UNM football notebook: That was the Lobos’ biggest win since … ?

Notes, quotes and observations from New Mexico’s 35-10 upset over UCLA:

PASADENA, Calif. — This one did not come down to the final seconds. There was no high drama; no come-from-behind glory. If anything, those last few drives in the Rose Bowl were a formality, capping a result that even left a couple key players slightly surprised.

“I ain’t gonna lie,” UNM running back Damon Bankston said late Friday night. “Me personally, I thought it was going to be a closer game.”

No, this one was effectively put to bed early in the fourth quarter, leaving just enough time for a question to gently, joyfully sprout in plenty of impartial (and partial) observers’ heads:

That was UNM’s biggest win since… ?

Well, let’s talk about it.

After posing that same question on social media, some notable candidates:

New Mexico 38, No. 19 Washington State 35 (Nov. 16, 2024)

An obvious (and popular!) choice. Before Friday, this was clearly the best game, the best moment in the last decade (give or take) for the Lobos.

New Mexico 31, Boise State 24 (Nov. 14, 2015)

Also a popular choice. Still the Lobos’ only win over the Broncos, an occasion amplified by Holly Holm KOing Ronda Rousey the same night.

New Mexico 29, Arizona 27 (Sept. 15, 2007)

The first leg of a home-and-home sweep by the Lobos. UNM’s win against Arizona in 2008 (36-28) was also the last time the Lobos had beat a Power Four (or at least then, Power Five) opponent before Friday.

New Mexico 47, No. 23 Utah (Oct. 25, 2003)

Urban Meyer’s only Mountain West loss in his two-year run as the Utes head coach. And until last year, it was the Lobos’ most recent win over a ranked opponent.

So, what’s the answer?

From this perch, the Washington State and Boise State games are the clear candidates, with strong arguments to be made for both. The latter could be called the high point of the Bob Davie era; the former was absolutely the pinnacle of the Bronco Mendenhall era.

Now, was Friday’s result better than either the Washington State or Boise State games? At least in terms of quality of opponent, probably not — those teams won eight or more games. And again, that doesn’t seem to be the trajectory UCLA (0-3) is on.

“We’re gonna play better teams than UCLA,” UNM head coach Jason Eck said Friday. “I know they’re a Power Four team, but there’s gonna be a lot of teams we play that are better than UCLA. It’s not (like) we just beat Ohio State or something, who’s ranked No. 1.

“We gotta keep getting better and improve on a lot of areas on our team.”

One big argument for Friday, though? For as long as UNM has tried to get its football program right, few seasons have had that sort of pressure attached to it quite like this. In an era where conference realignment looms large, where college athletics has never been more of a cutthroat business, the Lobos need to make an impact on the field.

Friday, they did. And that’s far from a formality.

Fortune favored UNM?

Fortune favors the bold is a translated Latin idiom derived from its original form, audentes Fortuna iuvat. Like a lot of historians, Eck isn’t quite sure who first said it.

He really, really likes it, though.

“There’s a quote that I love — I’m not sure who said it — but ‘fortune favors the bold,’” Eck chuckled. “You gotta be aggressive to win games like that.”

To be clear, Eck didn’t exactly show a new side of his coaching personality Friday: UNM was plenty aggressive against Michigan, less so against Idaho State. Given the opponents at hand, both approaches made sense. And it seemed like an awfully safe bet that the Lobos would gamble here and there against a more talented, but flawed, UCLA squad.

They wasted absolutely no time, dropping back-to-back trick plays on their first drive of the night, nearly converting the second for a would-be touchdown: “That was my pitch to the offensive staff on our openers meeting,” Eck said. “I said I wanted to run that first play, and I knew it’d be a good hit … I wanted to get past midfield on the first play.

“They didn’t quite get past midfield,” he laughed. “Maybe we should’ve waited.”

That wasn’t quite the real story when it came to UNM’s aggression, though. The Lobos’ two failed fourth-and-short attempts deep in the red zone had a chance to give them a commanding lead they ended up taking anyway, or severely burn them. The defense deserves a lot of credit for making sure they didn’t get burned, but things could have gotten real dicey in a hurry.

Did Eck regret going for it on any fourth-and-shorts?

No.

He just wished he had a better call in for one of them.

“There was no doubt (we were going for it),” Eck said of a night where UNM converted two of four fourth downs faced. “The first one (when quarterback Jack Layne ran it) I think, if we had handed it off, we would’ve gotten it. Really, it’s my fault – it’s a bad play call by me. We have a read option if there’s a blitzer off the edge. There wasn’t a blitzer off the edge, so we should have handed it, and I think we would have gotten it for a yard.

“The second one we got, but we just fumbled after we got it, so ball security there. I believe in (running back Deshaun Buchanan). He’ll bounce back from that.”

The knockout blow

In boxing, when the knockout blow is dealt, the fight is called and over. In football, the knockout blow can be issued and the reeling team still has to drag itself up and down the field.

Bankston (203 yards of total offense) issued that knockout blow with a 43-yard touchdown off a screen pass in the fourth quarter, a play that put UNM 28-10 with a little over seven minutes remaining. But it might not have happened that way if he didn’t notice how that play was being treated by one of UCLA’s linebackers.

“The screen is supposed to hit in the middle,” Bankston explained. “I’m supposed to catch and run to the middle. But I knew (UCLA was in man coverage), I knew (linebacker JonJon Vaughns) was on me.

“So I peeped him, and when I caught it, I knew he was going to crash on it because we ran the play earlier before in the game, and he tackled me when I was going in. So I caught it, and instead of going in, I just went out, and I knew he was going to fall for it.

“Once I went out, I saw all the green grass, and I just got my eyes on the end zone.”

Snap counts

UNM’s offensive snap counts (out of 65 total plays) via PFF:

-OL Malik Aliane (65)

-OL Kaden Robnett (65)

-OL Richard Pearce (65)

-OL Israel Mukwiza (65)

-QB Jack Layne (64)

-OL Tyler Lawrence (61)

-WR Shawn Miller (54)

-WR Michael Buckley (43)

-WR Zhaiel Smith (39)

-TE Dorian Thomas (35)

-RB D.J. McKinney (34)

-TE Simon Mapa (27)

-OL Jaymar Tasi (24)

-TE Cade Keith (23)

-RB Damon Bankston (22)

-RB Deshaun Buchanan (13)

-RB Scottre Humphrey (8)

-WR Isaiah Blair (7)

-QB James Laubstein (1)

That’s a career-high 24 snaps for freshman Jaymar Tasi after he posted 19 last week, highlighting his night with a heck of a block to help set up Humphrey’s first touchdown: “He’s a load there coming back on those swipe blocks,” Eck said.

And a kudos is due for the rest of the offensive line. Per PFF, the Lobos gave up just one quarterback pressure and no sacks while paving the way for 298 yards on the ground – admittedly more than Eck was expecting.

“Life is all about improvement, and I think we’ve improved a lot up front,” he added. “When you look at how we ran the ball against Michigan a couple of weeks ago to how we ran the ball today, we really made a big jump forward. I credit (offensive line coach Cody Booth) for that. He’s done a good job.

“And those guys, they’ve really worked and (taken) pride in it and did an outstanding jobtoday.”

UNM’s defensive snap counts (out of 56 total plays) via PFF:

-LB Jaxton Eck (53)

-S Caleb Coleman (51)

-CB Jon Johnson (45)

-DE Keyshawn James-Newby (44)

-CB Abraham Williams (43)

-S C.J. McBean (41)

-S Tavian Combs (39)

-DL Gabriel Lopez (35)

-DE Brett Karhu (30)

-DL Darren Agu (28)

-S David Murphy (28)

-DE Xavier Slayton (27)

-CB Frankie Edwards III (24)

-LB Dimitri Johnson (24)

-S Drew Speech (18)

-S Clint Stephens (17)

-DL Brian Booker (17)

-DL Okiki Olorunfunmi (16)

-DE Elijah Brody (12)

-DL Landon Williams (7)

-CB Azariah Levells (6)

-DL Jalen McIver (5)

-LB Mercury Swaim (5)

-LB Ky’Won McCray (1)

Lots to unpack here, but let’s start with safety Tavian Combs. The sixth-year senior (who still has a seventh year available if he wants) notched a tip-drill interception in the fourth quarter, his first in nearly three years after multiple season-ending injuries and nearly leaving via the transfer portal.

“I’ll say it sunk in,” Combs said with a smile when asked about that moment. “Man, I can go back to that word ‘blessed’ as many times as I want to.”

And why did UNM give linebacker Dimitri Johnson (four total tackles, one tackle-for-loss) his first start of the season Friday night? Eck said it was a move based on a desire for better execution.

“We felt like there were some things against Idaho State that we didn’t execute well (and) Dimitri’s done a good job at just doing his job,” he added. “Some guys might be a little faster or a little more flashy, but there’s a premium for being able to trust that a guy’s going to do exactly what he’s supposed to do.”

That’s also a pretty memorable first career start for freshman safety C.J. McBean (four total tackles). Without having watched the game back, Eck thought he handled it well: “It’s usually a big thing if you’re a safety that if you don’t give up a lot of big plays – that’s a good sign,” he said. “(UCLA) had a 33-yard run, a 32-yard pass, a 20-yard pass.

“We didn’t give up a lot of big plays … Seems like it was a solid job, but we got to dig into the tape a bit more.”

As for some of the other safeties, that was a rock solid outing for David Murphy – who made a huge play on third-and-3 early – and Caleb Coleman, who had a couple excellent tackles in the open field after what sounded like some extra motivation this week.

“Caleb is, really, a good tackler,” Eck said. “And we got on him. We needed him to play better than he played against Idaho State – he had to be more physical getting off blocks.”

UNM also had no sacks, but generated 28 quarterback pressures Friday. Not only is that more than 20% of the Lobos’ total pressures (130) last season, it’s the most in a single game for the program since UNM put up 31 in a 49-39 win over Fresno State on Dec. 12, 2020.

At the heart of that effort was Keyshawn James-Newby, PFF’s highest-graded Lobo (90.3) after racking up three tackles, a team-high 12 pressures and two quarterback hits Friday.

All after he became a father this week: “Keyshawn’s a proud daddy,” Eck said with a smile. “He’s 1-0 as a daddy.”Notes and quotes

• Quarterback Jack Layne’s final line from Friday: 12-for-16 (75%) for 152 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 196.1 He was 4-for-4 when blitzed, per PFF, and stacked good decisions all night.

In a game where UNM leaned on its running backs, Layne’s night almost flew under the radar. But that was an awfully efficient performance in a big spot — exactly what the Lobos needed.

“I thought he did a really nice job managing the end of the game and making sure we were snapping it,” Eck said. “… He’s really playing at a high level here. I told him this week — I said, ‘I think you’re playing the best you’ve played’ in the four years I’ve been with him.”

A couple injury updates: Wide receiver Keagan Johnson and safety C.J. Johnson both missed Friday’s game with what Eck termed head injuries. Offensive lineman Tevin Shaw had a “little procedure on his knee,” he added. “He was not moving around the way he was capable of ... He’s gonna be out for a while.”

• Per PFF’s rushing direction chart, UNM ran for 241 of 298 total yards between the tackles. They also rushed for 202 yards on the left side of the line, although Eck said there wasn’t really anything to it: “I think it was a matter of just kinda what we had on the call sheet and where the hash was … Once in a while, we might have said, ‘hey, we like this guy a little bit better on this block for this play – let’s run it there,’” he added.
• Was wide receiver Michael Buckley supposed to catch the punt he ended up muffing in the third quarter? “We want to catch all the ones we can,” Eck said. “If you can get there, you want to catch that. Because we would have had great field position if he catches it … If it bounces, it might bounce 20 yards the other way.”
• Friday’s announced attendance at the Rose Bowl: 31,163.

• Entering Friday, Jason Eck was 27-14 as a head coach on artificial turf. He is now 1-0 all-time on natural grass.
• UCLA missed 17 tackles to UNM’s eight, per PFF.