New Mexico, San Jose State seek bowl win

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• San Jose State Takes New Mexico Bowl

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The odds are stacked in New Mexico's favor -- they have home-field advantage and more recent bowl experience. Will San Jose State be able to overcome those obstacles?

Complete Scouts Inc. Preview

Matchup
	W-L	PF	PA	HOME	ROAD	DIV	CONF
UNM	6-7	284	312	3-4	3-3	4-4	4-4
SJSU	9-4	324	270	7-1	2-3	5-3	5-3
· Complete Standings

In Close Games (7 points or less. Since 2001)
	RECORD
UNM	17 - 11
SJSU	4 - 7

Record When Scoring... (Since 2001)
	20 OR MORE	30 OR MORE	40 OR MORE	50 OR MORE
UNM	37-12-0	20-4-0	9-1-0	3-0-0
SJSU	24-20-0	18-5-0	10-1-0	5-0-0
	LESS THAN 20	LESS THAN 30	LESS THAN 40	LESS THAN 50
UNM	3-21-0	20-29-0	31-32-0	37-33-0
SJSU	1-25-0	7-40-0	15-44-0	20-45-0

TEAM AVERAGES & NCAA RANKS
OFFENSE	TM	PER GAME AVERAGE / NCAA RANK
Total Yards	UNM	311.9 / 89th
	SJSU	363.7 / 45th
Passing Yards	UNM	222.8 / 50th
	SJSU	188.3 / 90th
Rushing Yards	UNM	109.7 / 95th
	SJSU	184.3 / 15th
Points Scored	UNM	22.7 / 76th
	SJSU	25.3 / 40th
Full Team Stats: New Mexico | San Jose State

Individual Leaders

New Mexico Passing   CMP% YDS TD INT Porter... 58.9 2249 12 9 Holbro... 55.9 170 1 2

San Jose State Passing   CMP% YDS TD INT La Sec... 60.4 1592 8 9 Reed 54.4 365 1 2

New Mexico Rushing   CAR YDS AVG TD Dennis 69 417 6.0 2 Wright 45 287 6.4 2

San Jose State Rushing   CAR YDS AVG TD Muldro... 92 446 4.8 3 Perry 55 174 3.2 1

New Mexico Receiving   REC YDS AVG TD Kirk 32 394 12.3 2 James 32 376 11.8 3

San Jose State Receiving   REC YDS AVG TD Jurovi... 54 741 13.7 0 Avery 35 318 9.1 4

Full Player Stats: New Mexico | San Jose State

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- Dennis Franchione calling the plays. DonTrell Moore on his way to a record-setting career. Katie Hnida making history.

None of them could help New Mexico get a bowl win.

The Lobos (6-6), who haven't won a bowl game in 45 years, will try again Saturday when they play San Jose State (8-4) in the inaugural New Mexico Bowl.

New Mexico is playing in its fifth bowl game since 1997 and hoping all the comforts of home will end the 4½ decades of futility that has become one of coach Rocky Long's least favorite topics.

"New guy eh?" Long said Friday when a San Jose writer asked him if the Lobos needed to win the game to make it a successful season.

"I don't think there is a must win game in the world. It's important that we play well and win the game tomorrow, but guess what, there's a whole lot more things more important than winning or losing a game. So, do we have to win tomorrow? No," said Long.

But Long conceded ending the postseason drought would "make my life a whole lot easier."

New Mexico's last bowl win was in the short-lived Aviation Bowl in 1961. That bowl went out of existence after the Lobos beat Western Michigan 28-12 in a game played on a frozen field in Dayton, Ohio, with about 4,000 fans watching.

The Lobos didn't make another postseason appearance until 1997. That was the last of Franchione's six seasons at New Mexico and he already had accepted the head coaching job at TCU when the Lobos lost to Arizona in the Insight.com Bowl.

The last three bowl losses -- to UCLA and Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl in 2002 and 2003 and to Navy in the Emerald Bowl in 2004 -- have come under Long.

Against UCLA, Hnida became the first woman to play in an NCAA Division I-A game. Hnida, a kicker, entered the game after New Mexico took an early 6-0 lead, but the Bruins blocked her PAT attempt and went on to a 27-13 win.

New Mexico and Moore, the school's all-time leading rusher and scorer, were no match for Steven Jackson and Oregon State the next year, losing 55-14 as Jackson scored five touchdowns. The Lobos lost to Navy 34-19 two years ago, with Moore going out early in the first quarter with a knee injury.

The Spartans had an impressive turnaround this season under second-year coach Dick Tomey. The eight wins matched the Spartans' total for the previous three seasons and followed a 3-8 2005 season in which the Spartans lost eight straight.

"I'd never lost eight games in a season, much less eight straight," said the 68-year-old Tomey, who was Arizona's coach in the 1997 bowl win over New Mexico.

San Jose State's season included a near upset of BCS bound Boise State. Boise State saved its BCS bid with two scoring drives in the final minutes and beat the Spartans 23-20 on a 37-yard field goal as time expired.

San Jose State is playing in its first bowl game in 16 years and the first outside of California. The Spartans seemed unaffected by the snow, wind and freezing temperatures that greeted their arrival in Albuquerque this week.

"At home we practice at six in the morning and there's ice out there too," said wide receiver James Jones. "It's a little colder out here, but we're not worried too much."

The weather could be a factor in Saturday's game. The forecast calls for brisk wind and highs in the mid 40s at kickoff. Those are the aftershocks of an unusually severe storm that swept through the state earlier in the week and dumped more than six inches of snow in some parts of Albuquerque.

Given New Mexico fans' aversion to cold weather, Long said he's concerned the weather could hurt the Lobos' home-field advantage.

"I know if the weather's really bad, half the people that have tickets aren't going to come," Long said. "That worries me."

Snow or shine, said fifth-year New Mexico offensive lineman Robert Turner, it's time for the Lobos to end the bowl drought.

"I came here to win games, to win a bowl game, to win a conference championship," said the native of Austin, Texas. "We didn't get the conference championship done … but I don't want to walk off that field on Saturday not having a bowl win."