Playing in a bowl game for the first time since the 1961 Gotham Bowl, Utah State University's mission is clear tonight in its matchup against Ball State in Las Vegas Bowl II: Sell early and sell often.
As USU head coach Charlie Weatherbie put it, "We're going to sell Utah State. We're going to sell a great school and a great football team. We're going to sell the whole Utah State story. That's the idea behind being here."Weatherbie does not shrink from the assignment. This is not a man who defers the spotlight. He would no doubt do very well in retail. Give him a Chrysler dealership in Tokyo and he'd straighten his tie, roll up his sleeves and clear his throat. No one who has watched his performance in the days leading up to Utah-State's-first-bowl-in-32-years has been surprised by his performance. Awed maybe, but not surprised. He is the consummate company salesman. The best front man a head coach ever had.
"We play the way we're capable of playing and the country will take notice," said Weatherbie on Thursday as he left the dais of the Las Vegas Bowl's kickoff luncheon at the Riviera Hotel. The coach had just painted a very positive picture of a football team that "found a way to overcome a 1 and 5 start," and now he was on his way to an interview with the American Sports Radio Network.
"Being here gives us an audience we don't usually have," said Weatherbie, who will have the chance to hold court to a national cable (ESPN) audience during tonight's game.
In general, the benefits should be many and varied for the Aggies, with enhanced recruiting and increased booster money leading the list. And on the individual side of the ledger, the game will provide an uncommon national showcase for the Aggie players.
Figuring to perhaps benefit most of all from the exposure is senior inside linebacker Jermaine Younger, Utah State's best-kept secret for the past five seasons. Younger is big (six-feet, 245 pounds), strong (bench press of 400 pounds or any small import), fast (4.5 in the 40 and that's when he isn't chasing anybody), quick (changing directions is his specialty), prolific (229 tackles the last two seasons to lead the Aggies both years), cunning (his five interceptions the past two seasons are as many as most Aggie defensive backs), and linebacker ornery (brushes with both the law and his probation officer last summer). And yet, few people outside of opposing offensive players know who he is and the rampage he walks.
He's been All-Big West Conference the past two years and was the league's defensive Player of the Year last season, when his statistics were slightly better than this season. But All-Big West is like being All-Liechtenstein and Younger knows it. He also knows it hasn't helped his individual cause to wait until his senior year to finally play on a team with a winning record that is FINALLY GOING TO A BOWL.
"This is a very big opportunity for me," Younger said Thursday in the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl as USU ran through its final walk-through practice session. "I guess it could either make me or break me. If I do good, a lot of people will look up and take notice. If I do bad, they'll say I'm a bust."
Other than that, just another night on ESPN.
Younger's aspirations to employment in professional football are high. "It's something I've always dreamed about," he says. "I'd like to get the opportunity." He's heard the scout talk that his height, an even six feet, is a liability. He's also heard that his strength, speed and quickness are assets. In one fell swoop tonight, he can go a long way in demonstrating how much his assets outweigh his liability.
If all goes well, he can duplicate what Merlin Olsen did after the Gotham Bowl: Graduate to a 15-season, 14-Pro Bowl NFL career.
"But the thing is," said Younger, "I can't approach this game any different. I just have to play it like every other game. You go changing things, you might turn into a completely different player."
So he will approach Las Vegas Bowl II the same as if it were the third week of the season against, say, San Jose. "What I do," he explained, "Is I get real quiet the day of the game, and I try to visualize making big plays."
One thing Younger said he WON'T do is think about the millions who will be watching him tonight - including pro scouts, owners and coaches - from the comforts of their TV rooms. "Won't even enter my mind," he said. "You can't think about that stuff."
All you can do is go out and play, and sell, you heart out. As Charlie Weatherbie would say, if you're not here to do a little showing off, they why in the world are you here?