It’s Layne’s job to lose as Moga, quarterback competition looms

To Jason Eck, two things can be true. 

When it comes to who will start under center for New Mexico this fall, it's Jack Layne’s job to lose after leading the Lobos to a historic 9-4 record last fall. 

But Layne isn’t a lock to start this season — certainly not after the addition of Oregon transfer quarterback Luke Moga. 

“There’s gonna be a competition,” Eck, UNM’s second-year head coach, said in a news conference Monday. “He’s not etched in stone for the first game. But he’s certainly played a lot of games in this offense, started 13 games for a nine-win team. 

“It ain’t gonna be easy to beat Jack out,” he added. “But Luke’s confident, Luke’s talented. So I think ... you know, we’ll see how this competition emerges.” 

All of which is precisely why no transfer has received as much attention as Moga, perhaps the biggest portal coup for the Lobos. The 6-foot-2, 204-pound redshirt freshman only appeared in three games over the last two seasons with the Ducks, but was previously rated as a four-star recruit out of Sunnyslope (Ariz.) High School. 

Adding Moga, Eck said, was born out of a desire to add experience to a “unique” quarterback room. While Layne started all 13 games last season, the rest of UNM’s quarterbacks — backups Toa Faavae, Gabriel Motschenbacher and early enrollee Cade Mitchell — enter this season with only one snap at the FBS level between the three of them. 

“Luke doesn’t have extensive experience, but he’s had some game time,” Eck said. “He played three games in his career (at Oregon). And I really hoped we could get an athletic guy, you know, someone who could help us.” 

A former state finalist sprinter, Moga was rated by Rivals as the fourth-best dual-threat quarterback recruit in the class of 2024. Eck compared him to former backup James Laubstein, noting that Moga could still contribute in a similar fashion if Layne won the starting job. 

After Layne missed nearly all of last spring with an elbow injury, Laubstein narrowly lost a quarterback competition to him heading into last season. But the redshirt senior thrived in a run-heavy role, finishing third on the team in rushing with 363 yards. 

“I think (Moga) fit exactly what we were looking for … We gotta get him 100% healthy,” Eck added. “He’s a little limited in some of the running things, but he’s a talented young man, he was very fast out of high school. And to get better, we gotta keep having great competition across the board.”

Notes and quotes

— Much of the discussion around UNM’s quarterbacks has been limited to Layne and Moga. But Eck said Toa Faavae made his mark during the practices leading up to the Rate Bowl in December, and could continue rising up the depth chart. 

“I think the bowl practices really helped Toa,” Eck said. “He really had an opportunity to kind of move ahead of our third-string quarterback last year, (Cole Welliver), during those bowl practices. 

“So that’s a sign of (how) winning kinda begets winning. That extra, I don’t know exactly how many practices ... really helped us develop some guys.”

— UNM lost tight ends coach Jared Elliott to the same role at Illinois last week. It sounds as if Eck already has a replacement in mind: “There’s another guy we’re targeting for our last spot that’s open that I’ve worked with in the past that I think would be a tremendous addition as well,” he said. “I tell the players … we lost some good coaches, but we’re gonna get somebody just as good or better when we have (staff) movement.”

— Because UNM has multiple Designated Student Athletes (DSAs) – players not subject to college football’s roster limit rules due to when they committed or signed – Eck said the Lobos have some “wiggle room” when it comes to meeting the 105-player cap.

But UNM will have to “trim the roster some,” he added. “ … We may have to have some guys who we even cut off the roster in the fall to get to our number and maybe we tell them, ‘hey, we like you, we’ll bring you back in the spring’ when we have a little bit of roster relief to try to earn that spot again.”

Sean Reider covers college football and other sports for the Journal. You can reach him at sreider@abqjournal.com or via X at @lenaweereider.