For two years, the Washington Huskies have been working up an appetite for postseason play. Now, they’re ready to feed.

“Not going to a bowl game makes you hungry, there’s no doubt about that,” defensive tackle Stephen Hoffmann said Monday as the team arrived in El Paso to begin preparing for the Sun Bowl.

The 20th-ranked Huskies (7-3-1) face Iowa (7-4) in the Dec. 29 game.

Thomas said he and the other players are excited to be in any bowl. There’s no disappointment, he said, that the Pac-10 cochampions are capping off their season with a trip to a game lacking the luster of the Rose Bowl.

Washington was banned from going to a bowl game the past two seasons because of NCAA violations.

Fullback Richard Thomas said any bowl invitation is key to putting the Huskies back at the level where they want to be.

“I think it’s especially important for us as football team and as a program,” said Thomas. “I think being out these two years really put a dent in where we want to be.”

Coach Jim Lambright said the team will work immediately on getting ready for the Hawkeyes.

The team holds its first practice in the Sun Bowl stadium Tuesday morning. Lambright said players have been concentrating on conditioning while in Seattle. Now they will begin installing their game plan.

“We’re at this point quite healthy and enjoying th efruits of well-conditionaed young athletes,” he said.

Lambright said he doesn’t expect his team to get distracted even though the players will spend the Christmas holiday away from home.

Hoffmann said that he even told his mother last year that he didn’t want to be at home for Christmas 1995. “No offense,” he said.

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