John Beale, Post-Gazette Walt Harris and Sam Bryant leave the field after their loss to Utah in the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Click photo for larger image.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Urban Meyer was voted the FWAA/Eddie Robinson coach of the year by the members of the Football Writers Association of America.

The announcement was made on ABC after the Utes scored their first touchdown against Pitt in the Fiesta Bowl last night.

The award was his second coach of the year award this season. He already had won the Home Depot coach of the year award.

Meyer, who was The Sporting News coach of the year last season and the Mountain West Conference's coach of the year each of the past two years, will officially be honored with the Eddie Robinson award before Meyer's new team, the Florida Gators, open their 2005 season against Wyoming. Meyer accepted the position as head coach at the University of Florida last month.

Meyer led the Utes to a perfect regular season and they became the first non-Bowl Championship Series conference team to participate in a BCS game.

Meyer leaves quite an impressive legacy at Utah. He has been the Utes' coach for the past two seasons and led them to a 22-2 record and two Mountain West Conference championships. The Utes also won the Liberty Bowl last year.

"He certainly is an outstanding winner," FWAA executive director Steve Richardson said. "We had six great candidates, any of whom could have won the award. Coach Meyer has been on a meteoric rise in the college football coaching profession and there is no reason to think he won't keep streaking at [Florida]."

Michael Watkins, who is Eddie Robinson's grandson and the executive director of the Eddie Robinson Foundation, presented the award to Meyer. The award is named after Robinson, the winningest coach in college football history.

"It is an honor to present this award to coach Meyer for leading Utah to its greatest season in school history," Watkins said.

The other finalists for the award were Southern California's Pete Carroll, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville, UTEP's Mike Price, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and California's Jeff Tedford.

Utah has named defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham as Meyer's successor.

Injury update

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Tim Murphy got the start at tailback last night. He runs against Utah's Corey Dodds in the first quarter. He led the Panthers with 37 yards on 12 carries. Click photo for larger image.

Pitt played without the services of starting tailback Raymond Kirkley, who missed the game with a left wrist injury. That is the same injury that kept Kirkley out of the season finale at South Florida. In his absence, fullback Tim Murphy started at tailback and Marcus Furman played a healthy dose at tailback as well.

Also, starting left tackle Rob Petitti received IV treatments before the game because he was ailing from the flu. He was spelled throughout the game by reserve tackle Dale Williams.

Two other injuries of note -- reserve defensive end Kyle Smith missed the game because of an undisclosed ailment. And starting right guard John Simonitis came out of the game in the second quarter with a back injury and did not return. Reserve guard Matt Maiers played in his absence.

Captains named

Pitt's coaches name captains before each game throughout the season then have the team vote on captains at the end of the campaign. This year's captains are Tyler Palko (offense), Vince Crochunis (defense) and Doug Roseberry (special teams).

The trio represented the Panthers at midfield before the game for the coin toss. They were joined by former Pitt All-American and Arizona Cardinals' standout Larry Fitzgerald, who was the Panthers' honorary captain.

The coin flip was performed by USA Olympic softball standout Jennie Finch.

A sea of red

	John Beale, Post-Gazette Pitt student Julie Demel, of Williamsport, watches her team lose the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. Click photo for larger image.

You would have thought the Fiesta Bowl was being played in Salt Lake City. The capacity crowd of 73,519 seemingly was split something like this -- 61,000 Utah fans, 11,000 Pitt fans.

The largest crowd for a Fiesta Bowl was the 1999 game between Tennessee and Florida State. That game, which was for the national championship, drew a crowd of 80,470. The smallest Fiesta Bowl crowd was the 1976 game between Oklahoma and Wyoming, which was attended by 48,714.

Quick outs

The Panthers had a chance to pin the Utes inside their own 5 on the first series of the game. Adam Graessle punted from the Utes' 45-yard line and Pitt safety Jemeel Brady camped underneath it deep in Utes territory. But Brady misjudged the ball and it bounced into the end zone for a touchback. ... The kickoff time was pushed back 10 minutes because the Rose Bowl, which also was televised by ABC, ran longer than expected. The actual kickoff time came at 8:52 p.m. ... The Utes' first drive was derailed by a rare offensive facemask penalty. Utah had a third-and-6 at the Panthers' 23 and Utah quarterback Alex Smith ran for what appeared to be a first down. But Utah offensive lineman Chris Kemoeatu was penalized for grabbing the facemask of Pitt linebacker H.B. Blades while the two were engaged. ... The officiating crew, which was led by referee Gordon Riese, was from the Pacific-10 Conference. ... Utah joined Wyoming and Brigham Young as the only three teams from the current Mountain West Conference to play in the Fiesta Bowl. The Utes also are the first non-BCS conference team -- excluding Notre Dame -- to play in the Fiesta Bowl since Louisville in 1991. ... Last night was the first time since 2000 that the name of the winner of the Fiesta Bowl did not begin with the letter "O." Ohio State won the past two games, Oregon won the 2002 game and Oregon State was the winner in 2001. ... Josh Cummings had a 48-yard field-goal attempt blocked in the second quarter. It was the ninth kick the Panthers have had blocked this season. The Panthers have had five punts, two field goals and two extra points blocked.