SAN FRANCISCO — Utah kicker Dan Beardall is older than Michael Vick.

Fourteen Utes are 24, 25 or, in Beardall's case, 26. Utah even has freshmen old enough to drink legally, if their religion allowed it.

Don't call the Utes college kids; they're college men, some married with kids of their own.

Today, those men take on the youngsters of No. 24 Georgia Tech in the Emerald Bowl. Twenty-five Utes are older than the oldest Yellow Jackets player.

"I think it gives our team a maturity level that most other teams don't have," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said. "The stability those guys provide for our program is a big part of our success. We see it as a big advantage."

Thirty Utah players served LDS Church missions, two-year stretches during which the NCAA eligibility clock stopped ticking but they kept growing. They went to share their religion, not to work on their football, and they came back transformed by the experience.

Think playing on national TV tests your confidence and your guts? Try knocking on strangers' doors six days a week to share your religious beliefs.

"When you first do it, you're really scared," said 25-year-old senior linebacker Spencer Toone, who served a two-year mission in Australia after a freshman year in junior college.

Toone said he found his mission as spiritually rewarding as it was difficult. He worked "all day every day. It really taught me how to work hard."

Toone, who leads Utah with 106 tackles, has what his coach refers to as "a great toughness."

Some of that no doubt developed while Toone spread his religious message and did community service work from Sydney to Canberra.

"You mature a lot on your mission, both physically and mentally," Toone said. "You focus on things you need to get done."

Tight end Chad Jacobsen didn't ring doorbells; houses in rural Uruguay don't have any. Visitors there stand outside the fence and clap to announce their presence.

Jacobsen's challenge was just beginning once the door opened and someone came out to see him. Few Uruguayans speak English. Jacobsen used what he'd learned in two high school Spanish classes and an intensive two months of training. And he got by.

"Being 19 years old and thrown into a foreign country, it's not easy," Jacobsen said. "You learn hard work."

He ate lots of rice, lots of beans and very little meat. His weight dropped from 215 pounds to 185. Occasionally, he'd toss around a football with Brady Poppinga, who went on to play for BYU and now plays for the Green Bay Packers. Mostly, Jacobsen played a lot of soccer on his one day off a week.