by Phil Parker
Daily Lobo
The Lobos are going to a bowl game. All that's left to be decided is which one, and if they'll go as conference champions.
The news came early this week that UNM will be invited to one of three Mountain West Conference bowls. The Liberty Bowl, in Memphis, Tenn., will take the MWC champion. The Las Vegas Bowl has second choice of MWC teams and the San Francisco Bowl will pick from the best of the remaining teams.
The Lobos want the Liberty Bowl. They want to be champions.
This weekend the Lobos head to the bitter cold of Laramie, Wyo., for a match-up against the Wyoming Cowboys. A UNM win would, at the very least, put them exclusively in second place in the MWC.
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Consider a UNM win and a Utah loss at BYU, and it gets much sweeter for the Lobos. Utah is first in the conference with a 5-1 record, UNM is second at 4-2. If things play out right for UNM, both teams will be tied at 6-2 after Saturday. They would have to split the conference championship, despite UNM's victory earlier this season over the Utes. But the Liberty Bowl would take the Lobos based on that victory.
"We are pulling for BYU to beat Utah," UNM head coach Rocky Long said. "But we have to play well to win our game, and if we win, that's the only way for us to become co-champions. In my mind and the players' minds, if Utah happens to lose to BYU and we win, there's no co-champions in this league because we beat Utah."
Long said the Lobos are going to have to play well in order to win this weekend and be co-champions.
"We want to go to Memphis," sophomore tail back DonTrell Moore said. "We know we have to beat Wyoming to do that.
"Coach let us know that a bowl game has already invited us, but there won't be a let down," Moore said. "The bigger goal is to be conference champions."
Moore said the team will look to its veterans on the senior-laden squad to stay grounded.
"Ever since the bowl game last year we have been screaming for a conference championship," senior safety Sidney Wiley said. "Hopefully after Saturday's game we will be champs. We need to go to Wyoming and do what we have to do."
Because the weather is expected to be brutally cold, this should be a contest decided by the running game.
"It's going to be a good match-up for us," said tackle Justin Colburn. "Especially if the weather is really bad because it's hard to pass in bad weather."
The conditions should favor UNM. Moore is the conference's leading rusher, with just under 1,300 yards this season. Wyoming, on the other hand, is last in the conference in rushing offense and will have a hard time corralling Moore due to the Cowboy's last-ranked rushing defense.
The conditions should also help to hamper the play of Cowboy quarterback Casey Bramlet, the top passer in the MWC.
Should everything fall perfectly into place, the Lobos will return to Albuquerque as Mountain West co-champions. New Year's Eve reservations in Memphis will come next.
