The New Mexico Bowl

Temple takes on Wyoming in the New Mexico Bowl

This year's Gildan New Mexico Bowl will put the Temple Owls of the Mid-American Conference up against the Mountain West Conference's Wyoming Cowboys. This will either be on ESPN or ESPN 3 in most markets. The Owls will be looking to prove they belong as bowl contenders after just missing out on last year's bowl season, while the Cowboys will be looking to add another win on to their solid season.

Temple comes into the game with one of the nation's top rushing offenses. The Owl offense rushed for an average of 256.7 yards per game, making them the seventh ranked team in the country in that category. The rushing attack is led by junior Bernard Pierce who scored 25 rushing touchdowns while putting up 1381 yards. Fellow junior Matt Brown was the team's second leading rusher with 867 yards. Temple has had a problem with their passing offense and has not seemed to pick a consistent starting quarterback. Senior Chester Stewart started the majority of games early in the season, but Chris Coyer has played in three of the last four games and has thrown three more touchdowns than Stewart. With this set to be Stewart's last game of his Temple career, it will be interesting to see whether coach Steve Addazio will go with the Senior or look toward the future and play Coyer. The Owls defense is the third ranked in terms of points allowed having held their opponents to an impressive 13.8 points per game. This defense is sure to be an important component of their effort against the Cowboys in the upcoming bowl game.

Wyoming finished the season in third place in the MWC behind seventh ranked Boise State and eighteenth ranked TCU. The Cowboys have lost only four games this season, two of them to teams that were ranked in the top 25 at the time. Wyoming's defense has had trouble with stopping other teams rushing attacks, which does not bode well going into a bowl game against a powerful rushing offense. The offense of the Cowboys is led by freshman quarterback Brett Smith who put up good numbers for his first year, throwing for 2495 yards with an 18/8 touchdown to interception ratio. The young quarterback has also run for 645 yards and 10 touchdowns making him the centerpiece of the Wyoming offense. This bowl game will provide the young quarterback with valuable bowl experience to finish off a successful first college season. Junior Alvester Alexander is the teams leading rusher, but he has only managed to rush for 678 yards on the season. The Cowboys will be looking to continue to improve in this bowl game setting themselves up for an even better run in 2012. Both of the two teams being featured in this bowl match-up have had fairly successful seasons, with 8 and 4 records as the final result.

The bowl game provides each team with an opportunity to finish off their season with a bang. The game is likely to hinge on the Cowboys finding a way to stop a powerful Temple rushing attack. If they are successful it will give young Brett Smith a chance to lead his team to a bowl victory against an impressive Temple defense and finish off an impressive rookie season in style.

New Mexico Bowl Overview & History

During NCAA bowl season colleges literally shut down and fans travel hundreds of miles to root for their favorite team. Schools could be playing any where in the country and they would still have a full stadium of roaring fans cheering them on as they bowl games are announced and the college football betting lines are set.

The pinnacle of the Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference is reaching the New Mexico bowl held in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The big game is held on the Saturday before Christmas at University of New Mexico home field, promptly named University Bowl. Before the day of reckoning there are media events, private and public practices, and extravagant dinners all for the two teams.

The action starts over a week before when the bowl directors official announce the two teams selected to play in the New Mexico, following the announcement the coaches and bowl officials have a small press conference for the local media. Over the next week players prepare for the game of their lives, all culminating on Saturday in the University bowl.

The first playing of the New Mexico Bowl was a heated battle between San Jose State and New Mexico. 2006 was a great year for both teams and their talent was displayed on the sunny day in December. Since its inception, the home team has played twice splitting the results.

The last two years Fresno State has lost two of its biggest rivals Colorado State and Wyoming. Historically, the games have gone long and the days have been oddly warm for the middle of December. When the game starts the underdog has won the past couple years but this is not always true, in the first two bowl games the leader coming into the game has been victorious.

Upon defeating the opponent the winner is handed a 20-inch piece of Zia Pueblo pottery, decorated with Pueblo symbols, the New Mexico Bowl logo, painted football players, and the logos of the competing teams. Although it is an odd trophy, teams hoist it in pride.

Winning the New Mexico Bowl might seem like a small feat compared to winning the one of the BCS Bowls like the Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl but the bowl always is competitive. Both teams are usually nationally ranked and have decent records against out of conference teams. As the bowl continues it will grow in popularity and prestige. Other factors to increase viewership of the bowl and notary include the strength of the Western Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference.

Tradition has yet to been set at the New Mexico Bowl but in the coming years the teams will have the ability to dictate the future of the young bowl. Saturdays before Christmas are no longer the peaceful days once known to most residences of Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year's New Mexico Bowl is going to be great one, since both conferences are playing well and are poised to make history.

Take a moment to check out all our NFL odds and NFL game previews as well which include betting trends for which way the public is swinging on the betting lines. Colts vs Patriots, Lions vs Packers, Titans vs Texans we have all the matchups every week. The New Mexico Bowl game preview & betting lines are released upon completion of the regular season and the selection show gives berths to each team. Our New Mexico Bowl Odds provide you with a chance to bet on all aspects of the game.