Fresno State linebacker Levelle Bailey wasn’t finished for the game, but he did finish it

Fresno State defensive end Arron Mosby rocketed off the edge, as he has so many times this season, stripping the football from UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison, his sixth forced fumble of the year.

The Miners recovered the football, but the Bulldogs had a safety and a little more breathing room in the fourth quarter of a 31-24 victory on Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl. Somewhere in that pileup around the loose football, though, linebacker Levelle Bailey was getting twisted around.

It was his knee, specifically, and his thought at that second: It was not good.

“I was nervous, for sure,” Bailey said. “When it happened, the play was still going so my knee was still caught under the pile and the fumble. My teammates were trying to get me out of there, but there was no way.”

The Bulldogs linebacker was helped to the sideline, but after a check of the stability in the knee was cleared to return. Trainers asked Bailey if he wanted to finish the game.

And, he did in fact finish it, making one of the bigger plays for the Bulldogs’ defense in the bowl victory and 10th win this season. That safety gave Fresno State that seven-point lead, but UTEP forced a punt and with 5:27 to go the Miners were 84 yards from a tying score.

They made it out to the 48, still with plenty of time to put a drive together.

But at the end of a 10-yard run by Hardison to the Bulldogs’ 42, Bailey forced and then found and recovered a fumble to put an end to the Miners’ final threat.

“I didn’t even know the quarterback fumbled on that last play, but I heard someone say ‘Get it, get it,’” Bailey said.

It was right there, on his hip. Once in his possession, the Bulldogs’ soon enough had a third bowl victory in a row, following wins over Arizona State in the 2018 Las Vegas Bowl and Houston in the 2017 Hawaii Bowl.

The fumble was one of two turnovers forced by the Bulldogs, both at opportune times. The first came in the second quarter, an interception at the Fresno State 3-yard line by safety Elijah Gates, who also had seven tackles and was selected as the defensive player of the game.

Bulldogs put clamps on Cowing

Fresno State did give up some big plays in the passing game, but held Jacob Cowing, one of the top wideouts in the nation, to just two receptions for 24 yards on 10 targets. Two of those incomplete passes targeted to Cowing, who went in sixth in the nation with 1,343 receiving yards, ended up helping get the Bulldogs a lead just before halftime that they were able to hold the rest of the way.

UTEP got the football with 1:41 remaining in the half and after picking up a quick first down and an incomplete pass, took two deep shots at freshman cornerback Cale Sanders Jr. up the left sideline.

Sanders broke up the first, the second Cowing caught out of bounds and the Miners punted the ball back to the Bulldogs. Cesar Silva ended up hitting a 45-yard field goal for a 19-17 lead with four seconds remaining in the half.

“I’m singled up with one of the fastest guys on the field so I’m thinking in my head, it’s going to be a fade ball,” Sanders said. “I’m being patient at the line and just getting ready to just run with him and get hands on him. I just played through his hands and one was incomplete and one I felt like he pushed me a little bit, but it was called. But that’s two incomplete passes on two attempts over there and that’s good.”