Coach Says Freedom Is a Super Bowl : College football: Utah’s McBride looking forward to Dec. 27 matchup with Arizona at Anaheim Stadium.

ANAHEIM —  Are the Freedom Bowl organizers lucky, or what?

They thought they chose two also-rans, albeit quality ones, to play in their game Dec. 27 at Anaheim Stadium.

No way, guys.

The matchup of Utah vs. Arizona features the best the Pacific 10 and Western Athletic conferences have to offer. Don’t believe it? Just ask Utah Coach Ron McBride.

“What you’re looking at is probably the best team in the Pac-10 and probably the best team in the WAC playing in this game,” McBride said Thursday during a Freedom Bowl news conference at Anaheim Stadium.

“You’re going to have two very fine football teams in this game.”

Arizona Coach Dick Tomey won’t quite go as far as McBride, one of his former assistants at Arizona. But Tomey does agree with this much: Neither participant lacks talent.

“(Conference champion) Oregon is the best team in the Pac-10,” Tomey said. “They won the games they needed to win.

“Last year we had a great team. This year we have a good team.”

At least that’s unquestionable.

Utah (9-2, 6-2 in the WAC), ranked 14th in the nation, finished second in the WAC. The Utes’ record equals the best of any team to play in the game. Colorado State (10-1, 7-1) won the WAC.

Utah lost last year’s Freedom Bowl, 28-21, to USC.

This season, the Utes were 8-0 and preparing to play a bit farther south in San Diego’s Holiday Bowl--the annual final stop for the WAC champion. However, two losses in their final three games, including an embarrassing 23-21 road loss to lowly New Mexico, prompted the change in travel plans.

“We were 8-0 and all of a sudden we were getting all this national attention,” McBride said. “The players started thinking they were pretty good and the coaches started thinking they were pretty good.

“You walk down the street and people tell you how good you are. Then you go down to New Mexico and get your (butt) kicked, and you get back to reality pretty fast.”

Arizona, whose defense was labeled with a popular marketing moniker, “Desert Swarm,” last season, opened this season with a No. 1 ranking by Sports Illustrated and an appearance on the magazine’s cover. One of the two is usually tantamount to a kiss of death. The combo?

Well, Arizona never looked much like the nation’s best team.

Still, the No. 15 Wildcats (8-3) had a fine season. They tied USC for second in the Pac-10.

“The Desert Swarm thing, I think for our players, has been something they’ve taken pride in,” Tomey said. “But obviously this past (season), we weren’t as strong a defense as we have been in previous (seasons).”

The Utes’ defense wasn’t impressive in last year’s loss to USC. The Trojans put the game away early, taking a 28-0 first-half lead and cruising in the second half.

But something has changed, McBride said.

“We were without a secondary last year,” McBride said. “Our defense is vastly improved.”