Coach Eck, New Mexico Football Have More History To Make Vs. Minnesota in Rate Bowl
New Mexico’s Jason Eck and Minnesota’s PJ Fleck will meet in the 2025 Rate Bowl in Phoenix on December, 26th.
WARNING: A bowl game matchup with a big conference opponent could provide an unsatisfactory ending to the 2025 Jason Eck Appreciation Tour, if history is any indication.
Then again, the first-year University of New Mexico football coach has already established a reputation for rewriting Lobo history.
Eck and UNM (9-3) hope to give Lobo fans a late Christmas gift – only the second 10-win season in school history – with a win over Minnesota (7-5) in the Rate Bowl on Friday in Phoenix.
Despite losing three of their last five games, the Gophers enter as a 2.5-point favorite over the red-hot Lobos, winners of six straight. And here’s another potential first for Eck: UNM has never won seven in a row in a single season.
The 1982 New Mexico team that went 10-1, won its last six games that season, then won the first game in 1983 for the only seven-game winning streak in school history.
Minnesota has won its last eight bowl appearances and are 6-0 under coach P.J. Fleck. The team is 13-12 all-time in bowl games.
On paper, the Gophers don’t stand out anywhere in particular. Their best win was a 24-6 victory over then-No. 25 Nebraska, but the Cornhuskers ended up 7-5.
Quarterback Drake Lindsey has thrown for 2,235 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions this season on an offense that averages just 296.6 yards and 23.3 points per game.
The defense allows 342.3 yards and 23.4 points per game. It boasts a first-team All-Big Ten selection in edge rusher Anthony Smith (10.5 sacks, 13.5 tackles for loss) and third-team All-Big Ten safety Koi Perich (77 tackles, one sack, three TFLs, one interception, two pass breakups and a forced fumble). Cornerback John Nestor leads the team with five interceptions and six pass breakups in 10 games. He also has six TFLs and a forced fumble.
The Lobos’ postseason history isn’t as strong as Minnesota’s, although they have won two of their last three bowls – a 23-20 win over UTSA in their last appearance in 2016 and a 23-0 whitewash of Nevada and quarterback Colin Kaepernick in 2007.
Both games were in the New Mexico Bowl.
UNM is 4-8-1 all-time in the postseason, but the program’s other two wins were against Denver (1946 Sun Bowl) and Western Michigan (1961 Aviation Bowl).
The Lobos have played four teams from current Power Four conferences and are 0-5 against those schools (Arizona twice, UCLA, Utah and Oregon State).
It’s that game vs. Oregon State in the 2003 Las Vegas Bowl that serves as the impetus for the aforementioned warning.
The Beavers came into that game as a middle-of-the-pack Pac-12 team, 7-5 overall and 4-4 in conference play. They had lost four of their last six games.
The Las Vegas Bowl wasn’t the goal for that OSU team that featured a future NFL quarterback (Derek Anderson) and tight end (Tim Euhus) … oh, and also some running back named Steven Jackson, who rushed for more than 11,000 yards and scored 78 TDs during a 12-year NFL career, mostly with the then-St. Louis Rams.
While New Mexico appeared ecstatic about playing in its second straight bowl game, Oregon State seemed as if it was going through the motions.
But during a friendly competition between OSU and UNM at Fremont Street during one of the bowl week events leading up to that 2003 game, some Lobos began jawing at the Beavers, and the teams had to be separated.
Whether that episode had any bearing on the game is debatable, but there’s no denying that the Beavers routed UNM 55-14 as Jackson rushed for 142 yards and tied a bowl game record with five TDs. OSU’s defense held the Lobos to six rushing yards on 34 attempts.
It also could be that the Beavers that year played three ranked foes, including No. 2 USC and No. 6 Washington State, preparing them for the Christmas Eve battle that season.
Fast forward to 2025, and the Gophers have played three ranked schools, including No. 1 Ohio State and No. 6 Oregon, prepping them for the day after Christmas battle.
While Eck has done a masterful job making sure that no moment has been too big for UNM this season, Minnesota certainly won’t be in awe of Chase Field after having played the Buckeye in The Shoe.
But a win Friday will ensure that the Jason Eck Appreciation Tour goes well into 2026.
