The Bowl season is finally here as it kicks off December 18, 2010. The first bowl game is the New Mexico Bowl and it features BYU vs UTEP. This will be the first time UTEP has played BYU since the two teams were both in the Western Athletic Conference in 1998. BYU has dominated when they have played and leads the all-time series 28–7–1. The New Mexico bowl is in it's 5th year and it's hosted in the University Stadium in New Mexico. The Mountain West leads the Western Athletic three wins to one in the New Mexico bowl. The game will be played at 2 PM Eastern time and will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN HD.
BYU will represent the Mountain West Conference in the New Mexico bowl and is lead by head coach Bronco Mendelian. This is the Cougars 29th bowl appearance in school history in which they have won three of their last five. BYU finished the regular season 6-6, which was good for 3rd in the MWC. Despite starting the season 2-5 BYU was able to win four games in a row and almost upset Utah in order to earn it's sixth straight bowl berth. Junior quarterback Riley Nelson was sidelined with a shoulder injury, so the Cougars offense is lead by Freshman quarterback Jake Heaps who has thrown for 2,052 yards, 11 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Jake Heaps has struggled for most of the season, but has improved towards the end of the year as he is completing 55% of his passes. BYU is ranked 46th in the country in running the ball averaging 164 yards a game lead by Junior running backs Bryan Kariya and JJ Di Luigi, who have 1,338 yards and 13 touchdowns combined. JJ Di Luigi is also the Cougars leading receiver as he has 42 receptions for 422 yards and 1 touchdown. BYU's second option at wide receiver is Freshman Cody Hoffman who has 34 catches for 390 yards and four touchdown receptions. Head coach Mendenhall has taken over the defensive coordinator duties since Jaime Hill was fired and has improved this defense tremendously as the Cougars are giving up just 21 points per game on average. The Cougars have 13 interceptions on the season.
