Series History
The Utah Utes and New Mexico Lobos compete in the Mountain West Conference, but have played each other in football nearly every year since the early 1960s, when both schools were members of the Western Athletic Conference.
Although Utah leads the series by a large margin, New Mexico has often been victorious when the odds were most against them, and when the game was especially important to Utah. For example, in November of 1994, Utah was ranked #8, and had an 8–0 record that included victories over Oregon (eventual Pac-10 champion, #11 finish) and #12 Colorado State. They were heavy favorites to beat New Mexico, who had an unimpressive 3–8 record at the time.
During the game, Utah jumped out to a 21–3 halftime lead, however a slew of Utah turnovers resulted in a New Mexico rally. The Lobos cut the Ute lead to one point with just four minutes left in the game. Then, with just 32 seconds left on the clock, New Mexico hit a 22-yard field goal to seal the 23–21 victory, and destroy Utah's hopes for an undefeated season. New Mexico went on finish the season at 5–7. Utah, on the other hand, would go on to a 10–2 record, which included victories over #20 BYU and #14 Arizona in the Freedom Bowl. But they would be condemned to forever wonder what might have been had the New Mexico game turned out in their favor.
Read more about this topic: The Bowl (Utah Vs. New Mexico)
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