New Mexico returns to the Rate Bowl after nearly three decades with a chance to reach heights one of the program’s greatest squads could never reach.
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With a 9-3 record and a win over UCLA, this year’s New Mexico Lobos have cemented themselves as one of the best teams in program history. Their return to the Rate Bowl naturally draws comparisons to the 1997 team that played in the same bowl.
The 1997 New Mexico Lobos earned a spot in the WAC Championship Game after winning the WAC Mountain Division with a 9-2 overall record and a 6-2 record in conference play. The Lobos took advantage of BYU's rebuilding year, which went 6-5 overall and 4-4 in league play, a year after going 14-1 in 1996. The division title was the Lobos’ first conference or division title since winning the WAC in 1964 with a 3-1 conference mark and 9-2 overall record.
Graham Leigh and Pascal Volz led a high-powered Lobos offense that averaged 32 points per game. Leigh threw for 2318 yards and 24 touchdowns and ran for 528 yards and eight touchdowns on his way to conference player of the year honors. Volz caught 69 passes for 1228 yards and 13 touchdowns to earn a spot on The Sporting News 3rd Team All-American squad. On defense, a young Brian Urlacher intercepted three passes.
Unfortunately, the 1997 Lobos met their match in the WAC Championship Game, losing 41-13 to the Pacific Division champion Colorado State at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas. Surprisingly, their season almost ended there.
A technicality only required the Insight Bowl (now the Rate Bowl) to invite the loser of the WAC Championship Game if it had one more win against FBS competition than all other WAC schools. The Insight Bowl, then located in Tucson, had interest in 10-2 Pacific Division runner-up Air Force, who had nine FBS wins to New Mexico’s eight, leaving the Las Vegas Bowl as the Lobos’ only bowl option if they lost the WAC Championship Game.
The Las Vegas Bowl expressed reluctance over inviting New Mexico or Colorado State two weeks after playing in the same place for the conference title. Fortunately, the WAC convinced the Insight Bowl to invite the loser of the WAC Championship Game, while the Las Vegas Bowl invited Air Force, giving New Mexico its first bowl appearance since the 1961 Aviation Bowl.
The Lobos could not end the season on a high note, losing 20-14 to 6-5 Arizona in the Insight Bowl. Four interceptions doomed the Lobos on offense.
New Mexico has a chance at redemption in this week’s Rate Bowl. A win over Minnesota in the Rate Bowl can place them on a higher pedestal than the famed 1997 team. They have already done something the 1997 team could not: defeat a Power Conference team, UCLA. An elusive win in the Rate Bowl solidifies their place as arguably the greatest New Mexico team of the last 60 years.
The 2024 New Mexico Football Media Guide was indispensable to my research. You can read it here.
