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New Mexico Bowl may be breath of fresh air for Owls

IN CASE you didn't do well in geography, Albuquerque, N.M., is a little more than 5,000 feet above sea level. How that might impact a football player during a game, Temple coach Steve Addazio has no clue. Addazio's Owls will play Wyoming there on Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl.

IN CASE you didn't do well in geography, Albuquerque, N.M., is a little more than 5,000 feet above sea level. How that might impact a football player during a game, Temple coach Steve Addazio has no clue. Addazio's Owls will play Wyoming there on Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl.

"What's going to happen?" Addazio said yesterday. "I'm going to get off the plane and start gasping for air. I'm not sure. But I don't worry about it. I can't change it.

"You buckle your chinstraps up, come off the ball and rock and roll . . .

"They'll get to experience a whole different venue. It's good for everyone to broaden their horizons."

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Chris Coyer, who finally took over the offense in a Game 9 loss at Ohio, has been there once. But that was way back when.

"I was a little too young to remember," said Coyer, who appears fully recovered from an injury to his left (throwing) shoulder that knocked him out early in the Nov. 25 regular-season finale against Kent State. "We've got some family friends out there, so I'll get to see them for the first time in a few years.

"The last time we were in a bowl game [2009], RFK Stadium [in Washington] was about a 20-minute drive from my house. Right after the game, my parents left the car there and I drove home. That wasn't quite the bowl experience a lot of us were looking for. It was an experience, but not the same. Now we're traveling across the country. This atmosphere will be completely new. I'm pretty sure nobody's been there before."

All together now, take a deep breath. Now exhale . . .