Gildan New Mexico Bowl

Wow, really, five games today with two NFL games being played too.  I don't think the NFL and its farm league got together on this scheduling.  As I noted about a half dozen times in the bowl preview, there are NO GAMES on Christmas Day.  Here's one that could be played on Christmas.

Utah State vs. UTEP

Motivation for both teams.  Utah State, on its fourth quarterback this season and able to get a 10th win in this game.  University of Texas El Paso (the only time I'm writing that out), not having won a bowl game since the 1967 Sun Bowl.  Here's winning QB Billy Stevens with the Sun Bowl hardware.

Stevens would go on to play two years in the NFL as Bart Starr's back-up, throwing five passes for a total of 12 yards.  Hey, he made the show.

What's all this Billy Stevens love?

This game was a defensive scrum, kind of a disappointment since this used to be the bowl season opener and has been high scoring as recently as last season.  Neither team passed much and Utah State used a bunch of guys to run the ball in a possession game.  UTEP officially had nothing.

I watched most of the first half and switched over to the Las Vegas Bowl.  I came back for some of the fourth quarter and saw the Aggies put up a late TD to pad the score.

Utah St. 21  UTEP 6

Notes

-Utah State lost starting quarterback Chuckie Keaton early in the season and were on their fourth quarterback today. Take that Ohio State.

-Always one of the coolest trophies of bowl season.

 -Who went to Utah State?  How about Nolan Bushnell, the guy who founded Atari gaming system and Chuck E. Cheese.  He made a ton of money off of Pong and terrible, terrible birthday parties. Want to smell urine?  Go to a Chuck E. Cheese ball pit. One time at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party, my kid wouldn't come down from the damn maze they have so I had to go up there, crawl through the tubes and bring him down.  Did I mention Chuck E. Cheese smells like urine?  Thanks Nolan. 

-What did I eat:  Nothing, I did a couple loads of laundry though.

-Bowl swag:  Items included Oakley sunglasses and backpack, a mobile phone charger and a Gildan blanket.  The offensive and defensive MVP's do get handmade shields though.

My Pick - Utah State, 2-0, two winners so far.  Can I go 39-0?  As mentioned, game three is on in Las Vegas.