the autopsy. The 1992 University of Utah football team isn't dead yet. To the surprise of everyone, the Utes, losers in four of their last six games, were granted a berth in the Copper Bowl Sunday afternoon. They'll meet nationally ranked Washington State - coached by former Weber State coach Mike Price - on Dec. 29 in Tucson.
To a man, the Utes were shocked by the announcement."You're kidding!" said senior linebacker Preston Christensen when reached at his home. "Who are we playing? Is that right? You're kidding me? I can't believe it. This is great. What can I tell you? I thought I was all finished (with football). After the BYU game, we just counted ourselves out since we lost. We had no idea. We were just going to start the off-season."
"It's amazing," said senior quarterback Frank Dolce. "I've gone from completely being in the dumps to euphoria. I thought our only chance was to win (against BYU). After the game coach said his good-byes to the seniors and said we'd have a team meeting Monday."
Coach Ron McBride and his wife Vicky were deluged with phone calls, including one from Price. "He said he was really excited to play us, and that it was going to be a lot of fun," said Vicky. "I told him we haven't been to a bowl since the beginning of time, and he said we haven't exactly been bowl-abundant."
No one was more moved by Sunday's announcement than McBride, who spent a career as an assistant trying to land a head coaching job at Utah. On the third try he finally won the job, and in three years he has taken the Utes to their first back-to-back winning seasons in a decade and to their first bowl game since 1964.
"It's always been a dream of Ron's to take the Utes to a bowl," said Vicky.
"This is huge for Utah," said McBride. "It's a chance to get exposure, to take your people to the bowl and to have your kids experience it."
McBride was as surprised as anyone by the bowl berth. As the coach noted, "Shoot, we've closed the door on this season about six times, and we keep opening it again."
The Utes have been written off on several occasions during this roller-coaster season. After opening with a sobering 27-point loss to Nebraska, they won four straight. But then Dolce went down with a knee injury, and the Utes lost to the two worst teams in the Western Athletic Conference - New Mexico and UTEP. The Utes' bowl hopes seemed doomed, but then they defeated Air Force on the road. A week later they lost by 26 to Fresno State, and their bowl plans again seemed crushed. But then they beat Wyoming by 31. The word was they had to beat BYU on Saturday to secure a bowl berth, but they lost 31-22 - a game that appeared close only because the Utes scored 22 unanswered points in the final 10 minutes of play. They finished the regular season with a 6-5 record.
"I never thought we had a chance," said McBride. "Too many things had to happen. Fresno had to beat San Diego. Minnesota had to beat Iowa. Hawaii had to beat Wyoming. And the Copper Bowl people had to think we were a good enough team to bring. The guy (Copper Bowl representative) liked the fourth quarter."
The Utes were fortunate in other ways. McBride befriended Copper Bowl officials as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona a year before he came to Utah. The Wildcats played in the first Copper Bowl in 1989. What's more, Doug Penner, a Copper Bowl committee member, served as Utah's recruiting coordinator under McBride the last two years.
"One of the big things I wanted to do when I came here was I wanted to come back and play in the Copper Bowl with my team," says McBride. "I thought it was a great bowl."
Washington State, which defeated Washington handily on Saturday, will be another stiff test for Utah. At least the Utes will have more than a month to prepare and heal for the game. Injuries took a heavy toll late in the season.
"We have time to get almost everybody back healthy," says McBride.
That means guard Roy Ma'afala and linebacker Pita Tonga can heal the ankle sprains that sidelined them on and off throughout the season; that nickelback Reggie Alston can heal the separated shoulder that kept him out of the final two games; that offensive lineman Russ Dailey can return from the sprained knee that held him out of three games.
For the Utes it's yet one more chance to make their mark this season. Shortly before dying late last week, the grandmother of tight end Scott Murry asked that he beat the Cougars. The Utes came up short against the BYU Cougars, but now they get a shot at another set of Cougars from Washington State.