6-6 (4-4), 5th Mountain West
vs
8-4 (5-3), 3rd Western Athletic
Even though the Lobos will be playing in their home state, they will be considered the visiting team in this contest against San Jose State. New Mexico snuck into the bowl picture with a nice 41-14 win over San Diego State and is looking for its first bowl win since 1961. The year did not start out good for New Mexico as they lost to Division 1-aa Portland State but they got better as the season progressed and posted an impressive victory against Utah.
Offensively the Lobos average 200 yards passing and 100 yards rushing. Their running back Rodney Ferguson has over 1100 yards rushing and 7 touchdowns. At quarterback the play has not been consistent all year. Chris Nelson and Donovan Porterie have both shared time under the center but Nelson will see most if not all of the snaps in this game. That's a surprise to me at least as he has only had 319 yards passing and 1 touchdown in his past 5 games.
The San Jose Spartans enter the New Mexico Bowl winning 4 of their last 6 games. In that stretch one of their losses was a 3 point loss to Boise State. So we know that the Spartans can play with the best teams. Offensively the Spartans are a grind it out, ball control team who averages 10 more yards rushing than they do passing. San Jose State's second leading receiver John Broussard is also a threat on kickoff returns, averaging almost 22 yards per return.
Yonus Davis is the leading rusher with 984 yards and 6 touchdowns but second leading rusher Patrick Perry leads the team in touchdowns with 7. Davis has an impressive 6.3 ypc. At quarterback Adam Tafralis has thrown for 2075 yards and 18 touchdowns. Defensively for the Spartans keep an eye on Dwight Lowery, his 9 interceptions on the year should worry the Lobos should they need to air it out.
It is hard to not pick New Mexico since they are the home team, and they are a bit more battle tested, but I like the ball control offense of San Jose State. If you choose to watch this one you are definitely a die hard college football fan.
San Jose State 28-24.
Brian -
San Jose State
Husker Mike -
New Mexico
Ron -
New Mexico
Mountain Lair -
San Jose State
Mr. Cornnation -
New Mexico
Brian from CFR-
San Jose State
Charlie -
New Mexico
Chris -
Otto-
San Jose State
Mrs. Cornnation -
San Jose State
