The 2007 Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl was an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

-sanctioned Division I post-season college football

bowl game In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivi ...

between the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Pac-12 Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) ...

and the Brigham Young University Cougars. The game was played on December 22, 2007, starting at 5 p.m. PST at 40,000-seat

Sam Boyd Stadium Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hot ...

Whitney, Nevada Whitney (formerly East Las Vegas) is an unincorporated town and census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The population was 38,585 at the 2010 census. Background Stowell E. Whitney, a dairy farmer from Bunkerville, Neva ...

, where the bowl has been played since 1992. It was televised on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

. Starting in 2001, the

Las Vegas Bowl The Las Vegas Bowl is an NCAA Division I FBS annual post-season college football bowl game held in the Las Vegas area. First played in 1992, the bowl was originally held at the 40,000-seat Sam Boyd Stadium in Whitney, Nevada before moving to the ...

featured a matchup of teams from the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is one of the collegiate athletic conferences affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) (formerly I-A). The MW officially began operations ...

(MWC) and Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10), with organizers having first choice of bowl-eligible teams from the MWC, and the fourth or fifth choice (alternating annually) of bowl-eligible teams from the Pac-10.

Teams

This was the second meeting in the 2007 college football season between the

and the BYU Cougars. In the first meeting on September 8, 2007 at the Rose Bowl Stadium, the Bruins avoided an upset in a tough game by beating the Cougars, 27–17. UCLA had control of the game in the first half, but BYU made it close in the third quarter. UCLA's pass defense was shaky, giving up 391 yards, and their own passing attack inconsistent, as Ben Olson, a quarterback who transferred from BYU to UCLA, completed only 13 of 28 passes for 126 yards. On December 3, 2007, following the final regular season game against USC, Los Angeles papers and the Associated Press reported that UCLA Coach

Karl Dorrell Karl James Dorrell (born December 18, 1963) is an American football coach who was most recently the head coach at the University of Colorado. Dorrell most notably served as the head football coach of the University of California, Los Angeles (UC ...

was fired during a meeting with athletic director Dan Guerrero. Dorrell was offered the choice, but decided not to coach in the Las Vegas Bowl. Defensive coordinator

DeWayne Walker DeWayne Morris Walker (born December 3, 1960) is an American gridiron football coach and former player. He is currently the cornerbacks and nickels coach for the Arizona Wildcats football team. He previously served as the defensive backs coach o ...

served as interim coach for the game.

Game summary

The 2007 Las Vegas Bowl kicked off at Sam Boyd Stadium at 8:12 p.m. EST. UCLA won the coin toss and elected to kick off to BYU to begin the game. With less than a minute to go in the first half the Cougars had opened up 17-6 lead. Instead of simply downing the ball, the Cougars ran a running play up the middle and RB

Harvey Unga William Harvey Unga (born January 18, 1987) is a former American football fullback and the current running backs coach for the Brigham Young University football team. He was drafted by the Chicago Bears with a seventh round pick in the 2010 Supp ...

fumbled. The Bruins responded by punching the ball in the end zone on the final play of the half. In the second half with the Cougars leading 17-13, the defenses took over. Second-half scoring was limited to a 50-yard field goal by the Bruins'

Kai Forbath Kai August Forbath (born September 2, 1987) is a former American football placekicker. He played college football at UCLA and was recognized as an All-American and the best college kicker in the country in 2009. Forbath was signed by the Cowboy ...

in the fourth quarter. Forbath then attempted a 28-yarder at the end of the game, but it was blocked by Eathyn Manumaleuna to preserve the Cougars' victory. Walker's defensive schemes kept the Bruins, who were without their two top

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

s and relied on

McLeod Bethel-Thompson McLeod John Baltazar Bethel-Thompson (born July 3, 1988) is an American professional football quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at UCLA and Sacramento State. He is the gran ...

, in the game. The Bruins size and strength advantage allowed them to dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Ball control was also key: Chris Markey rushed for 117 yards, the most by any BYU opponent in the 2007 season.

Additional notes

*The Cougars avenged a 27–17 loss to UCLA in a game played on September 8 at the Bruins' home field, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. *UCLA left this bowl game without naming a permanent

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

for the 2008 season;

had been fired on December 4. Rumored candidates as of December 24 included

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

offensive coordinator

Rick Neuheisel Richard Gerald Neuheisel Jr. (; born February 7, 1961) is an American football analyst, coach, former player, and attorney. He served as the head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1995 to 1999, at the University of Washi ...

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

head coach Al Golden, and Walker.

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

head coach

Mike Bellotti Robert Michael Bellotti (born December 21, 1950) is an American college football analyst for ESPN and ABC. He was with the University of Oregon's football program for over 20 years serving as offensive coordinator for six years, head coach fo ...

and

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

offensive coordinator

Norm Chow Norman Yew Heen Chow (born May 3, 1946) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head coach for the Helvetic Guards in the European League of Football. He was the head football coach at the University of Hawaii at Ma ...

had withdrawn their names from consideration. *The Las Vegas Bowl was an advance sellout for the fifth year in a row. *The Cougars ended the season with a 10-game winning streak, which after Hawaii's loss to Georgia in the Sugar Bowl became the longest winning streak in the country. *UCLA later selected a former teammate of Dorrell,

, as his successor.Chris Foster
Neuheisel goes back to school
''Los Angeles Times'', December 30, 2008, Accessed July 26, 2008. DeWayne Walker was retained as the defensive coordinator. *The UCLA Bruins under Neuheisel and BYU Cougars would meet again in the 2008 regular season at BYU, where the Cougars would defeat the Bruins 59–0. This was the worst loss the Bruins endured since a 76-0 defeat in the very first

UCLA–USC rivalry The UCLA–USC rivalry is the American collegiate athletics rivalry between the UCLA Bruins sports teams of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and USC Trojans teams of the University of Southern California (USC). Both universit ...

football game (in the year 1929).No. 18 B.Y.U. 59, U.C.L.A. 0 Hall’s 7 Touchdown Passes Lead B.Y.U.’s Rout
Associated Press, New York Times, September 13, 2008

References

{{BYU Cougars bowl game navbox

Las Vegas Bowl BYU Cougars football bowl games UCLA Bruins football bowl games

December 2007 sports events in the United States