UNM football: Three thoughts on the Lobos' 2025 schedule

The Mountain West unveiled the league's full 2025 football schedule Thursday, including dates for New Mexico's eight league games in Jason Eck's first season as New Mexico's head coach.

Three thoughts on UNM’s 2025 schedule:

1. New Mexico-Utah State is the most anticipated regular season game since …

… well, you tell me.

“Ever,” X user CincodeCinco responded to my post asking the same question.

Or: “EVER! I agree,” CZ wrote.

And: “La Cueva vs. Cleveland,” Mike Trimble wrote.

Point taken.

Outside of games against New Mexico State, UNM simply hasn’t had a lot of marquee regular season matchups lately, the type that get circled on the calendar. Consider that a product of lack of team success first and foremost, and everything else second. There simply haven’t been enough wins recently for individual games to take on a life of their own with fans.

The Lobos’ home game against Utah State (Oct. 25) — in other words, the return of Bronco Mendenhall — solves that problem.

Less than a year after leaving UNM practically in the dead of night, the Aggies’ new head coach returns to University Stadium one last time before the program dips for the Pac-12; whether that series will continue at a later date remains to be seen.

But at least there’s an opportunity for closure. And if you’re a UNM fan, there’s a certain level of justice to that: After all, Steve Alford didn’t leave for UCLA in 2013 and have to face a Pit crowd one season later. The wildly successful former UNM basketball coach returned to Albuquerque six years after the fact and heard it from 12,032 fans, yes — but six years is six years.

Mendenhall will, however, have to turn around and deal with it less than a year after leaving. Will it be a positive reception? Highly unlikely. I think it's safe to say there's a portion of the fan base that maybe wasn’t thrilled, but didn’t fault Mendenhall for returning to his home state, to continue coaching closer to family. I just don’t think they’ll be the ones he can hear from the stands come game day.

Will it be quite to the level of what Alford received? That remains to be seen. It was pretty clear Mendenhall had the program on the right track if he had stayed, but his one season doesn’t come close to Alford’s outstanding six-year run with the Lobos. Nor did Mendenhall receive a contract extension like Alford did right before leaving. Even one of Alford’s lines at his penultimate presser — "One of the things you don't usually mess with is happy” — has taken on a life of its own in the years in the years since.

Mendenhall’s “I have only been speculated to have been contacted by (Utah State),” not so much.

Are there any real football equivalents to this game, at least in UNM’s history? Credit to Ben Wysong for pointing out on X that UNM’s 62-39 loss to Arizona last season was a big game to the players, with former Lobo coach Danny Gonzales on the Wildcats’ sideline. I don’t know how every fan felt, but I’m not sure if it powered much of the discussion before the game, if only for the fact that it wasn’t Gonzales’ choice to leave.

Former UNM head coach Rocky Long’s return to Albuquerque in the same role at San Diego State might be worth a look, except he had already made the trip back as the Aztecs defensive coordinator in seasons prior. And like Gonzales, Long wasn’t leaving for another job.

Mendenhall? Not so much. That might be enough for Oct. 25 to provide one of the more memorable crowds in recent memory.

2. Opportunities for something extra

Since he was hired at New Mexico, Eck’s message has never changed: The Lobos’ goal is to be better than they were last season — nothing less. That was the simple, cut-and-dry approach he had entering his first year at Idaho, and it’s exactly how he’s framing UNM’s upcoming season.

“And you know what? Getting better is going to a bowl game,” he told the Journal after his introductory press conference in December. “So, I mean, that’s our goal. All our sights (are on), ‘We need to be in a bowl game next year.’”

We still don’t have a great idea of what this team will be. But I don’t think this schedule should temper expectations in the way last season’s did — around this time in 2024, UNM’s schedule was viewed as a gauntlet, one the Lobos might emerge from with only a few wins.

This year? UNM will likely start 1-2, with a win over Idaho State and losses to Michigan and UCLA. That’s pretty clear. Beyond that? 5–4 down the stretch with a (seemingly?) fair number of tossups doesn’t seem like an impossible task.

Should a bowl be expected? Probably not — again, we don’t have a great idea of what this team will be, or how the rest of the league will shake out. But at least for now, it seems like there’s a manageable path.

3. Saying goodbye in style?

Of the five teams leaving for the Pac-12, both UNM will play four: Boise State (Oct. 11), Colorado State (Nov. 15), San Diego State (Nov. 29) and the aforementioned game against Utah State. The Lobos have a 53-104 combined record against those teams — historically most competitive against the Aggies (14-17) and, uh, not so much against the Broncos (1-13).

I don’t know if this season will take on the general air of the old Pac-12’s final season in 2023 — in the end, more mournful for what was being lost than bitter. And if it is more bitter between those leaving and those styling, I don’t know how bitter it ends up being.

But I do feel confident in saying that improving any of those records — particularly that ghastly 1-13 — ought to go a long way with fans.