Can the Lobos (finally) beat the Rams? Everything you need to know about New Mexico-Colorado State

Who: New Mexico (6-3, 3-2) vs. Colorado State (2-7, 1-4)

When and where: 1 p.m. Saturday at University Stadium.

How to watch/listen: Altitude, a Colorado-based regional sports network, will carry UNM-CSU with Robert Portnoy (play-by-play) and DonTrell Moore (analyst) on the call. For those who don’t have Altitude, themw.com will stream the same broadcast online.

J.J. Buck (play-by-play), Ned James (analyst) and UNM soccer alum Skye McMillon (sidelines) will also broadcast UNM-CSU via radio on the Lobo Radio Network (770 AM/96.3 FM).

Who’s favored: UNM is a 14.5-point favorite over CSU, per DraftKings. The over/under is set at 53.5 points.

Top storyline(s): Contrary to preseason predictions, the Lobos are a surprising 6-3 after their third-straight win, a dramatic 40-35 triumph over UNLV. They are currently the darlings of Albuquerque and the Mountain West, firmly in the mix for an appearance in the league’s title game.

Things have not been this good for the program in a long, long time.

Also contrary to preseason predictions? Colorado State’s miserable season. The Rams are a shocking 2-7 after their third-straight loss, a 42-10 drubbing at the hands of UNLV. (UNM played UNLV two weeks ago and was on bye last week. CSU played UNLV last week.)

Fourth-year head coach Jay Norvell was fired at the start of that losing streak, leaving interim Tyson Summers and a reshuffled staff to finish out a sharply disappointing year.

Things have not been this dismal for the Rams in at least a few seasons. So it would be easy to imagine a world where UNM takes care of business Saturday as the heavy favorite and moves on. After all, the Lobos have been on that end plenty of times in recent seasons.

But this is college football. How many times has a team grown complacent after success, only to suffer an unexpected loss? How many teams have relaxed against an opponent with nothing to lose?

Enough, at the very least, for Jason Eck to keep his guard up.

“We gotta keep bringing it out of them,” UNM’s first-year head coach said in a news conference Tuesday. “Because I think that’s probably human nature. You know back like (with) the cavemen and stuff, when they went out hunting and they killed three elk or whatever, and they had a stockpile of elk sitting in their cave.

“They probably relaxed a little bit and said, ‘yeah, I got enough food for a while, I don’t gotta go kill more elk.’ So I think that is a (part of) human nature ... And we gotta fight that a little bit.”

(Memorable as it may be, Eck did not use the same analogy in sharing this message with the team: “(It was) just normal,” quarterback Jack Layne said Tuesday. “No cavemen or elk.”)

And after Eck previously called for 25,000 to 30,000 fans to show up Saturday, he’s sticking to his guns: “The football gods have helped us with it not being 27 degrees or something,” he added. “There’s not a lot of obstacles to being there this Saturday — it’s not very expensive, the weather is not awful. You gotta want to be there.

“ … I kinda stand by what I said. I’ll be disappointed if it’s less than 25,000 (fans). We need to invest and the fans can make a difference.”

Rams to watch: Linebacker Owen Long has been excellent for CSU this season, racking up an FBS-leading 110 total tackles. The 6-foot-1, 195-pound sophomore was also a onetime Idaho commit while Eck was coaching the Vandals.

“I thought he was instinctual,” Eck added. “I thought he didn’t get blocked very often; could either get off blocks or just avoid blocks. Good movement, good lateral quickness, and (I) thought he was going to be a really good player and he has turned out to be.”

Lobos to watch: Cornerback Abraham Williams and backup quarterback James Laubstein’s statuses for Saturday remain unclear. Eck said UNM will have a better idea of their chances to play later in the week.

Safety Austin Brawley is set to return, however, after suffering a foot injury in the season opener at Michigan. Keep an eye on how he slots in with the secondary in his first game back.

What happened the last time these teams played: UNM turned it over four times and gave up nearly 200 rushing yards as CSU rolled to an ugly 17-6 win on Oct. 26, 2024. That loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Lobos and increased the Rams’ run in the series to 13-straight; UNM last beat CSU in 2009, just one of two wins under former head coach Mike Locksley.

How is Eck looking at that (relatively unbelievable) losing streak?

“We have some guys who have maybe played against these guys once or twice,” he said, “and then we got 70-some guys who have never played against them. (Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti) kinda said it last week, they had never won at Penn State, but this team has never played Colorado State.

“This will be our first matchup against these guys. And I do think our team has shown a good knack for doing things that haven’t been done in a long time.”