Utes prepare to bowl but wait for opponent

Utah begins its Emerald Bowl preparations with practices Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

That much is known. What isn't, however, is who the Utes will face Dec. 29 at SBC Park in San Francisco.

"We're not going to know until this weekend," said Gary Cavalli, executive director of the Emerald Bowl.

Top-tier bowls affiliated with the Atlantic Coast Conference, which will field an opponent for Utah, have opted to wait until after Saturday's league championship game between Virginia Tech and Florida State before releasing any other teams from consideration.

The winner is headed to the Bowl Championship Series, while the loser will join the ACC's six other bowl-eligible teams — Miami, Boston College, Clemson, Georgia Tech, North Carolina State and Virginia — in filling slots to the Gator, Peach, Champs Sports, Meineke Car Care, MPC Computers, Music City and Emerald bowls.

As the most recent addition to the mix, a formal deal was finalized on Sunday after the Pac-10 was unable to provide a qualifying team, the Emerald Bowl is in a wait-and-see mode.

"That's all right," said Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "We can bide our time."

Right now, he explained, the staff is doing double duty with recruiting and game preparation, including increased work with the developmental squad. Wednesday practices will be somewhat light with most of the coaching staff on the road recruiting.

"We've got to try to get the most possible done in each of those areas," said Whittingham, who noted that the first couple of practices would be focused on sharpening up Utah's offense and defense. "You don't want to start preparing too early for the opponent. There's a point of diminishing returns there.

"We were planning on working against each other this week anyways," Whittingham continued. "But certainly by next week we need to get into opponent preparation. If we can know our opponent by next Sunday we'll still be OK. We're not losing any ground because obviously our opponent doesn't know who they're going to play. "

Bowl officials, however, are eager to complete its matchup.

"You want to jump on this stuff as soon as you can. Especially with an East coast team in terms of travel plans," Cavalli said. "Every day you waste, you lose ticket sales."

Given the selection pecking order, Utah's opponent in the Emerald Bowl will likely be North Carolina State (6-5) or Virginia (6-5). Clemson (7-4) and Georgia Tech (7-4) could also be in the mix.

The Cavaliers may have emerged to the forefront following a media report that the MPC Computers Bowl in Boise, which is in the sixth position, would release them from consideration in favor of inviting a team that hasn't made a recent appearance in the game.

"We can't worry about what we can't control," Whittingham said. "Obviously we'd like to know who we play right now sitting here today, but like I said I don't think it's going to be a huge factor as far as our preparation."

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