"No offense against Weber State," Washington State football coach Mike Price was saying in the waiting hours before Copper Bowl IV, "but I think I'd rather play Utah with this bunch of kids than the bunch I had last time - because we got killed."
Price was Weber's head coach in 1984 when the Wildcats got on the bus in Ogden bound for Rice Stadium in Salt Lake City and a season-opening game against the University of Utah. Weber was Div. I-AA, Utah was Div. I-A and it showed in the final score: Utah 52, Weber State 16."So I've got revenge in my heart," said Price as he looked toward tonight's 1992 Copper Bowl kickoff at 6 p.m. in Arizona Stadium. And while he isn't serious about seeking revenge - as anyone who followed his eight years at Weber knows, Price's nature isn't to be serious or vengeful, either one - he is serious about preferring his new circumstances of playing the Utes on a neutral field with a different army.
"I've got a confident team," he said. "It concerns me a little bit that they might be too confident, but that's been their nature."
A month ago, when it was first announced that the 18th-ranked, 8-3 Cougars would face the unranked, 6-5 Utes in the Copper Bowl, Price wasn't happy when some of his players publicly expressed their disappointment at playing such a weak opponent from such a weak conference. "The statements made were based on no information at all," he said. "Not inaccurate information, just nothing. I knew a lot more about Utah than many of our kids. A lot of them didn't know where Utah was."
"But now they know all about Utah," the coach said. "They've been watching them on film for a month. They know what they're up against. I haven't had to say much. It's all there on film. And nobody needs to remind us that the WAC plays good football. In the last couple of years we've lost to two WAC teams, Wyoming and Fresno State."
Such is the pre-game state of the Washington State Cougars - nervous about not being nervous enough after a regular season that included wins over no less than three bowl-bound teams (Arizona, Fresno State and Washington) and a third place finish in the Pac-10.
Meanwhile, in the other corner there's Utah, as wide-eyed as any team in this year's bowls, looking like Rip Van Winkle while making a bowl return after a 28-year layoff.
The Utes haven't taken exception to Washington State's insults. Not publicly at any rate. Ute head coach Ron McBride is as high on the Cougars as the Cougars are high on the Cougars.
"I think Washington State will be the toughest team we've faced all year," McBride said yesterday.
Better than the Nebraska team that beat Utah 49-22 to start the season?
"Better than Nebraska," said McBride. "I think they have more weapons offensively than Nebraska, and they're probably a little quicker on defense. Washington beat Nebraska and Washington State beat Washington, so you summarize it from there."
"I believe Washington State was the best team in the Pac-10 at the end of the season," said McBride. "And I think the Pac-10 was the best conference in the United States this year."
While it sounds as if McBride might either be setting up the Cougars, or planning on running for public office in Pullman, he defuses those notions when he talks about how happy he and his Utes - after losing four of their last six games - are to still be alive and able to still hear insults.
"It's like we're born again," he said. "They threw the dirt on our face and put the sign up that said `Here lies the Utes.' and then they said, `No you're not dead. You just thought you were.' "
"I'm just happy we have the opportunity to be here and play somebody," the coach gushed on. "I'd like it if we were playing the Green Bay Packers. It doesn't matter to me. The fact that we're big underdogs, so what? We've been underdogs since I've been at Utah."
Add up all of the above and it's not hard to tell the Utes from the Cougars in Tucson. They are two teams that got here from entirely different directions. One thinks it could have done better. One knows it could have done worse.
They'll collide tonight in Arizona Stadium and see if what is supposed to happen actually will happen. Probably it will. This time the Utes aren't facing Mike Price and Weber State. They're facing Mike Price and Washington State - and while the outcome doesn't always go to the indignant team with a superior record, more often than not, it does.