NEW MEXICO (8-4) VS. NEVADA (6-6)
Time: 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Albuquerque, ESPN
Series record: New Mexico leads 1-0-1.
Last meeting: 1941, New Mexico 23-7.
Facts and figures: The winner gets a 20-inch piece of Zia Pueblo pottery, painted with Pueblo symbols, the New Mexico Bowl logo, and football players. The Lobos have been bowl eligible for seven straight seasons, the only school in the Mountain West Conference to do so. New Mexico is 2-7-1 in 10 previous bowls, and it has lost five straight, including a 20-12 setback against San Jose State in the 2006 New Mexico Bowl. The Lobos’ most recent win was in 1961, a 28-12 victory over Western Michigan in the Aviation Bowl in Dayton, Ohio. This is the third straight year that Nevada will play in a bowl game. This is Nevada’s sixth trip to a bowl game as a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, the school is 2-3. Wolf Pack QB Colin Kaepernick was named the Western Atlantic Conference Freshman of the Year, after throwing for 2,038 yards and 19 touchdowns with just three interceptions, after starting only eight games.
