Primetime College Football: New Mexico Bowl
Primetime College Football Regular Season Record 76-31
The 2010-2011 bowl season kicks off today and that means the return of the Primetime College Football segments. Usually the Primetime College Football posts are slated for any national televised football game that starts at or after the 6 p.m. CST spot where I finished 76-31 on the season. However, Bowl Games are the true essence of Primetime College Football, with that being said no matter what the start time is, a PCF post will be provided and to kick it off is the fifth annual New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque playing host to Brigham Young University Cougars and the University of Texas at El Paso Miners.
This game takes place on ESPN in Albuquerque, New Mexico and features two former WAC rivals that are playing for the first time since 1998 however come kick off the 2010 bowl season as a couple of .500 programs.
BYU, 6-6, 5-3 MWC, is a program that has been one of the elite in the Mountain West Conference for several years, but fell on hard times in 2010 as this is their first season since 2005 that the Cougars are not going to post a 10-win season. Following a 23-17 win against Washington in the opener, the Cougars dropped four in a row and head coach Bronco Mendenhall refused to give up and thus began the great reclamation project.
The Cougars are operating with a freshman quarterback in Jake Heaps for much of the season after junior Riley Nelson was lost for the season. Heaps finished the season strong having four straight passing efforts of at least 225 yards and tossing 9 touchdowns with just a single interception. Making the second half of the season a bit easier on Heaps was J.J. Di Luigi, who not only led the team in rushing with 819 yards and 7 touchdowns on the ground, he also reeled in a team-high 42 receptions for another 422 yards and a touchdown.
While the offense was slowly building momentum for the Cougars in the second half of the season, so was a defense that allowed a combined 61 points in the final five games. Prior to that run, opponents of BYU had tallied no less than 17 points in any one contest so it was both facets of the team that began to turn the corner when it meant the most. The pass defense for the Cougars was one of the best in the MWC this season, ranking third in the league and 21st nationally with just 187.8 ypg allowed and because of that opponents struggled to generate more than 21.4 ppg on the season overall.
The Cougars defense has also stepped up of late, surrendering 10 points over the previous four games after allowing 27.0 in the first eight. Their pass defense ranked 21st nationally with just 187.8 ypg allowed.
As for UTEP, 6-6, 3-5 C-USA, they built themselves up with early success by posting five wins in the first six games, unfortunately from the middle of the season on the wins became more and more scarce for head coach Mike Price. In fact UTEP has won just once in the last six outings, a 28-14 triumph over SMU during Conference USA play. The Miners who represent Conference USA are the first non-MWC or WAC team to make an appearance in the New Mexico Bowl.
The Miners have been handled by quarterback Trevor Vittatoe for years now and has thrown for more than 12,000 yards in his career and 94 touchdowns. Vittatoe has hit a wall of late as he is only averaging 155.6 yards and has thrown 8 interceptions in his last six games. Unfortunately for Vittatoe, the rushing attack barely made a dent against the competition on most weekends, averaging just 149.5 ypg to place seventh in Conference USA and 69th in the country, Wideout Chris Adams had strong numbers down the field for the Miners with his 44 receptions for 917 yards and 11 touchdowns.
On defense for coach Price he has a playmaker in defensive back Travaun Nixon who leads the team with 3 interceptions and has 69 total tackles.
BYU leads the all-time series with UTEP 28-7-1 and has taken 25 of the previous 27 meetings. The Cougars have won three of their previous four bowl games, including 44-20 over Oregon State in the MAACO Las Vegas Bowl last December. Meanwhile, UTEP is back in the postseason for the first time since the 2005 GMAC Bowl when the group suffered a 45-13 loss to Toledo. The Miners will be looking for its first bowl victory since defeating Mississippi 14-7 in the Sun Bowl in 1967.
PICK: University of Texas at El Paso Miners
