"Tell them … tell the team to bear down"

Holiday Bowl coaches “intertwined a long time”

Excerpt from a San Diego News-Tribune article about the UA’s Dec. 30 game against Nebraska:

San Diego bowl game officials had a pretty good notion this week that this year finally was the year they would land their dream team: the USC Trojans.

Then came a double dose of upsets Saturday in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Arizona beat USC in a battle for a berth in the Pacific Life Holiday Bowl, 21-17. The No. 22 Wildcats (8-4) will play No. 20 Nebraska (9-4) in the Dec. 30 game at Qualcomm Stadium.

Meanwhile, Cal (8-4) lost at Washington, 42-10, dropping the unranked Bears into a Dec. 23 game against No. 23 Utah (9-3) in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. If Cal had won, USC (8-4) would played in the Poinsettia Bowl instead.

Nonetheless, Holiday and Poinsettia officials were praising the matchups of their two games yesterday when the pairings became official. The two games landed three teams from the Top 25.

“It’s disappointing from the standpoint we’ve never had USC play in either of our games, but by the same token, if you look at the overall picture, we did pretty well this year with our matchups,” said Bruce Binkowski, executive director of both San Diego bowl games. “Nebraska-Arizona has a nice ring to it,” he said.

It’s a rematch of one of the best Holiday Bowl games ever: Arizona’s 23-20 win against Nebraska in 1998. Back then, both programs were near their historical apexes as national contenders. After rebuilding under new coaches, now they’re back. Nebraska did it under second-year head coach Bo Pelini, a lifelong friend of Arizona head coach Mike Stoops, both from Youngstown, Ohio.

“Our families have been intertwined for a long time,” Pelini said.

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