According to the final statisitics, Utah should have defeated Wisconsin in Friday night's Copper Bowl game.
The Utes had 10 more first downs (26 to 16), 65 more total yards (430 to 365), more time of possession (34 minutes to 26) and a better third-down conversion ratio (11 of 17 compared to 5 of 9). Yet the Utes still lost by 28 points.Of course the key statisitic was Utah's four turnovers - all on interceptions - compared to just one fumble for Wisconsin.
And it wasn't a case of Utah piling up the yards in the second half of a blowout loss. Even at
halftime, the Utes had more yards (216 to 214) and more first downs (13 to 10) and a big edge in time of possession.
Ironically, the Utes gained only 75 yards against Arizona in the 1994 Freedom Bowl, yet still managed to win the game.
CLASSY COACH: Give Ute coach Ron McBride some kudos for his classy performance after the game. Despite getting beat soundly, McBride got up on a stand afterward and praised Wisconsin as well as its fans, which earned a well-deserved ovation from the large Wisconsin contingent in the west stands.
McBride still has a lot of fondness for Wisconsin since he was an assistant coach there in 1983 and 1984.
INJURIES HURT: All week long the game hype centered around the matchup between Utah's Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala and Wisconsin's Ron Dayne. The final score? 246 to 5 for Dayne.
Fuamatu-Ma'afala limped off the field with 6:05 left in the first quarter with a severely sprained ankle and never returned. And he wasn't the only Ute who was injured in the game.
The Utes No. 1 tackler this year, Robert Love, left in the second quarter with a dislocated thumb while cornerback Calbert Beck, who has been injured most of the season, left in the first half with a injured right calf.
"It affected our offense when (Ma'afala) went out with the injury," said McBride. "Obviously we were hurt by his absence."
Love had been moved from linebacker to strong safety to replace Brandon Dart, who was injured in practice this week and he was replaced at linebacker by Armand Boglin.
SLOW STARTS: In every bowl game in the '90s, Utah has gotten off to slow starts, which have been hard to recover from.
In the 1992 Copper Bowl, the Utes were down 21-0 after the first quarter before bouncing back to trail 28-14 at halftime. They eventually tied the game at 28, fell behind 31-28 and then missed a possible game-tying field goal at the end.
In the 1993 Freedom Bowl, the Utes got down 28-0 early in the second quarter, before bouncing back with three touchdowns in the second half to make it close before falling 28-21.
In the 1994 Freedom Bowl, the Utes only trailed 7-0 early against Arizona and trailed 13-7 in the fourth quarter before recovering for an improbable 16-13 victory.
Friday night's 31-3 deficit proved impossible to come back from.
DECENT CROWD: Copper Bowl officials were hoping to break the attendance record of 49,075 set at the 1992 game between Kansas State and Wyoming, but didn't come close.
Friday's official paid attendance was 42,122, the third best in Copper Bowl history, slightly ahead of last year's crowd of 41,004. The announcer in the press box doubted the official number, saying the figure was "provided by Copper Bowl oficials." While there were a lot of empty seats, many of the seats may have been sold by each of the universities and not occupied.
The smallest Copper Bowl crowd was the 35,751 at the 1991 game between Indiana and Baylor.
COPPER NOTES: Temperature at game time was a pleasant 60 degrees . . . Ute middle linebacker Taulia Lave led all Ute tacklers with eight tackles . . . Utah's McBride will help coach the West squad on the annual East-West Shrine game next week, while Wisconsin's Alvarez will be the coach for the East squad . . . The Utes and Badgers were 1-1 in their all-time series going into the contest . . . The only WAC team to win a Copper Bowl game was BYU in 1994 when it beat Oklahoma 31-6 . . . Several years ago Wisconsin adopted a policy which prohibits its teams from playing opponents with Indian nicknames. But it was all right for the Badgers to play the Utes Friday night because the directive exempts bowl games.