UNM football notes: Offense starts fast, defense wins day in Lobos' second scrimmage

For New Mexico, last week’s scrimmage was a decisive defensive victory.

This week’s scrimmage? If it was a step forward for the offense, the defense still had its say.

UNM hosted its second scrimmage of the fall on Friday, hosting fans in University Stadium for the first time since camp opened.

Observations, news and notes from Friday:

Friday’s scrimmage

A sample of Friday’s scrimmage, starting with the opening drive (without tackling and exact statistics):

-First-and-10: Handoff to running back Scottre Humphrey. Gain of four.

-Second-and-6: Quarterback Jack Layne finds tight end Dorian Thomas down the sideline for an easy first. Good pressure by defensive lineman Gabe Lopez, though.

-First-and-10: Layne to wide receiver Zhaiel Smith on a quick out. Gain of four.

-Second-and-6: Handoff to running back Damon Bankston. Gain of two.

-Third-and-4: Layne to Bankston on a screen. Gain of three.

-Fourth-and-1: Layne to Smith downfield on a slot fade to set the offense up in the red zone. One of the better offensive plays of the day.

-First-and-10: Nice run by Humphrey. Gain of six.

-Second-and-4: Handoff to Humphrey. No gain.

-Third-and-4: Pressure puts sets Layne on the run — first down. Once again, another good rep from Lopez, who eased up at the very end of the play.

-First-and-goal: Handoff to Humphrey, who rumbles to the 1-yard-line.

-Second-and-goal: Humphrey in from the one — touchdown. Kicker Luke Drzewiecki’s PAT is good.

The good news? Not to overanalyze one drive, but that was a significantly better start for the first team offense than last week’s scrimmage. Then again, the defense wasn’t tackling the first team offense, and head coach Jason Eck thought the former’s intensity was lacking a little as things kicked off.

The bad news? For the second scrimmage in a row, UNM scored just one touchdown, courtesy of Humphrey’s plunge — the major strike in a day where the first team offense put up 10 points total, and lost momentum quickly. But then again, even as the scrimmage swung right back in the defense’s favor, the Lobos threw just one interception to last week’s four.

Caveats aside: How much does that scoring production (or lack thereof) matter right now?

“I think you’re really just evaluating process and plays and breakdowns, and what we have to get better at … I’m not sure how many carries Scottre had today, but in games, he’s gonna have a lot more than he had today,” Eck chuckled. “(But) everything’s pointed towards scoring points in a game, starting with Michigan, not necessarily (towards) scoring points in a scrimmage.”

(In other words: not much.)

But if the focus is on process, not outcomes, there were some process issues from an offensive perspective. Eck mentioned there were things that needed to get cleaned up in pass protection, and that was clear with multiple units. At certain points, the offense looked like it was simply overwhelmed by the pass rush. There were timing issues that didn’t help the offense’s case either.

Is there reason enough to be concerned about this offense, at this point? Or are some of the issues simply because of how well the defense is playing? We’ll see. The problems at hand for the offense seem outright fixable at best, addressable at worst. Letting a couple key players (Humphrey namely) loose with no restrictions and naming a starting quarterback will certainly help, too.

“That’s why sometimes maybe you wish you had a little bit more separation,” Eck said of the ongoing quarterback competition. “But that’s our job as coaches, to extrapolate and, you know, see into the future a little bit. And we gotta do that pretty quick. I wouldn’t say we have to do it on Monday, but I think it’s coming pretty quick in the next few days.”

But at least for Friday, it still felt like the defense had a considerably better day ... again.

Even with that in mind, some still didn’t feel they were all that ahead.

“Only time will tell,” defensive lineman Gabe Lopez said. “Can’t really tell until we’re in the first game. And even then, (it) probably might be until week three when we find out really how good our defense is going to be.”

News and notes

-Other scrimmage observations: running back D.J. McKinney had a monster stretch with the second team offense during a two-minute drill … cornerback Jon Johnson notched a sack on a corner blitz … cornerback Jayden Sheridan trucked running back Deshaun Buchanan out of bounds … and the red zone defense was especially strong across the board .

-Starting left tackle Malik Aliane did not play due to a “little nick,” Eck said, “ … but he’s feeling better. We’re optimistic we’ll have back by maybe even (Saturday) night." ... Montana transfer kicker Grant Glasgow was also held out Friday with a “minor strain” and is also expected to be back in the next couple days.

-Wide receiver Keagan Johnson did not play in the scrimmage, an expected development after he wasn’t cleared for 11-on-11 during Wednesday’s practice. Fellow receivers Kader Diop, Isaiah Blair and Evan Wysong also missed Friday entirely.

-We’ve seen defensive tackle Jalen McIver rotate in a substantial bit more for Brian Booker — a regular starter — over the last week. Eck confirmed McIver has played his way into a competition to start: “I think McIver’s threatening Booker,” he said. “So we gave him more reps with the ones today, and I think that’s an ongoing battle.”

-Cornerback Jahmir Torres picked off Laubstein for the one interception of the day. Feels like he still has a ways to go toward being among UNM’s top four corners, but it was another good week for the freshman.

-Air Force transfer Tyler Lawrence picked up some reps at right tackle with the first team offensive line. “He’s probably, definitely, within our top six, seven, eight offensive linemen depending on health and has shown some postion flexibility,” Eck said.

-Kicker Luke Drzewiecki went 1-for-3 on the day, missing his first two attempts before making his third.

UNM football photos: Fall camp second scrimmage