UNM football notebook: More gritty than pretty, the Lobos won by getting back to what works

Notes, quotes and final thoughts from New Mexico’s 24-22 win over Nevada:

At least to Jason Eck, UNM has not played the ever-elusive complete game coaches – UNM’s own included – often reference to put a team’s performance in perspective. The Lobos have not turned in a game where all three phases click, minimizing mistakes as much as generating success. They have not put their best stuff on the field all at once, a quality that’s made competitive losses as frustrating as encouraging for fans, coaches and players alike.

And it probably isn’t much of a surprise the Lobos didn’t play a complete game Saturday – a 2-point win as 10.5-point favorites probably reveals that as much as anything. It’s worth questioning whether the Lobos will ever get to that point this season. Most year-one programs don’t.

It’s worth noting that it might not matter if they do or don’t.

Because at a key juncture in the season, UNM took care of business by getting back to what worked, plain and simple. The Lobos ran the ball effectively, racking up 210 yards on 42 attempts. They effectively stifled Nevada’s rushing attack, holding the Wolf Pack to 55 yards on 28 attempts.

That’s all after UNM was outrushed 314-125 in back-to-back losses at San Jose State and Boise State, a stretch that brought on some real concerns – like, were the Lobos actually all that good at what they were supposed to do best?

So, was Saturday comfy? No. Did it always look great? Definitely not. And it came down to two critical fourth downs late in the game, a situation the Lobos would probably be wise to avoid against opponents with records better than 1-6.

It worked, though. After the foundation of the program – running the ball well and stopping it just as well – was questioned, UNM leaned on it to deliver its first conference win.

“That’s a good recipe for winning football,” Eck said in a news conference Saturday night.

Now, as Eck admitted, there’s plenty to be cleaned up – UNM will need a more dynamic passing attack than the one it got against Nevada (138 yards) to reach its loftiest goals. Adjustments were made, but it could stand to be a bit more effective defending the pass, too. And imagine if it played a turnover-free game?

But the Lobos should also be able to reach some of their goals by doing what they did Saturday: hanging tough and sticking to the recipe. Sustainable or not, at least one player seems to think it is.

“Absolutely,” linebacker Mercury Swaim said Saturday. “I mean, we’re built on toughness – not many teams work out in 90 degrees during the summer, and obviously we’re at elevation, so there’s a lack of oxygen as well. I just don’t feel so many teams are as tough as us, and we’re one of the toughest teams in the country.”

“That’s what we’re all about: grit,” running back D.J. McKinney added Saturday.

More on the run game

If that was running back Scottre Humphrey’s most productive game in weeks, it didn’t sound like there was much of a conscious effort on UNM’s part to get him going again. If anything, Eck said he was simply the “hot hand” and showed it with 13 carries for 58 yards and one touchdown – all after he picked up his first true “start” since Idaho State.

Don’t read too much into it, though.

“(The running backs), we don’t really have a huge hierarchy,” Eck said,. “But last week we had a delay of game (penalty) the first play. Part of the thing that slows us down is (running back Damon Bankston) is one of the kick returners, so you’re waiting for him to get back into the huddle.

“So we kinda made the decision, ‘Heck, let’s let Damon return the kick and then use Scotty the first play.’”

Humphrey ended up putting up 9 yards on that opening drive before uncorking a 23-yard run on UNM’s second drive, solidifying his status as the Lobos’ lead back at least for one night. And it should be noted that he fit a lot of what UNM was calling, too: per Pro Football Focus, the Lobos dialed up 14 gap-scheme runs, the most since they put out 19 against UCLA.

Humphrey got the ball for six of those plays, including the game-sealing fourth-and-1 conversion: “Power downhill running is his strength,” Eck added. “He did a nice job on that last carry in the four-minute drill.”

And how has UNM distributed the ball on designed runs based on whether it's a gap or zone run? A quick look:

Note: UNM has called 117 zone runs to 80 gap runs this season, per PFF.

-Scottre Humphrey (39 zone, 29 gap)

-Damon Bankston (31 zone, 27 gap)

-D.J. McKinney (39 zone, 15 gap)

Fumble to win?

As weird as it is, it’s true: UNM is 3-0 in games where it loses a fumbled punt. Wide receiver Michael Buckley lost one in a 35-10 win at UCLA and wide receiver Shawn Miller fumbled a punt away Saturday in addition to losing one in a 38-20 victory over New Mexico State.

If it’s a bit of a gag stat, it’s weird enough that Eck brought it up on his own accord: “Maybe we should put that play in and just do it the first one to ensure victory,” he joked.

His more serious response after UNM lost its third fumbled punt this season: “Maybe we should let it bounce,” Eck suggested. “We gotta work it in practice this week. We were talking, if they had to punt one more time, what we were gonna do.

“We were probably just gonna mandatory fair catch – and really, the one we fumbled should have been a fair catch. People are around you, just protect yourself and fair catch it … We gotta clean that up, even though we win every time we do it.”

Another weird stat: UNM is 4-0 with two or less turnovers, 0-3 when they record three in any fashion. “You just keep it under three, we’re OK,” Eck said. “Two’s the limit.”

Eck felt the second turnover of the night – Damon Bankston’s fumble at the end of the first half – was as much on the coaches as anybody else: “I’m mad at myself because we gotta understand the situation,” Eck said. “At that point, they were out of timeouts before the half. We had a timeout.

“We just gotta remind the guys, ‘Hey, all we’re trying to do is just get out of the half now.’”

Make or miss?

Did Luke Drzewiecki actually miss an attempted 34-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, one that would’ve put UNM ahead 27-22 with six minutes left in the fourth quarter?

Eck didn’t seem to think so.

“I’d like to see it again – I watched it on the replay, I thought it might have been good,” he said. “I know those things are tough to call, but I thought on the replay it looked kinda good to me. Obviously they have more angles than I do.”

Snap counts

UNM’s offensive snap counts per PFF:

-OL Tyler Lawrence (72)

-OL Malik Aliane (72)

-OL Kaden Robnett (72)

-OL Nevell Brown (71)

-WR Keagan Johnson (70)

-QB Jack Layne (68)

-WR Zhaiel Smith (59)

-WR Shawn Miller (59)

-TE Dorian Thomas (58)

-OL Jaymar Tasi (47)

-RB Scottre Humphrey (34)

-RB D.J. McKinney (26)

-RB Damon Bankston (23)

-OL Isaiah Sillemon (22)

-TE Cade Keith (14)

-OL Simon Mapa (11)

-QB James Laubstein (6)

-OL Israel Mukwiza (6)

-OL Deshaun Buchanan (1)

-TE R.J. Adams (1)

Per PFF, Jack Layne (14-for-22 passing, 138 yards) finished with an adjusted depth of target of 5.9 yards, his second-lowest of the season. He didn’t take a ton of chances in the passing game, but kept things mostly on schedule with a 64% completion rate.

He did, however, take advantage of his opportunities on the ground, with a team-high 71 yards rushing – 54 of which came when he pulled a zone read in the second half.

“I’ve never seen Jack run that fast,” McKinney said.

This team probably won’t win another game where Layne is its leading rusher this season. That being said, it was good enough for Saturday and a welcome sight after he passed up some opportunities against Boise State.

“I thought Jack bounced back and played really well, played his role,” Eck said.

UNM’s reshuffled offensive line also allowed 13 pressures, but mostly held Nevada defensive end Dylan LaBarbera in check: “LaBarbera was not their leading tackler and did not have a tackle for loss (Saturday),” Eck said. “So I think it was a solid job. I was proud of some of the guys that got to play a little bit more.”

UNM’s defensive snap counts per PFF:

-LB Jaxton Eck (60)

-CB Jon Johnson (60)

-CB Abraham Williams (60)

-S Tavian Combs (58)

-DE Keyshawn James-Newby (53)

-DE Brett Karhu (43)

-S Caleb Coleman (40)

-S C.J. McBean (38)

-S Drew Speech (38)

-DL Brian Booker (32)

-DL Gabriel Lopez (31)

-LB Mercury Swaim (28)

-CB Frankie Edwards III (16)

-S David Murphy (16)

-DL Xavier Slayton (16)

-DL Jalen McIver (15)

-S Albert Nunes (4)

-S Chris Gant Jr. (2)

Only eight pressures for UNM’s defense, matching its season low set in a 35-28 loss to San Jose State.

Notes and quotes

-After converting three of four fourth downs faced, UNM is now 12-for-20 (60%) on the season, good for a tie for fifth in the Mountain West; only Boise State (21) has gone for it more among league teams this year.

But why did UNM simply refuse to punt in some instances Saturday?

“We wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to stay on the field,” Eck said. “I thought their defense was the strength of their team, so when we had makeable stuff on fourth down, we wanted to try to stay on the field.”

Eck also said UNM’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-6 around midfield was based on both in-game analytics and gut feeling: “You’re kind of in that weird range … You just have so much risk of kicking in the end zone, and now you net 24 yards on the punt,” he added. “So that’s why usually I like to go for it in that range.”

-Per head coach Jeff Choate, Nevada struggled to stop the run in part because of UNM’s tempo calls: “We didn’t get the call in and execute the call – we didn’t have 11 guys playing the same call,” he said. “ … We kind of got out of character defensively (playing) their tempo stuff … And I think that created issues for us.”

-After six scoreless opening drives this season, Eck mentioned UNM might tweak its pregame routine to help the offense start quicker. After the Lobos opened with a 16-play, 75-yard touchdown drive – the longest of the season in terms of plays run – he confirmed they did as much: “We just did our walkthrough in the morning instead of in the afternoon, did a little highlight video and things,” he said. “Just kind of changed some stuff.

“But I love the way the offense came out. I mean, that was a death march.”

-The Lobos will face an interim coach this season: After firing head coach Jay Norvell, Colorado State announced that defensive coordinator Tyson Summers will be the interim for the rest of the year. UNM hosts the Rams on Nov. 15 at University Stadium.

-Eck coached current Nevada offensive lineman Jack Foster when the two were at Idaho, and the former believes the latter told the Wolf Pack’s defense about the snap count they used together. That helped in drawing some early offsides from Nevada: “Our hard counts really worked well, because when we do our hard count we kinda play off that, and we got a lot of stuff off of that early,” Eck added.

“But I thought there were some times when they were kind of maybe jumping our stuff, too. That may have led to our guys getting a little bit antsy.”

Choate corroborated that: “There was a cadence variation that they had that gave us some problems in the first half,” he said. “We had the three offsides penalties. That was kind of interesting, just something that they hadn’t shown and we didn’t respond correctly.”

-UNM opened as a 2-point favorite over Utah State. Eck’s early take on the Lobos’ much-anticipated reunion with former head coach Bronco Mendenhall: “Obviously you got the subplot of the coach that was here (leaving) which, for a majority of the team, means nothing – we got 75 new guys who probably don’t even know who the coach was last year,” he laughed. “But for the 30 guys who do, it’s probably a bigger game.”

-UNM will debut its turquoise uniforms against Utah State, Eck announced in the locker room Saturday.