2012 New Mexico Bowl
Coming into the game, both teams had sound offenses and were led by their respective running backs, sophomore Ka'Deem Carey for Arizona and senior Stefphon Jefferson for Nevada, who ranked number one and number two respectively in total rushing yards during the regular season.
Star running back Ka'Deem Carey had his best game of the year against Colorado totaling 366 yards to give the Wildcats their sixth win of the season.
Senior place kicker John Bonano was named the 2012 Pac-12 Football Scholar-Athlete of the Year (Physiology major with a 3.927 GPA).
After losing to South Florida by a single point, Nevada won five consecutive games to achieve bowl eligibility.
Nevada's senior receiver Brandon Wimberly had caught a pass in all 39 games of his college career.
[7] There was also significant hype surrounding the game because it featured two of the best running backs in the country, Ka'Deem Carey for Arizona, and Stefphon Jefferson for Nevada.
[13] Despite having three players on the All-Mountain West team,[14] Nevada allowed opponents to convert third downs 47.2% of the time (107th in the country).
Later in the quarter, the Wolf Pack took a 14–0 lead following a 17-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cody Fajardo to Zach Sudfeld.
Taking advantage of two Nevada turnovers, an interception thrown by Cody Fajardo and a fumble by Stefphon Jefferson, Arizona was able to tie the game at 21 with one-yard touchdown runs by Matt Scott and Carey, respectively.
Nevada enjoyed a three-point lead at the half after a 27 field goal by Allen Hardison capped off a 16-play, 65-yard drive and made the score 31–28.
[18] During the course of throwing the touchdown pass, Fajardo hurt his hand and was seen shaking it on his way to the end zone to celebrate the score.
[20] Arizona's next drive got them into Nevada territory, but an interception thrown by Matt Scott ended any hopes of scoring.
Near the end of the drive once Nevada was inside the 10-yard line, Fajardo ran the ball for a gain of three yards.
[22] Arizona, with no timeouts and needing two scores to win the game, was able to cut the lead down to 48–42 with only 42 seconds left in regulation on a short touchdown pass from Scott to Hill.
After Marquis Flowers successfully recovered the onside kick,[23] Arizona quickly scored with another short Scott touchdown pass, this time to Tyler Slavin, to take tie the game at 48 with only 19 seconds left in regulation.
[24] Prior to the extra point attempt, Nevada coach Chris Ault called his final timeout to try to ice kicker John Bonano.
[25] The tactic was unsuccessful, as Bonano made the extra point to give Arizona a one-point lead.
