Excitement Surrounds the Holiday Bowl

Erick Harper, Randy Cohen and I arrived in San Diego this morning for our bowl site trip. We spent a very busy day going through this incredibly nice hotel where the team is staying. Our team, and fans lucky enough to have reserved rooms, will really enjoy the comfort of this hotel!

We just concluded our last meeting over dinner down stairs, and the sales coordinator told us that this hotel is basically sold out for two or three nights surrounding the day of the game, which is December 30. When we started our meetings this morning they kept telling us that they had plenty of rooms, and by tonight they had changed their tune all together.

The Holiday Bowl officials joined us for tonight's final meeting, and let me tell you, they are pumped. They are thrilled that hotels are filling up like they are and game tickets are just about gone. Both Arizona Wildcats and Nebraska Cornhuskers have sold out of their allotment of tickets, and the Holiday Bowl has very few left themselves.

I was visiting with one of the ladies who was telling me the story about the Holiday Bowl game in 1998 when we played Nebraska. She recalls that the game then was the best of all times, for many reasons. She said the main thing that sticks out is that it was the first game with contracts with both the Pac 10 and the Big 12. It was the first year of the BCS. That game had excitement built up all around it. Then she reminded me just how great the game was, and how the stadium was filled to the brim with enthusiastic fans everywhere. She claims that was the first "big time" game in the Holiday Bowl, and it has been great ever since. She says this game is already starting to feel like it did 11 years ago!

As I stated earlier, our team hotel, the Manchester Grand Hyatt, is AWESOME. I did not really get any good pictures that do the hotel justice, so I am linking their web site so you can see for yourself. It is: www.manchestergrand.hyatt.com Click on this website and see just how nice it is going to be for the Wildcat Football Team and Wildcat Fans!!!!! Our players, coaches, staff and fans are going to LOVE the days here in San Diego!!!!!

Tomorrow, Erick, Randy and I are going to visit practice sites where the team will practice while here in San Diego. Obviously, that is the most important part of this trip for me personally. I should be able to put some pictures up tomorrow night after the dinner we have to go to.

Until then, click on the team hotel website and see all that there is to do around the hotel.