| Game Name: | New Mexico Bowl |
| Title Sponsor: | Gildan |
| Date Game Played: | December 19 |
| Year Game Played: | 2015 |
| Football Season: | 2015 |
| Stadium: | University Stadium |
| City: | Albuquerque, New Mexico |
| Visitor School: | University of Arizona |
| Visitor Name Short: | Arizona |
| Visitor Nickname: | Wildcats |
| Visitor Record: | 6–6 |
| Visitor Conference: | Pac-12 |
| Visitor Coach: | Rich Rodriguez |
| Visitor 1Q: | 7 |
| Visitor 2Q: | 21 |
| Visitor 3Q: | 14 |
| Visitor 4Q: | 3 |
| Home School: | University of Nevada Reno |
| Home Name Short: | New Mexico |
| Home Nickname: | Lobos |
| Home Record: | 7–5 |
| Home Conference: | Mountain West |
| Home Coach: | Bob Davie |
| Home 1Q: | 3 |
| Home 2Q: | 14 |
| Home 3Q: | 14 |
| Home 4Q: | 6 |
| Odds: | Arizona by 8[1] |
| Mvp: | Offense: Arizona QB Anu Solomon[2] Defense:Arizona LB Scooby Wright III[3] |
| Referee: | Larry Smith (MAC) |
| Attendance: | 30,289 |
| Payout: | 456,250 |
| Us Network: | ESPN/ESPN Radio |
| Us Announcers: | Eamon McAnaney, Rocky Boiman, & Laura Rutledge (ESPN) Drew Goodman Tom Ramsey, & Marty Cesario (ESPN Radio) |
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.
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.[4]
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).
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.
Source: [5]
| Statistics | 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 | 13/24, 329 yds, 2 TD, 1 INT | |
| Rushing | Jared Baker | 12 car, 107 yds, 3 TD | |
| Receiving | 4 rec, 182 yds, 1 TD | ||
| UNM | Passing | 3/9, 110 yds, 1 TD, 2 INT | |
| Rushing | 21 car, 135 yds, 3 TD | ||
| Receiving | Delane Hart-Johnson | 1 rec, 92 yds, 1 TD |