One day after being blown out by bitter rival USC, UCLA received
some sobering news on Sunday as it accepted an invitation to play
in the Vitalis Sun Bowl on Dec. 30.
The No. 17 Bruins (9-2) will face Northwestern (7-4), who was
the Big Ten’s fifth-place team this season.
The Bruins received news of their fate after No. 6 Oregon was
left out of the BCS bowls, and UCLA was thus chosen to represent
the Pac-10 in the Sun Bowl as the conference’s third-place
team.
With the selection, coach Karl Dorrell becomes the first-ever
Bruin coach to lead his team to a bowl game in each of his first
three years.
“We’re very excited and honored about going,”
coach Karl Dorrell said. “It’s a good step for our
program considering where we were in years previous.”
The representatives from the Sun Bowl echoed the same sentiment
as the ranked Bruins present a high-powered match-up against
Northwestern, which defeated Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan State
this season.
“We are extremely excited to have a team the caliber of
UCLA,” Sun Bowl president Wayne Thornton said. “If you
look at what the Bruins have accomplished in three years, it is a
remarkable story.”
The bowl game gives the Bruins a chance to capture that elusive
10th victory, which the Bruins have not accomplished since
1998.
The Bruins will also have a month to prepare for the Wildcats
after finishing with a conference record of 6-2, UCLA’s best
conference record in seven years.
“The important thing is that we are continuing our season
for another month, and building our program,” Dorrell said.
“The bowl game is a reward for our players for having a 9-2
season.”
In El Paso, the Bruins will be facing a high-powered
Northwestern offense that ranks eighth in the nation in total
offense, and tenth in passing offense.
The Wildcats are led by quarterback Brett Basanez, who was named
the Big Ten offensive player of the year, and to the Big Ten
first-team.
Basanez and Bruin quarterback Drew Olson were also both
nominated earlier this season as semi-finalists for the Johnny
Unitas award, given annually to the nation’s best
quarterback.
“Anytime you have two senior quarterbacks like them, it
makes for a good match-up,” Dorrell said. “It should be
an exciting game to watch.”
The Bruins will be playing the Sun Bowl for the third time.
Their two previous appearances were in 1991 against Illinois and in
2000 against Wisconsin, against whom the Bruins lost, with a final
score of 21-20.
The Sun Bowl will be the highest-caliber bowl the Bruins have
played in since that 2000 game, as the Bruins have only played in
the Las Vegas Bowl and Silicon Valley Classic in the last five
years.
“It will be nice for our team to actually get on a plane,
and go to a different state for a bowl game,” Dorrell said.
“It will be an experience for our players.”