New Orleans » A week in New Orleans, swag and the opportunity to play in a nationally televised game are just some of the rewards Utah's and Alabama's players are enjoying this week for their success in 2008.

But the Sugar Bowl isn't just about this season, the teams maintain. Both believe their bowl performances in 2007 helped them get to New Orleans this week.

Utah (12-0) defeated Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl a year ago while Alabama (12-1) beat Colorado in the Independence Bowl, a game the Tide wanted to win after losing the four previous games.

Among the losses was a 21-14 upset by Louisiana-Monroe at home, a result that led coach Nick Saban to make comparisons to 9/11 and Pearl Harbor when he said his team had to rally from a "catastrophic event."

The statement wasn't well received for its lack of political correctness, but it revealed just how desperate things had gotten in Tuscaloosa, a misery that Saban made a priority to change before the Independence Bowl on Dec. 30. His players listened and ended the season with a 30-24 win over Colorado, a game in which Alabama scored the first 27 points.

"It was a tough stretch," Alabama defensive back Rashad Johnson said of the losing streak. "Coach came in and talked to us about the mentality of one game at a time. We played well and won and we built momentum. We bought into what the coaches were trying to tell us how great teams handled themselves."

Alabama has handled itself well ever since. It started the season ranked No. 24 and climbed to No. 1, where it remained for five weeks until losing to Florida in the SEC title game.

Credit the change in mentality going into the Independence Bowl for much of the recent success, Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson said.

"We decided enough is enough and we needed to change things around here," Wilson said. "Everybody bought into what coach [Nick] Saban is trying to do."

For the Utes, their 35-32 win over Navy in the Poinsettia Bowl was a satisfying way to end a season in which they overcame several injuries to key players.

The 2007 Utes were supposed to be an offensive force built around quarterback Brian Johnson, big-play receiver Brent Casteel and highly touted running back Matt Asiata.

It all went away in the first two games when Asiata broke his leg four carries into his Ute career, Johnson suffered a shoulder injury that limited him all season and Casteel suffered a season-ending knee injury. Still, the Utes managed to finish the season 9-4, including the Poinsettia Bowl win.

"Going out on a winning streak, winning those last couple games definitely gave us some good spin into this year," receiver Bradon Godfrey said.

Knowing the injured players would be back in 2008 made the Utes believe they had the talent to do something special in 2008. The character the players showed led Utah coach Kyle Whittingham to think the team was mentally where it needed to be, too.

"We continued to develop that team chemistry and we thought we had a chance to be pretty good," he said. "Twelve and 0, we didn't see that coming, but we did think we could be Mountain West Conference champs."

Now that both teams are here in New Orleans, players aren't thinking about what a win Friday could mean for the future. They want to savor the feeling of a BCS bowl, but the Utes do admit they'd like to extend their seven-game bowl winning streak.

"We've had a lot of success in bowl games," Godfrey said. "We don't see why we shouldn't have success in this bowl game, too."

lwodraska@sltrib.com