That huge turnout from Utah fans may not be as big as expected.
Though tickets to the New Year’s Day event are hot items, three days before kickoff they’re easier to obtain than get rid of in some cases — despite University of Utah faithful coming out in full force, gobbling up 27,000 of the 73,000 Sun Devil Stadium seats and making some ticket sales staff put in 142 hours in eight days to keep up.
Factors that caused the rush to return: Some fans simply got too many — or “freaked out” and bought a bundle without thinking who’d actually go, said Erica Monson of the U. of U. ticket office. A few hoped to cash in, then realized that idea was a “fantasy” because supply exceeded demand, admitted one fan who did that.
Others didn’t arrange their travel plans very wisely. Some realized the whole ordeal was out of their budget. And several have resorted to saying they have a note from their doctor in an effort to ditch their ducats, including a man who claimed he couldn’t go because his wife was suffering pregnancy complications.
“We’ve gotten a lot of medical excuses,” Monson said.
The most unfortunate one?
“A brain tumor,” she said. “I got that (excuse) yesterday.”
The woman, for the record, did receive a refund — “I wasn’t going to call them on that (and say), ‘You’re lying,’ ” Monson said — but that was the rare exception. The U. stopped doing returns/exchanges last week. It’ll stop selling today at noon.
…
Ticket brokers from Macon, Ga., to North Chelmsford, Mass., might end up with the same memento (minus the trip memories). A Google search for Utah Fiesta Bowl tickets revealed 175,000 online sites and as of Wednesday, 37 sets of tickets were up for grabs on eBay but only three had actually received bids. The cheapest was one buck (the catch: $20 shipping and handling) — a steal compared to the $2,000 asking price in one newspaper ad. Prospective buyers needn’t hurry for another auction, which doesn’t end until 5:18 p.m. Wednesday — four days after kickoff.
Hey, you can always bid afterwards for the souvenir aspect.
Then there is the fact that road conditions might be a problem for a lot of fans heading to Arizona.
Storms in southern Utah and northern Arizona are expected to subside a bit Thursday before picking up again Friday when there is a 60 percent chance of rain and snow on southbound travel routes. Today would be the best day to travel, said Gene Vancor of the National Weather Service office in Salt Lake City.
Have fun in Tempe, Pat.
Utah is definitely making money from the Fiesta Bowl.
One of the media’s major storylines for this game, is definitely on the coaches, no matter how they try to say it’s about the players. They knew of each other before, but wouldn’t talk about offense until this game:
Meyer and Harris clearly agree on that point, but the two haven’t always worked in harmony. It was only a few years ago that Harris refused to assist Meyer after the latter was named quarterbacks coach at Notre Dame.
…
“I had great respect for Walt, and I had heard him speak at a couple of clinics over the years,” Meyer said. “His reputation around the coaching fraternity is that he’s the guy as far as technically coaching quarterbacks. I did what people typically do, and I went to the best. I called him and I said, ‘Do you mind if I spend a couple days with you.’ ”Meyer didn’t get the answer he’d wanted.
“He said we play each other, so it’s probably in my best interests if we don’t do that,” Meyer said of Harris, who’s been instrumental in developing quarterbacks such as Tony Eason, Bobby Hoying, Rod Rutherford, Joe Germaine, Boomer Esiason and current Panthers starter Tyler Palko. “So, he declined it.”
Harris was asked to explain himself yesterday.
“It wasn’t quite like I said, ‘Go get lost,’ ” Harris said. “I just said that it would be very hard when we’re playing you — and he had better players than we did. I felt that was enough of an advantage for him. But I respect what he’s accomplished and he’s done it a lot faster than me as a head coach.”
Although Meyer has yet to pick Harris’ brain — five years after the fact — he still hopes to get a 10-minute sit down with the Stanford-bound coach to learn more about grooming quarterbacks. This time, Harris will oblige.
“I’ll give him 10,” Harris said. “I’ve always learned to give 10 and get 90. That’s the old Coach (Johnny) Majors-ism. When you talk to other coaches, give 10 percent and get 90 percent. I’d love to talk to him about what they’re doing.”
There are some really tasteless comments I could make here regarding Major-isms that I’m going to skip. A pretty good piece on Harris developing QBs. It practically came out of nowhere since he was a coach for defenses until hired to the Illinois staff in 1980 as the QB coach.
Then there is the fact that Utah’s Defensive Coordinator, Kyle Whittingham, is taking over the program from Meyer after he leaves for Florida. He turned down the job at his alma mater (BYU) to stay. Interesting to learn that he was actually the only holdover from the previous coaching regime, and was up for the head job before Meyer was hired (is Paul Rhoads paying attention?).
A surprisingly preachy column from Joe Starkey about student athletes and education. Part defending both programs which have been attacked for being deficient in graduating football players according the latest NCAA figures from 97-98. The problems with those numbers are well documented, so look at some more recent unofficial numbers
Under departing coach Urban Meyer, the Utes said they graduated 11 of 18 seniors last season (though their media guide says 14 of 15), and have 14 of their 18 seniors this season on track to graduate by the spring.
Pittsburgh? Same thing. Eighteen of 19 seniors graduated last season under coach Walt Harris – the lone holdout is playing in the NFL – and each of the current crop is on pace to earn a degree.
“I value our education so much, and graduating our football players,” Harris said. “I don’t think you have a football program if you’re not graduating players.”
Today’s repeated profile story focuses on Senior Utah guard Chris Kemoeatu, who has some anger issues.
With one swift and vicious kick, Utah guard Chris Kemoeatu damaged his college football career and nearly ruined someone else’s.
The incident occurred Oct. 18, 2003, at UNLV’s Sam Boyd Stadium, after UNLV nose guard Howie Fuimaono lost his helmet at the end of a play.
Before Fuimaono could get up, Kemoeatu kicked him flush in the face.
Fuimaono escaped with blurred vision and a brief visit to the hospital, only because Kemoeatu’s cleats landed just inside his left eye socket instead of on the eye itself or the bones surrounding it.
Kemoeatu was suspended for all of one game for that. He was also ordered to attend anger management classes that he said did nothing for him. To be fair, he hasn’t had an incident since. And lets face it, Kemoeatu is an All-American player and potential first round pick in the NFL draft. You hate to have him not playing for your team. Of course this comment in response to going to the NFL just has to make the Andy Katzenmoyer Academic Achievement list:
“I hope so,” Kemoeatu said. “Football is all I know.”
So much for progress in the academics at Utah.
