The game was over and Heather Nickel stood with her four-month-old daughter outside Rice-Eccles Stadium waiting for her husband to celebrate her birthday. She'd have a lot longer wait than usual.
It's not that her husband, University of Utah tight end Matt Nickel, is inconsiderate.He just happened to score two of Utah's five touchdowns in the Utes' 38-18 victory over the Utah State Aggies Saturday. He just happened to be the most sought after player during the post- game interviews. He just happened to be the man to give tight ends everywhere hope for recognition.
"It's different," he said of the attention after the game. Without even time to take a shower, he went from interview to interview talking about how he's been hoping the Utes would use a few of the plays that include him.
"Throw it to us," Nickel jokingly begged of his coaches. Will his break-out performance win any fans for tight-end plays? "I hope they do. They've been going to us as a back-up."
But in the days before Saturday's first home game of the 1999 season, Nickel said they practiced the play that brought him a 20-yard run and, in the third quarter, a touchdown.
"The routes I ran were wide open," he said. "It would have been hard not to get a touchdown."
The most impressive was the second of the two touchdowns he scored. The offensive line, quarterback Arceneaux and running backs Mike Anderson and Omar Bacon all moved to the west side of the field, while Nickel rolled to the east.
Arceneaux flipped Nickel a four-yard pass and he jogged into the end zone untouched.
"The offensive line did a great job," Nickel said. "If they don't do (the fake), I don't score."
Nickel only started four or five games last year when the Utes ran plays with two tight ends. He became the full-time starter this season when Andy Kassotis injured his knee two weeks before the season started. He doesn't want to take his teammate's place.
Nickel, from Tacoma, Wash., was recruited to Utah in 1993. He served an LDS mission and then came to school at the end of the 1995 season. He redshirted his first year back.
"Slowly I've played more and more," he said. "(Using the tight ends) really opens up the offense."
Nickel isn't used to this attention or the praise. He just smiled and repeated the names of his plays and gave credit to his team. Over and over and over. Then he said he'd add the two touchdowns to his wife's card and offer them to her for her birthday -- if he ever got out of the stadium, that is.
Nickel's performance was the standout on the Ute side, but USU's Demario Brown rushed for 128 yards. His runs didn't give his team the win, but it did give him enough yardage to over take the number five spot in Big West career rushing yards. He only needed 104 yards to replace Bruce Gibson, University of the Pacific, 1974-77. He also scored two touchdowns, one in the first quarter off a 10-yard run and one in the third quarter off a four yard run.
After the game Brown said he was disappointed in the final score, but not his team.
"It was a lot closer than (the score reflects)," Brown said. "These guys (his teammates) showed a lot of heart." He said he hoped to use the game to build on.
"I came in here just wanting to win," he said. "It didn't matter who got the ball. We have a lot of weapons." He hoped his team would have four quarters like the first when they led the Utes 10 to 7.
"If we can capitalize on the things we need to do, there is no team we can't beat," he said. "We did alright, but we beat ourselves." He said the 1999 Aggies are a tight-knit team that is on the verge of big things. They got anhilated by Georgia in their season opener and then won last week against Stephen F. Austin. They had two tough games in a row, facing in-state rivals Utah and then BYU after a bye next week.
The competative schedule is just what this year's Aggies want, Brown said.
"It's a dream schedule," he said. "It gives us the opportunity to go out there and prove a lot of people wrong."
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