Judge New Mexico Football by Its Potential, Not by Routs of Central Michigan, Mercyhurst
“Adversity’s coming... we created some adversity this summer. I’m not too worried we haven’t been battle-tested much these first two games. It’s going to be a great challenge.”
It’s difficult to nitpick a football team that has outscored its opponents 108-14 in its first two games.
Still, it’s harder to imagine the University of New Mexico pulling off the unlikely upset at Oklahoma next week without improvement in key areas.
The Lobos improved to 2-0 after Saturday’s 70-7 dismantling of FCS school Mercyhurst (0-3) in front of a disappointing-yet-expected crowd of 23,874 at University Stadium.
UNM won its ninth in a row at home for the first time since the 1934-35 seasons, and its 94-point scoring differential is the third largest in school history.
Only the 1945 team (117 points) and the 1934 team (96 points) outscored their first two foes by a wider margin.
“Adversity’s coming,” coach Jason Eck said during his postgame news conference, referring to the Sooners, who suffered a stunning 17-10 road loss at Michigan on Saturday. But “we created some adversity this summer. I’m not too worried we haven’t been battle-tested much these first two games. It’s going to be a great challenge.”
“It’s a lot different weight class than we were facing this week.”
And welcome to the current state of Lobo football, where a discussion about an upset of a program such as Oklahoma at least creates a pause before any negativity sets in.
Still … despite putting up a basketball-impressive 42 points in the second quarter – a school record for one quarter – against the Lakers, UNM’s day was far from perfect.
The Lobos played a pretty bad first quarter that resulted in a 7-7 tie. The quarterbacks missed several open receivers. The offense also failed to convert a fourth-and-1 at the MU 21.
The defense overpursued badly on a 75-yard Mercyhurst touchdown pass and catch that gave the Lakers (0-3) almost as many total yards on that one play as Central Michigan had (79) in three quarters against UNM last week.
QBs Luke Moga and Toa Fa’avae combined to complete just 7 of 18 attempts for 173 yards. The 24.7 yards per completion was impressive, but the passing game overall wasn’t.
Photo: Ryan Kelly-Romero/R&R Sports Photography
“I think some people think this is an illness, that you have to take medicine and get better,” Eck said of his two-headed QB monster. “We’ve got to get a little more consistent.”
The Lobos also had three punt-return holding penalties that negated good returns or pushed the offense in tenuous field position.
All that might have signaled trouble against FCS schools in years past. UNM swatted them away like annoying gnats.
Defense and special teams forced six turnovers, giving the Lobos eight takeaways in two games and a plus-seven turnover margin. They had to work hard last year to bring their TO-margin down from negative double digits to minus-six at season’s end.
The Lobo defense tied a school record with 13 tackles for loss Saturday. For the season, it is giving up just 152 yards per game.
Running back Scottre Humphrey needed just one play into the second quarter to reach 100 yards rushing. He finished with 15 carries for 110 yards and two TDs in just two quarters of work.
Humprey is starting to look like the dangerous playmaker UNM recruited in 2025.
So, while the degree of difficulty gets infinitely tougher next week and the Lobos have to shore up several areas, just think about the possibilities if they actually do shore up those areas in Oklahoma.
An upset doesn’t seem unthinkable.
From humiliating FCS upsets to statement road victories, the Mountain West turned into absolute chaos last weekend. While conference newcomers North Dakota State continued their dominant FBS transition by dismantling Air Force, stalwarts like UNLV hit an unexpected brick wall, and two other programs suffered embarrassing home drops to lower-subdivision foes. But amidst the wreckage, a few programs took care of business, racked up record-setting blowouts, and found their footing.
Here are the top five takeaways from a wild, unraveling week of Mountain West college football with Colton Pool.