THE BOWLS / DAILY REPORT : FREEDOM : Utah Hopes for Better Start This Year

Utah quarterback Mike McCoy remembers vividly how the Utes fell behind by halftime, 28-0, and lost in last year’s Freedom Bowl to USC, 28-21. He’s determined to keep the Utes closer early in the game Tuesday against Arizona while preventing the Utes from losing in their third consecutive bowl appearance.

“In the first bowl game, everybody was so excited,” McCoy said of a 31-28 loss to Washington State in the 1992 Copper Bowl, Utah’s first bowl appearance since 1964. “We really got caught up in all that excitement. Then last year, once we got started playing (in the second half), we just ran out of time.

“Now, it’s time to win one of these things.”

McCoy, who completed 23 of 40 passes for 286 yards and one touchdown in last year’s Freedom Bowl, began his career at Long Beach State but transferred when the 49ers dropped the program after the 1991 season.

McCoy, a senior, passed for at least 210 yards in all but one of Utah’s 11 games this season. His season low of 150 yards, with two touchdowns, came in a 66-0 rout of Division I-AA Idaho State.

He finished the regular season by completing 64.8% of his passes for 3,035 yards and 28 touchdowns, with 11 interceptions.

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Utah Coach Ron McBride had this to say about last year’s experience playing against USC:

“The biggest thing we learned was that we were good enough to play with those guys. If we just hadn’t been in awe of those guys we might have won.”

He said the Utes have more confidence this time.

“Arizona is a really good football team, much better than USC was a year ago,” McBride said. “(But) we know we’re better than last year.”

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Pity Utah defensive back Jeff Kirkman. The Utes are playing in their third consecutive bowl game and for the third year in a row the junior will be sidelined because of an injury.

In 1992, he suffered a knee injury against BYU in the regular-season finale and sat out the Copper Bowl.

Last year, shoulder surgery sidelined him for the season.

He will sit out Tuesday’s game because of a broken ankle, suffered in the Utes’ final practice in Salt Lake City last Saturday.