Ratliff nursing ankle but will make start

SAN FRANCISCO — Utah quarterback Brett Ratliff made the most of his first trip home since July. Besides enjoying Christmas with his family in nearby Chico, Calif., he was able to rest his sprained left ankle.

"I stayed off it a pretty good amount. The swelling went down a lot," Ratliff said after Monday's Emerald Bowl practice at Laney College in Oakland. "It's feeling good. I'm still kind of babying it a little bit, but come game time I'll be 100 percent ready to go."

To provide extra support in hopes of preventing the injury from being re-aggravated, Ratliff is wearing an ankle brace.

"He's fine," insisted Utah coach Kyle Whittingham. "He'll be fine. He looked good today."

Ratliff, who suffered the injury during a practice in Salt Lake City, is slated to make his second consecutive start for the Utes. The junior college transfer threw four touchdown passes in leading Utah to a 41-34 overtime win at BYU on Nov. 19. He replaced starter Brian Johnson, who suffered a season-ending knee injury a week earlier against New Mexico.

SHARED SIDELINE: One of the problems with playing a football game on a baseball field is space. Because of permanent seating at SBC Park, the Utes and Yellow Jackets will share one sideline in Thursday's game. Each team will occupy one side between the 15- and 45-yard lines. A buffer zone extending five yards in both directions from midfield will keep the squads separated.

"We've talked about that. That'll be a little bit of a logistical issue but the officials — we've been told — are well-versed in how to handle it," Whittingham said. "There's going to have to be some modification of how they allow substitutions. Otherwise it won't work. We've been assured that the officials will make it work for us."

A LITTLE LATE: The Utes arrived in San Francisco a couple of hours later than scheduled Sunday. Their charter flight was delayed by a couple of things. For starters, the plane wasn't on the tarmac when it was supposed to be because the Hawaii Bowl ran long. It transported Nevada, which defeated Central Florida, 49-48, in overtime, back to Reno from Honolulu.

Once in Utah, federal law required that the flight crew observe a rest period before flying again. The Utes, however, still wound up getting to town in time for a welcoming dinner at the hotel.

TELEPHONE TECH: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that many Georgia Tech players spent a lot of time on Christmas using their cellular phones. The Yellow Jackets spent a good chunk of the holiday traveling to San Francisco.