Five minutes and five seconds.
Hope took on a body of its own and the intimate gathering of 12,809 in the Sun Bowl seemed to expand, to grow, to roar, to become a big football crowd.
UTEP trailed just 20-17 and there was hope, so much hope, that the anvil on the Miners' back that was 17 straight losses was about to be jettisoned.
Finally, late in a game, there was hope.
The hope hung there like a London fog over the old bowl as time ticked into history.
Two minutes, 45 seconds.
UTEP got the football back with all that time, all that hope, got it with a chance to tie or, perish the thought, win this football game.