2015 New Mexico Bowl

The 2015 New Mexico Bowl was a college football bowl game that was played on December 19, 2015 at University Stadium in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The tenth annual New Mexico Bowl, it pitted the University of New Mexico Lobos of the Mountain West Conference against the University of Arizona Wildcats of the Pac-12 Conference. It was one of the 2015–16 bowl games that concluded the 2015 FBS football season. The game started at 12:20 p.m. MST and aired on ESPN. Sponsored by clothing company Gildan Activewear, the game was officially known as the Gildan New Mexico Bowl.

2015 Gildan New Mexico Bowl
Arizona Wildcats New Mexico Lobos (6–6) (7–5) Pac-12 Mountain West 45 37 Head coach:  Rich Rodriguez Head coach:  Bob Davie
1 2 3 4 Total Arizona 7 21 14 3 45 New Mexico 3 14 14 6 37
Date	December 19, 2015
Season	2015
Stadium	University Stadium
Location	Albuquerque, New Mexico
MVP	Offense: Arizona QB Anu Solomon[1] Defense:Arizona LB Scooby Wright III[2]
Favorite	Arizona by 8[3]
Referee	Larry Smith (MAC)[4]
Attendance	30,289[4]
Payout	US$456,250
United States TV coverage
Network	ESPN/ESPN Radio
Announcers	Eamon McAnaney, Rocky Boiman, & Laura Rutledge (ESPN) Drew Goodman Tom Ramsey, & Marty Cesario (ESPN Radio)
New Mexico Bowl  < 2014  2016 >

Team selection

The game featured the New Mexico Lobos against the Arizona Wildcats. It was the 67th overall meeting between these teams, with Arizona leading the series 43–20–3 before this game (both had previously been in-conference rivals in the Border Conference and the Western Athletic Conference before Arizona joined the Pacific-10 Conference (now the Pac-12 Conference) and New Mexico joined the Mountain West. The last meeting between these two teams was in 2008, when the Lobos beat the Wildcats 36–28 in Albuquerque.^[5]

Arizona Wildcats

See also: 2015 Arizona Wildcats football team

Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez had led the Wildcats to bowl appearances in each of his four seasons with the school. Overall, Rodriguez entered with a 4–5 bowl record as the head coach at Arizona (2–1), Michigan (0–1) and West Virginia (2–3).

New Mexico Lobos

See also: 2015 New Mexico Lobos football team

This was the first bowl appearance for the Lobos under fourth-year head coach Bob Davie, who had three previous bowl appearances as the head coach at Notre Dame. UNM entered 3–7–1 all time in bowl games, with their last appearance being a win in the 2007 New Mexico Bowl. The Lobos play their home games at the New Mexico Bowl site – University Stadium – and had a 5–2 record in 2015 at home.

Game summary

Scoring summary

Scoring summary

Quarter Time Drive Team Scoring information Score Plays Yards TOP ARIZ UNM 1 9:52 5 17 2:45 UNM 37-yard field goal by Zack Rogers 0 3 1 7:26 2 80 0:31 ARIZ Cayleb Jones 78-yard touchdown reception from Anu Solomon, Casey Skowron kick good 7 3 2 14:51 3 77 0:47 ARIZ Jared Baker 27-yard touchdown run, Casey Skowron kick good 14 3 2 8:50 6 67 3:04 UNM Lamar Jordan 31-yard touchdown run, Zack Rogers kick good 14 10 2 3:27 4 53 1:18 ARIZ Anu Solomon 14-yard touchdown run, Casey Skowron kick good 21 10 2 2:19 3 90 1:08 UNM Delane Hart-Johnson 92-yard touchdown reception from Lamar Jordan, Zack Rogers kick good 21 17 2 0:30 4 51 1:49 ARIZ David Richards 1-yard touchdown reception from Anu Solomon, Casey Skowron kick good 28 17 3 13:56 4 75 1:04 ARIZ Jared Baker 32-yard touchdown run, Casey Skowron kick good 35 17 3 9:17 8 72 4:39 UNM Lamar Jordan 11-yard touchdown run, Zack Rogers kick good 35 24 3 7:35 1 4 0:05 ARIZ Jared Baker 4-yard touchdown run, Casey Skowron kick good 42 24 3 2:02 10 50 5:33 UNM Lamar Jordan 3-yard touchdown run, Zack Rogers kick good 42 31 4 13:52 8 40 3:10 UNM Austin Apodaca 4-yard touchdown run, 2-point run failed 42 37 4 1:32 13 42 5:10 ARIZ 37-yard field goal by Casey Skowron 45 37 "TOP" = time of possession. For other American football terms, see Glossary of American football. 45 37

Source: ^[4]

Statistics

Statistics[4]	ARIZ	UNM
First downs	19	25
Plays–yards	56–503	91–522
Rushes–yards	32–174	69–333
Passing yards	329	189
Passing: Comp–Att–Int	13–24–1	10–22–3
Time of possession	19:08	40:52

Team	Category	Player	Statistics
ARIZ	Passing	Anu Solomon	13/24, 329 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT
	Rushing	Jared Baker	12 car, 107 yds, 3 TD
	Receiving	Cayleb Jones	4 rec, 182 yds, 1 TD
UNM	Passing	Lamar Jordan	3/9, 110 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT
	Rushing	Lamar Jordan	21 car, 135 yds, 3 TD
	Receiving	Delane Hart-Johnson	1 rec, 92 yds, 1 TD

See also

• Arizona–New Mexico football rivalry

References

1. GildanNewMexicoBowl [@GildanNMbowl] (December 19, 2015). "2015 Offensive Player of the Game, Anu Solomon" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
2. GildanNewMexicoBowl [@GildanNMbowl] (December 19, 2015). "2015 Defensive Player of the Game, Scooby Wright" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
3. Odds, Los Angeles Times, December 19, 2015
4. "2015 New Mexico Bowl: Arizona vs. New Mexico Stats". Stat Broadcast. Retrieved December 19, 2015.
5. "Winsipedia - Arizona Wildcats vs. New Mexico Lobos football series history".