Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
FORT WORTH, Texas, November 27, 2006 - The University of Utah will be competing in its fourth-straight post-season bowl game as the Utes have accepted an invitation to represent the Mountain West Conference in the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl against an opponent from Conference USA.
The Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl, an ESPN Regional Television owned-and-operated event, will be played for the fourth-straight year on December 23. With the Conference USA berth to be determined following this Saturday's action, the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will be aired by ESPN from Amon G. Carter Stadium with a 7 p.m. (CST) kickoff for the Saturday night game.
"We are thrilled to have Utah as the Mountain West representative," said Tom Starr, the Executive Director of the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. "Coach Whittingham and the Utah football team have played a big part in the Fort Worth football scene the past two seasons due to their games against conference rival TCU. And, Utah's Eric Weddle is one of the most versatile athletes in the college football today."
Utah, which will be playing its third game in Fort Worth since 1997, saw TCU end the Utes' 18-game winning streak at Amon G. Carter Stadium when the Horned Frogs posted a 23-20 overtime win September 15, 2005. The Utes avenged that setback earlier this season (October 5) in Salt Lake City by defeating TCU 20-7.
Led by second-year coach Kyle Whittingham, Utah posted a 7-5 mark this season and is currently tied with Wyoming in Mountain West standings with a 5-3 conference record after dropping a 33-31 decision to conference champions BYU last Saturday in Salt Lake City on a touchdown pass on the last play of the game.
The 2006 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will be Utah's second post-season appearance in the state of Texas and 13th overall. The Utes, who defeated New Mexico 26-0 in their first bowl game in El Paso at the Sun Bowl in 1939, have posted an 8-4 record in post-season games with five-straight wins.
After missing a post-season berth in 2002, the Utes have now earned four-straight bowl berths starting with their 17-0 Liberty Bowl win in 2003 over Southern Miss. The 2004 Utah squad captured a Bowl Championship Series spot in the Fiesta Bowl where the Utes completed a 12-0 season by defeating Pittsburgh 35-7 to end the campaign as the fourth-ranked team in the country.
Whittingham, who has been on the Utah staff since 1994 where he has now been a part of eight bowl games in 13 seasons, led Utah to a 38-10 win over Georgia Tech in the 2005 Emerald Bowl in San Francisco, Calif. Whittingham was an all-league performer at BYU where he was named the Western Athletic Conference's top defender in 1981.
After having a three-game winning streak snapped in the regular-season finale, Utah is currently averaging 28.2 points a game with 365.3 total yards per game on offense. The Utes, who held nine of their 12 opponents to under 400 yards in total offense this season, are allowing 20.4 points and 327.8 total yards on defense with a plus-8 turnover margin.
Senior quarterback Brett Ratliff leads the Utah offense by averaging 213.0 total yards per game. A junior college transfer from Chico, Calif., Ratliff has completed 57.4 percent of his passes this season (205 of 357) for 2,198 yards with 22 touchdown passes and only eight interceptions. He has rushed for 229 yards and one score.
Ratliff set Emerald and Utah bowl records last December for completions (30), yards (381) and touchdowns (4) in only his second career start. In the 2005 regular-season finale, Ratliff led the Utes to a 41-34 win over BYU to earn MWC player-of-the-week honors by rushing for 112 yards and a touchdown along with completing 17 passes for 240 yards and four touchdowns.
A defensive back, Weddle leads the Ute defense. The 2005 MWC Defensive player-of-the-year and Emerald Bowl defensive player-of-the-game, Weddle has 17 career interceptions to rank second on Utah's all-time list. With 44 career starts, Weddle has 271 total tackles in his four-year career.
Tickets for the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl are $40 (sideline) and $15 (end zone) and can be purchased by visiting the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Web site, www.armedforcesbowl.com. Discount tickets are available to all branches of U.S. armed services veterans and may be obtained ONLY by calling the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl ticket office at 817/810-0012.
