COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Far West Roundup : Wyoming Goes On Holiday

Craig Burnett passed for 261 yards and Gerald Abraham rushed for 145 as Wyoming clinched the Western Athletic Conference title and a Holiday Bowl bid by trouncing Texas El Paso, 37-13, Saturday at El Paso.

Burnett threw for two touchdowns and ran for another for the Cowboys (9-2 overall, 7-0 in conference play), who finish their regular season next Saturday against Hawaii. A victory would give Wyoming the WAC title outright, while a loss would drop the Cowboys into a tie with Brigham Young.

Either way, Wyoming will play Iowa in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 30 in San Diego because it beat BYU earlier in the season.

Texas El Paso (7-4) concluded its first winning season in 17 years.

Burnett completed 23 of 38 passes for 261 yards, throwing touchdown passes of 10 yards to Scott Gibson and 4 yards to Bill Hoffman. He also ran 2 yards for a score.

Abraham and Steve Bena scored on 1-yard runs, and Greg Worker kicked a 50-yard field goal for the Cowboys.

The Miners got their scores on second-quarter touchdown runs of 5 and 4 yards by John Harvey.

San Diego State 53, New Mexico 30--Todd Santos, the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.’s Division I-A career passing yardage leader, threw three touchdowns in his final game and the Aztecs trounced the Lobos at San Diego.

Paul Hewitt rushed for four touchdowns for the Aztecs (5-7, 4-4). New Mexico (0-10, 0-8) finishes its season against Arkansas next Saturday.

Santos, whose No. 8 jersey was retired in postgame ceremonies, completed 23 of 31 passes for 373 yards and raised his career total to 11,425 yards.

He passed for more than 300 yards a 17th time to equal the record of BYU’s Jim McMahon, and his 910 career completions broke the record of 900 set by Bowling Green’s Brian McClure.

BYU 21, Utah 18--Quarterback Bob Jensen, who lost his starting job last month, scrambled 42 yards to set up Leonard Chitty’s game-winning field goal as the Cougars got past the Utes at Provo, Utah.

BYU (8-3, 3-1) will play Virginia in the All-American Bowl.

Utah (5-7, 2-6) tied the score, 18-18, on Chris Mendonca’s one-yard sneak after BYU starting quarterback Sean Covey suffered a concussion late in the third quarter.

Jensen, who lost the starting job to Covey on Oct. 24, came in after Mendonca’s touchdown and, on a broken pass play, ran 42 yards to the Utah 23-yard line. BYU was unable to move and Chitty hit from 34 yards with eight minutes left.

Utah scored first on Mendonca’s 49-yard touchdown pass play to Clifton Smith, one play after cornerback Clarence Fields intercepted Covey’s pass and returned it 21 yards to midfield.

Matt Bellini had 12 receptions for 119 yards for BYU.