They bought tickets to both the Fiesta Bowl and Sugar Bowl, just in case the BCS sent the Utes there instead, and they've been planning their family excursion since about Utah's seventh win. Jess and Glenna Lloyd followed the Utes to the Liberty Bowl last year and the basketball team to the San Antonio Final Four — but this prestigious bowl drew the whole family.

"We have been Utah fans forever," said Glenna Lloyd.

"Thirty years," chipped in daughter Connee Lloyd of Georgia.

The rally, they said, was "great. Especially the stuff the coaches were saying and that the guys stuck around to sign autographs," said Connee Lloyd, who, like her sister, Nancy Wallace, got her education, including a masters degree, at Utah. "It's super they did the pep rally because it's good to see all the people get together before the game."

Wallace and husband Bill and their young sons Billy and Andrew traveled from Colorado.

"It's unbelievable," Glenna Lloyd said of the pep rally attendance.

"As we were driving in today, we were playing cat and mouse with about a dozen Utah cars," she added. They'd stayed the night in Mesquite, Nev., and "there must have been at least two dozen Utah people in the dining room last night," said Jess Lloyd.

During the rally, Scalley introduced quarterback Alex Smith as the team's poster boy.

"When ladies come up to Alex, they always say, 'You're so beautiful. Your eyelashes are so long,' " Scalley joked about the Heisman Trophy finalist.

Smith got over the ribbing.

"We came a long way — 11 wins," he said, adding the Utes plan to prove they belong with any team in the country, even though "this is the biggest environment we've ever played in."

"This team's not done yet," Smith shouted to big cheers.

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E-mail: lham@desnews.com