Kevin McLee is talking about Kevin McLee. He is talking to Kevin McLee, too, and that wasn't always the case. The West Virginia linebacker got a telephone call from his once-estranged father a fortnight ago when this bowl business was settled -- Kevin McLee Sr. of West Covina, Calif., teasing Kevin McLee Jr., of Morgantown, W.Va., about the happenstance separated by 19 years and a distance far wider than the thousands of miles between them:

Son is following father into the same bowl game.

Son is playing against his father's alma mater.

"It does have a great significance to me being that my dad played at Georgia, and he also played in the Sugar Bowl," the younger Kevin "Boo" McLee said yesterday of the Jan. 2 collision among the 11th-ranked Mountaineers, eighth-ranked Bulldogs and McLee family memories. "It's coincidence, but it's great that it happened."

Boo McLee was given that nickname by the paternal grandmother, Elaine Murray, who along with his grandfather, Charles, raised the boy in their Uniontown home. He had moved in with them ever since the age of 9 months, left behind by a father who was attempting an NFL career as a running back with Tampa Bay and a mother who never returned to the son's life. The mother, whom the son is reticent to discuss, died not long ago. His grandfather died in 1997; his grandmother, in 2003, but, in the Mountaineers' media guide, he still lists Elaine Murray as his mother and Kevin McLee as his father.

For a Monday night football game inside the Georgia Dome, amid a crowd of Bulldogs fans and alumni that will include Kevin McLee Sr., it will be something of a father-son night.

"Actually, he called me after the South Florida game," the son said, referring to the Dec. 3 night when Georgia upset LSU in the Southeastern Conference championship to arrange a sweet Sugar matchup for the McLees. "We talked about it. He told me about when he played in the Sugar Bowl against Pitt, against Tony Dorsett," a New Year's on which the Panthers won both a game and a national title.

"He said he'd be rooting for me and wearing a Georgia Bulldog hat," the son added with a chuckle.

He can laugh now. Father and son weren't close for so long. Oh, there was the time little Boo, then 8 or 9, joined his dad in Atlanta for an alumni contest before attending the Georgia Tech-Georgia game in Athens, Ga., between the hedges at Sanford Stadium. And the university sent the teenage son recruiting letters, offering him an official visit to campus, but not a scholarship, when he was a standout running back at Uniontown High like the father a generation earlier.

The father, though, was more of a lithe tailback, leading the Bulldogs in total offense with 1,000-plus yards each in 1976 and 1977, when he was the offensive captain. He stood 6 feet and weighed 188 pounds when he signed with the SEC stalwart in 1974, because he "just wanted to try to start a new life," the son said. Boo can empathize: He chose West Virginia for much the same reason -- to escape Uniontown and beat a path for himself at a school where uncles Reggie McLee and Bill McLee played football.

He preferred hitting to being hit, so he chose linebacker, where he excelled this season to all-Big East first-team level, with a team-leading 74 tackles, six tackles for losses and two sacks. Then again, at 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, he was far more stout than his father. Kevin Sr.'s letter jacket from Georgia "doesn't even remotely fit me," the son said, chuckling again. "It's so small, it's crazy. I don't know where he got his size."

The son wore the father's No. 39 on Uniontown's freshman football team, but gave it up later because it was assigned to someone else on the varsity. He's No. 43 for the Mountaineers, a gent for whom Boo-birds are common, among the West Virginia cheers punctuating one of his big plays. His on-field focus, he maintains, is squarely upon the Georgia offense. Yet he cannot help but feel something about his father and half-brother Devin, 5, whom he calls "my little brother," joining him in Atlanta.

The son hooked up the father with Georgia Dome tickets, although he needs more for a McLee family with deep and athletic Uniontown roots, including uncle Brad McLee playing at Michigan State and a relation named Ernie Davis, the late Heisman Trophy winner from Syracuse. ("A lot of good DNA there, yeah," he said laughing.) He knows at least he will have a couple of Boo McLee supporter among the Mountaineers seats.

NOTES -- All-Big East and second-team All-America center Dan Mozes of Washington High expressed regret for the incidents that resulted in Morgantown police citing him Saturday for loud and unnecessary noise along with a misdemeanor charge of dealing in stolen goods. "It's always going to be in the back of my mind," Mozes said. "What happened, happened. It's my fault. It's something stupid. ... I apologized to the team. I apologize to the state of West Virginia for embarrassing the program." Coach Rich Rodriguez disciplined him. Mozes said: "I have to do a lot of extra running, actually. Pretty much up to the bowl game. I think it's pretty just punishment over what happened."