Utah wrapped up pre-Christmas preparations for the Liberty Bowl on Saturday morning at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The next time the Utes practice it'll be in Memphis, where they'll face Southern Mississippi on New Year's Eve.
"I feel real good about everything," said Utah coach Urban Meyer, whose squad heads to Tennessee on Dec. 26.
"I just hope everybody has a safe Christmas and I hope everybody walks around with a 'Utah, Mountain West Conference champs' T-shirt because they deserve to do that. They deserve to be treated a little different," Meyer said. "I'm a big believer in being rewarded for achievement, and they deserve to be rewarded."
There won't be any extra presents under the tree, however. Utah's reward for winning its first outright league title in 46 years is a date with Conference USA winner Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles (9-3) have won six straight games and pose a formidable challenge for the 25th-ranked Utes.
"We have our work cut out for us," Utah defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham said. "There's no question, they're an excellent football team."
Enough to cause concern for the Utes in all three phases.
OFFENSE: Considering the wintry weather conditions in last month's 3-0 win at BYU, the Utes' offense has been on ice since a lopsided victory over Wyoming on Nov. 15. Be able to execute and get into a rhythm, thus, are a couple of things weighing on offensive coordinator Mike Sanford's mind.
"One of the big things is being able to hit the ground running from a break like this," Sanford said. "It's been a while since we've been able to play the game. So that's going to be an adjustment."
Easing the transition, however, is senior tailback Brandon Warfield's return to full health. He'll give the Utes a ground presence in their battle with a stingy Southern Miss defense and three-time all-American linebacker Rod Davis. It'll come in handy considering quarterback Alex Smith and company face a Golden Eagles squad that finished the 2003 regular season ranked fourth in pass efficiency defense, 10th in pass defense and 15th in scoring defense. They recorded 34 sacks and picked off 13 passes.
"The first thing is we have to be able to block their people up front — both the run game and the pass game. They're very fast, very athletic and, I think, a very physical team," Sanford said. "People have had a hard time, especially late in the season, both running and passing against them."
Though similar to schemes ran by New Mexico, BYU, Air Force and UNLV, Southern Miss presents different challenges.
"There's really nobody specifically to compare it to. It's a little different," Sanford said. "They've got a 3-3-5 scheme, but (like the others) they have a little different variety to it."
DEFENSE: After a sluggish 3-3 start, Southern Miss tweaked its offense. Sophomore Dustin Almond prevailed in a three-man derby for the starting quarterback job and Anthony Harris became the featured runner after being moved from fullback to tailback.
The moves quickly paid off as the Golden Eagles netted 35.3 points per game down the stretch while averaging 228.5 yards passing and 160.3 rushing down the stretch.
"First and foremost — it's like a broken record — we've got to stop the run. They're a very productive running football team. They are committed to the run," said Whittingham, who noted that Southern Miss runs the ball 56 percent of the time. "In this day and age it's unusual unless you're Air Force or one of the option teams."
The Utes will also have their hands full in the secondary. Fifteen players have caught passes for Southern Miss this season.
"Another thing they're very good at it taking shots at you up the field. They've got some athletic receivers. The quarterback throws an excellent deep ball and is very accurate," Whittingham said. "So if we take the running game away and make some plays on the ball upfield then we've got a chance."
Whittingham compares the Southern Miss ground game to that of Colorado State, which favors a power, smash-mouth type of approach. The Golden Eagles' passing attack, he added, is a lot like New Mexico's. Both rely on an accurate quarterback and receivers making plays downfield.
Utah's defense enters the game on a roll. Beside stopping BYU's NCAA-record 361-game scoring streak, the Utes haven't been scored upon in six consecutive quarters. They haven't allowed a touchdown pass in seven straight.
SPECIAL TEAMS: Head coach Urban Meyer, who oversees Utah's special teams units, is aware that the Golden Eagles have a pair of excellent kick returners in John Eubanks and Marvin Young. Edwards retuned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown this season, while Young scored on an 87-yard punt return.
The task of keeping them in check, though, isn't completely daunting. Coverage is something the Utes have been good at this season — allowing averages of just 13.1 yards on kickoffs and 5.8 on punts.
"We just have to do what we do and that's put good players out there and motivate them to get it done," Meyer said.
On the flip side, Utah leads the nation with a kickoff return average of 28.2 yards.
2003 Liberty Bowl
Utah (9-2) vs. Southern Mississippi (9-3)
Wednesday, Dec. 31,
1:30 p.m. MST
TV: ESPN
Radio: KALL 700 AM
E-mail: dirk@desnews.com