Bowl bid meets Nutt's hope for extra edge for redshirts

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ The always upbeat and positive Houston Nutt should be even more so now that he's certain that his Razorbacks are going to a bowl. <br><br>Only 24 hours after the Razorbacks

Monday, December 4th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) _ The always upbeat and positive Houston Nutt should be even more so now that he's certain that his Razorbacks are going to a bowl.

Only 24 hours after the Razorbacks became bowl-eligible with a 14-3 victory over LSU the day after Thanksgiving, somebody asked Nutt about the group of players that he had red-shirted this year.

``If we can have just 15 more practices, I will be really fired up,'' he said, ticking off several players from whom he expects a lot in years to come.

Arkansas's invitation to the Dec. 21 Las Vegas Bowl on Sunday means the team will get those 15 additional practices.

The 6-5 Razorbacks will meet Nevada-Las Vegas (7-5). UNLV wrapped up a bid by beating Hawaii 34-32 on Saturday.

The trip to Las Vegas will be Arkansas' third straight bowl trip under Nutt. He said Sunday he was very excited about the Las Vegas game.

``Our players did a little poll when we were talking about the three or four bowls when there were rumors of where we may be going,'' Nutt said. ``Of our players, 99.9 percent of all wanted to go to Las Vegas. That's very, very important when your players want to be at that particular place.''

Linebacker Quinton Caver agreed.

``That's all we talked about was going to the Las Vegas Bowl,'' Caver said.

The bowl trip is also special, he said, to players who remember what it was like after four straight losses _ including a 63-20 walloping by Tennessee.

``At times, like when we were 4-5 and coming off the loss to Tennessee ... we just stayed together and continued to work hard and came up with wins in the last two games of the season,'' Caver said. ``It just means a whole lot for us to get to this bowl game.''

In between the Tennessee loss and the win over LSU, ranked 24th at the time, Arkansas went to Starkville, Miss., and beat Mississippi State, 17-10 in overtime. The Bulldogs were ranked 13th at the time. The Razorbacks needed both wins to become bowl-eligible.

The Las Vegas bowl date means Arkansas and UNLV will play each other twice in a row _ in the last game of this season, and the first game of the 2001 season, on Sept. 1 at Little Rock.

Nutt said no attempt would be made to change that, because of the complexities of scheduling.

Prior to the Hawaii game, Robinson made it clear that he wanted his team to play in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Razorbacks are expected in Las Vegas on Dec. 17 or 18. During the bowl negotiations, one of the negatives about the trip to Vegas was that semester exams at Arkansas are Dec. 14-20. Nutt said officials would work around that problem.

At one point, it appeared that the Pac-10 was going to trade Arizona State for Vegas' at-large team, which apparently would have been Arkansas. Such a deal would have put the Razorbacks in the Oahu Bowl in Hawaii on Dec. 24, but that deal was never completed.

Oklahoma's 27-24 victory over Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game set the wheels in motion for the trip to Las Vegas. If Kansas State had won, Arkansas would have been in line for a trip to the galleryfurniture.com Bowl in Houston on Dec. 27.

Arkansas is one of nine Southeastern Conference teams to get a bowl bid and the only one with fewer than seven victories.

Razorback athletic director Frank Broyles said Sunday that Arkansas had two powerful allies in its quest for a bowl game.

``When you factor in the Razorback tradition and the Razorback fan support and you put that with the tradition of the Southeastern Conference, we felt like that if there were any open slot in the bowl process, we would get a shot _ and we did,'' he said.

Arkansas officials said tickets for the Las Vegas game would cost $50 each and would be available through the school ticket office. In addition, the alumni association is expected to announce some packages for fans.

Arkansas split end Boo Williams is upbeat about the trip.

``That's basically where everybody wanted to go,'' Williams said. ``We're very fortunate to have the chance to go, and I think it's going to be fun.''