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Tar Heels, Aztecs glad to be in Las Vegas BowlBy TIM DAHtBERGAP Sports WriterLAS VEGAS — If big-game experience means anything, San Diego State shouldn't even show up today to play,-North Carolina in the Las Vegas Bowl, i It will be the seventh straight bowl game for the Tar Heels, while all 95 Aztecs who made the trip to this gambling city are making their postseason debuts.“There's not one guy on our team that has been to a bowl game,” San Diego State coach Ted Tollner said.It didn't look like any Aztecs would be in a bowl game this year either after San Diego State opened the season 0-3, losing to three nationally ranked teams.The Aztecs came back to win seven of the.ir next eight, though, qualifying for the season’s first major college bowl game. Even they find it a bit hard to believe the season isn’t over.“This is my first bowl game and I'm still kind of shocked,” free safety Rico Curtis said. “This is so big to me. I hope I don’t disappoint anybody.San Diego State will face another team just happy to be in a bowl, and a team that also started the season by losing its first three games.It took a touchdown pass in overtime of North Carolina’s last game of the season for the Tar Heels to get to 6-5 and be considered for a bowl.“We’re just happy to be here,” said North. Carolina wide receiver Na Brown, whose overtime touchdown catch against North Carolina State was the clincher.The Las Vegas Bowl does not have the stature of the Gator Bowl, where North Carolina beat Virginia Tech 42-3 to cap an 11-1 season last year and finished as the nation’s sixth-ranked team. Only about 20,000 fans are expected to see the two unranked teams.But after a season of turmoil and ' injuries, North Carolina couldn’t be choosy if it wanted to make a seventh straight bowl game.“We appreciate the opportunity to be wanted,” said Carl Torbush,College Footballwhose first game as the Tar Heels’ coach was in the Gator Bowl.San Diego State (7-4), making its first bowl appearance since 1991, also seemed destined to watch the postseason games from home.The Aztecs rebounded by winning seven of their last eight, thanks to a good defense and steady improvement by quarterback Brian Russell, who took over in the second game of the season after Spencer Brinton was hurt and has gotten better with each game.Russell was particularly effective at the end of the season, showing flashes of beginning to master the wide-open passing game that has long been associated with San Diego State.“It was just our whole offense coming together,” Russell said. “I was making bad throws and reads in the beginning. Everything just came together and we progressed at the end.”San Diego State ended the year running for more yards than it got in the air, which came as a surprise at first glance to North Carolina.“We don’t get a chance to see their games but, being on the West Coast, we figured they’re a team that can score,” Brown said.North Carolina features a pair of gifted receivers in Brown and freshman Kory Bailey.San Diego State also will have to find a way to stop receiver L.C. Stevens, who made 13 catches in his last three games after having only 12 in the first eight.North Carolina quarterback Oscar Davenport is coming off his best game of the year, a three-touchdown performance against North Carolina State.“They’re a big-play team,” Tollner said. “Their ability to get the ball downfield with veterans gets your attention.”
Newspaper Details
Indiana Gazette
Indiana, Pennsylvania, US
Sat, Dec 19, 1998
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
Jordan T.
USA 13 Nov 2023
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