 The Arizona State University Sun Devils and University of
Texas Longhorns have accepted invitations to play in the 30th annual Pacific
Life Holiday Bowl, 2007 President Rudy Castruita announced today. The game will be played Thursday, December
27th at 5 p.m. (PST) at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. The game will be televised nationally on
ESPN.
“Qualcomm Stadium will be the place to be on December 27th,”
Castruita said. “The Sun Devils and
Longhorns are going to bring exciting brands of football, heart-pounding
marching bands, and thousands of loyal and loud fans.”
First year head coach Dennis Erickson led Arizona State to a
10-2 record and a share of the Pac-10 title.
The 10 wins are the most since ASU won 11 in 1996, the last time they
won a Pac-10 championship. They finished
their 2007 Pac-10 Conference schedule with a record of 7-2.
“We are tremendously excited to be playing in the Pacific
Life Holiday Bowl,” said Erickson. “It
will be a top matchup of Pac-10 and Big 12 teams with the University of
Texas. Our players will receive a
positive bowl experience in San Diego.”
Led by junior quarterback Rudy Carpenter, the Sun Devils
finished the regular season with a 7-1 home mark and a 3-1 record on the
road. Carpenter threw for 3,015 yards
and 23 touchdowns during the regular season, the fourth most single season
passing yards in school history. Troy
Nolan led a ferocious ASU defense, intercepting six passes, the most by a Sun
Devil since Nathan LaDuke had six in 1989.
This will be the Sun Devils third trip to the Holiday
Bowl. They were defeated by Arkansas
18-17 in 1985, and by Kansas State 34-27 in 2002.
Under head coach Mack Brown, Texas finished the regular
season with a 9-3 overall record, 5-3 in the Big 12 Conference. The nine wins marked the 10th straight season
that the Longhorns have posted at least nine victories.
“We’re looking forward to getting out to San Diego and
preparing for another great Pacific Life Holiday Bowl,“said Brown. “There’s
great weather, wonderful events and most importantly friendly, helpful and
enthusiastic folks around all of the time.
It will be a great experience for our guys.”
The Longhorns are led on offense by sophomore quarterback
Colt McCoy. In 2007, McCoy connected on
64.9% of his pass attempts (255-of-393) for 3,129 yards and 21 touchdowns. His passer rating of 140.2 ranks him 24th in
the NCAA. He also is the team’s second leading rusher with 408 yards. The Longhorns defense is led by senior
defensive tackles Derek Lokey and Frank Okam.
The defense has allowed 24.6 points, 374.8 yards and 99.3 rushing yards
per game. They have held their opponents
under 300 total yards five times and only allowed six teams to reach 100 yards
rushing.
The Longhorns return to the Holiday Bowl for the fourth
time. They beat Washington 47-43 in
2001, and were defeated by Oregon 35-30 in 2000 and by Washington State 28-20
in 2003.
This will be the first ever meeting of the two universities.
Tickets for the 2007 Pacific Life Holiday Bowl can be
purchased by calling TicketMaster at 619-220-TIXS (8497), or by visiting
www.PacificLifeHolidayBowl.com.
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