Time for Professor Y. to issue midterm grades

I have no idea where Professor Y. disappears to for the other 51 weeks of the calendar year, I only know he parachutes in for one week to assign his midseason letter grades for each of the metro area’s 25 high school football teams.

Week 6 is hump week of the 11-week regular season and everyone is at least halfway through their schedule. So it’s time to sit down with the trusty red pen and attach a grade to everyone.

The usual rule applies: DO NOT compare your school’s grade to anyone else. Professor Y. grades everyone in a bubble. No grades lower than C-minus will be issued.

ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY (2-3): This has been a tough group for Professor Y. to peg. The Chargers won two in a row to start, but hit their bye week on a three-game losing streak, and their best overall player, Gage Conway, has been hurt. They need him back. GRADE: B-minus

ALBUQUERQUE HIGH (3-2): A Week 1, last-second victory against Cibola stands out. A Week 4 loss, in which the Bulldogs only scored six points against Santa Fe, is a debit on the ledger. But generally speaking for AHS, a pretty fair first half of the season. GRADE: B

ATRISCO HERITAGE (1-4): Except for a big win over Rio Grande, the Jaguars’ offense has labored to produce points — just 31 in the four losses, and this, of course, is an issue that needs course correcting. GRADE: C

BELEN (2-3): This is a misleading 2-3, since two of those three losses are games that the Eagles could easily have won. Junior QB Chalito Cano is producing impressive numbers, and giving Belen lots of chances. The Eagles will need plenty more of that in the second half. GRADE: B-minus

BERNALILLO (4-1): Probably the metro’s most bang-for-your-buck football team. The Spartans came from behind to beat Valley, and needed overtime to defeat both Highland and Portales. They have been clutch late; they’d probably prefer to avoid having to do that going forward. GRADE: B

CIBOLA (4-1): Professor Y. is beaming and will bypass the usual non-partisan approach to hail his alma mater (2-8 a year ago) for an outstanding first half. The Cougars, with the gifted Hayes Baum now playing both linebacker and quarterback, and sporting, well, a sporty defense, are a few seconds from being undefeated. GRADE: B-plus

CLEVELAND (4-1): This is our metro midseason Valedictorian, as the Storm often is at the end of September, but this has not been a typical dominating bunch. Can’t hold the Week 4 home loss to Las Cruces against Cleveland to any serious degree; a tough loss to a great team. More worrisome is how the Storm perform on defense, and how they proceed without their best offensive player of the first half, Evan Nanez. GRADE: A-minus

DEL NORTE (0-6): Well, there’s no other way to say it: It’s been a bit of a slog so far for the winless Knights, and it’s taken some time for their offense to find some rhythm after a poor start. GRADE: C-minus

ELDORADO (2-3): Losses to Cibola, Los Lunas and Volcano Vista don’t give me much pause; there is much to like with this Eagles’ roster. This is going to be a playoff team, IMO, and Eldorado has a chance to gain some real October momentum. GRADE: B-minus

HIGHLAND (4-2): The Hornets had to do some regrouping in the offseason, and they’ve played plenty of solid football thus far, and largely taken care of business. A formidable running team, and Highland will have to keep leaning on that in the second half. GRADE: B

HOPE CHRISTIAN (5-1): RJ Montoya’s solid and steady work as a dual-threat QB has been a definite plus for the Huskies, who have some serious tests ahead in their district — namely, St. Michael’s and Robertson — that are going to clarify their position on the Class 3A totem pole. GRADE: B

LA CUEVA (3-2): A slow start shouldn’t spell all doom and gloom for the Bears, who lost their first two. Remember, they started 0-3 two years ago and went on to win state. This is a rarity, a flying-under-the-radar La Cueva football team. That may change in the next two weeks; a showdown road trip to Los Lunas looms in two weeks. GRADE: B-minus

LEGACY ACADEMY (4-1): Can the Silverbacks, who won nine games a year ago, replicate that type of success as they get into league play during October? They’ve proven they can win close games, and that should serve Legacy well in the second half. GRADE: B-minus

LOS LUNAS (3-2): The Tigers took a couple of early beatings (Roswell, Cleveland), but have rebounded nicely, including a come-from-behind — and crucial — district win over Eldorado that may prove to be the difference between being at home versus being on the road in the first round of the playoffs. GRADE: B

MANZANO (4-2): We are at a tipping point with the Monarchs, who for the second straight year enjoyed a strong first half. They stumbled in the second half last season, can they avoid a repeat of that this season? Manzano’s played a lot of good football so far. GRADE: B

MENAUL (3-2): Kinda hard to get a read on the Panthers, who have three lopsided victories, and two lopsided defeats, albeit to 8-Man’s top two ranked teams. Professor Y. believes Menaul is in for a good second half. GRADE: C-plus

MORIARTY (2-2): Here is one of the more confusing teams from this keyboard. The Pintos beat Bernalillo, and had a two-touchdown lead on St. Pius before weather cancelled the rest. But Moriarty has been somewhat uneven in other games. GRADE: B-minus

RIO GRANDE (0-6): What I said about Del Norte roughly applies here to the Ravens as well. And those two play each other next week. I continue to hope both those programs can somehow find a way back from the wilderness. GRADE: C-minus

RIO RANCHO (2-3): The Rams hit the midway point on a three-game losing streak, but Professor Y. doesn’t think there is reason to panic. None of those three losses (Las Cruces, Centennial, El Paso Eastlake) give me pause. Second half begins with what is actually a huge District 1-6A opener with Cibola; winner ought to have a really nice shot at a top-8 postseason seed. GRADE: B

SANDIA (2-4): The Matadors do have some momentum, as new head coach Tylon Wilder expected they would after a slow start, with two straight wins after starting 0-4. This was probably always gonna be a tough season for a young roster with a new head coach. GRADE: C

ST. PIUS (4-0): The Sartans have beaten two 6A teams, and have two impressive road victories over 4A rivals (Grants and Silver). This grade would be slightly higher were it not for the unfinished game against Moriarty. St. Pius looks every bit the state championship contender we all thought the Sartans would be. GRADE: A-minus

VALENCIA (3-3): The Jaguars have been up and down, and I’m not entirely sure how to grade them. Road win at Silver was nice; 37-point home loss to a winless, unranked Portales team mystifies me a bit. Tough schedule ahead. GRADE: C-plus

VALLEY (1-5): Two of the Vikings’ five losses are by a combined three points, and Valley has shown flashes of good football. But not enough yet. Still, some winnable games in the second half could get the Vikes back to the postseason. GRADE: C

VOLCANO VISTA (4-1): As with Cleveland, only one loss on the ledger: a road setback to Las Cruces, and a game the Hawks were competitive in for a good long while. This is not a flashy bunch, but they’ve overcome a quarterback change in Week 1 to La Cueva, and Volcano has an excellent defense. GRADE: B-plus

WEST MESA (1-4): To be fair, the Mustangs’ schedule has been terribly demanding, with losses in there to St. Pius, Volcano Vista, Los Lunas and La Cueva. I would expect West Mesa to be far more competitive on the scoreboard in the second half. GRADE: C

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Portales, which came into the 2025 season with a super young roster, started Week 6 without a victory, although the Rams have been knocking on the door if you include tough, close losses to Bernalllo (in overtime) and West Las Vegas.

On Friday, the unranked Rams went into Valencia and really put it to Class 4A's fourth-ranked Jaugars, leaving with a 51-14 victory. They get our choice for Team of the Week for Week 6.