The battle for the strangest trophy in sports kicks off on Saturday.
Wyoming faces Temple at 12 p.m. in the sixth annual Gildan New Mexico Bowl, the first bowl game of the season, for a chance to raise the 20-inch Native American clay pot.
Both teams are 8-4, and Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen said a lot of people will be watching the game because it’s the first bowl game of the season and nationally televised on ESPN.
“Everyone that is a college football junkie has taken two weeks off and can’t wait for it to come back on, so by 12 o’clock on ESPN, we will be that game,” he said. “The exposure is tremendous.
It’s from coast to coast and goes to every household and every sports bar.”
Wyoming finished 5-2 in the MWC, with its only losses coming against TCU and Boise State.
Wyoming beat Fresno State in the 2009 New Mexico Bowl, but Christensen said his team won’t have an advantage even though they have played in the bowl game before.
“I don’t think it’s a huge advantage,” he said. “We’ve played down here, but it wasn’t an advantage to come down here and play last year. I don’t think it will play a big role in the outcome of the football game.”
Wyoming is led by freshman quarterback Brett Smith, who was named the 2011 MWC freshman of the year and was placed on the freshman All-American second team this year.
Smith has 2,495 passing yards on the season and a 60.5 percent completion rate.
“Our guys rally around him,” Christensen said. “They follow him and he will be a captain for this bowl game. As a true freshman, he’s a great competitor who is never satisfied with his performance.”
Temple finished 5-3 in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), and three of its four losses were by four points or fewer this season.
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“Our kids are so excited to come out and enjoy this bowl experience,” Temple head coach Steve Addazio said. “I promise you that we’ll come out as a well-prepared football team full of energy, full of passion, and really bring a flavor of MAC and Philadelphia-style football to New Mexico.”
Temple comes into the game with a potent running game that is ranked No. 9 in the nation for rush yards, averaging 256.7 yards per game.
Running back Bernard Pierce is currently No. 13 in the country with 1,381 rush yards this year.
“On offense, everyone knows Bernard Pierce,” Addazio said. “He’s a heck of a RB, and he’s had a great year. He’s an exciting player to watch.”
Addazio said he expects a tough game, with each team looking for its ninth win of the season.
“On both sides of the football, we feel we have a good, quality football team,” he said. “So this will be two great teams going at each other. This will be a great day in college football, and one that we’re really looking forward to.”
