Lobo football coach shows off acting chops as school announces kids get in games free

Michael Scott would have been proud.

The University of New Mexico football team on Monday unleashed on the public two things — a new fan-friendly, kids 12-and-under get in free ticket promotion and the exceptional acting chops of first-year football coach Jason Eck.

On the ticketing front, fans who purchase an adult north end zone ticket for UNM home football games this season (minus the Sept. 27 game against New Mexico State University), get two free tickets for kids 12 and under.

While the latest move comes with the intent of trying to aid the long-suffering Lobo football attendance problem, it also aligns with last week’s announcement that fans can get in free to most Olympic sports — baseball, softball, women’s soccer, outdoor track and field — this school year.

“We look at it holistically, right?” said first-year Athletic Director Fernando Lovo. “We need people to show up to our events. Obviously, there’s other ancillary benefits that show up from a revenue side when we have people here, but at the end of the day, for us, I know this, having butts in seats has a tangible impact on winning and losing. And when you have a good product on the field, and when you’re having success on the field, then everything starts to roll downhill. …

“We’re talking about lowering barriers for entry for our fans. And for Olympic sports, same thing. The more people we can get into our venues, the better for us. It is for our student athletes, but also long-run financially, we think it’ll pay off in the end.”

UNM football averaged 16,001 fans last season, ranking 114th out of 135 FBS programs.

Raising attendance, and football revenue in general, is essentially priority No. 1 at the university over the next four or five years.

Noting he has five kids and is well aware of the cost issues with attending ticketed events as a family, Eck said he was on board from the moment he heard about the promotion.

“Hopefully we’re growing some young Lobo fans who will be Lobo fans for life and get them getting excited about coming to University Stadium when they’re 8 years old,” Eck said. “You know, maybe there’s a chance they come for the next 50 years.”

But the idea for free tickets for kids was only part of the excitement around Monday’s announcement. The rollout of the promotion was also met with fan fare.

Spearheaded by the creativity of Chase Christiansen, an associate AD at UNM, and aided by new Senior Associate AD for External Relations Kasey Byers, the Lobos filmed a video in the style of “The Office” starring Eck, Lovo and a group of kids at a local elementary school.

“This was collaborative,” Byers said, “but this video has Chase written all over it. He’s a huge Office fan. We really did spend weeks talking about the (ticketing) initiative, and then with the video, I really want to dive into some of these approaches to telling our stories in a way that gets people’s attention.”

The idea certainly looked good on (Dunder Mifflin) paper. But could Eck and Lovo pull off the actual acting?

“Clearly, Jason Eck (was the better actor),” Lovo said. “I will tell you, I am not a good actor.”

In the three-minute video that received several hundred thousand views on UNM’s various social media channels on Monday, Eck played himself but in a role inspired by Dunder Mifflin manager Michael Scott, the Steve Carell role in the hit TV show “The Office.”

Eck offered class of third-graders free tuition to UNM after a misunderstanding with Lovo.

“I’ve made some empty promises in my life, but hands down that was the most generous,” Eck says deadpan facing the camera in the promotional video, stripping word-for-word a line spoken by Carell in “Scott’s Tots,” the 12th episode in season six of “The Office.”

Eck then has to make good with the kids — some of the child actors are children of athletic department employees (Eck’s daughter makes an appearance) — while they’re in an actual classroom at Lew Wallace Elementary School in Albuquerque.

Pete Thamel of ESPN posted on X on Monday afternoon, “If they gave out Oscars for best performance in a ticket promotion, @Coach_Eck would run away with it. Good work here.”

Asked on social media for her review of Eck’s performance, his wife Kimberly Eck told the Journal “I loved it” with a laughing emoji and a gif of the role model himself, Steve Carell as Michael Scott, with two thumbs up.

More information on the promotion, including the verification process, is available at GoLobos.com.