Wright: Is that all there is, Peggy? No, there’s more

In 1969, songstress Peggy Lee hit the charts with a song titled “Is that all there is?” The answer provided by the lyrics was not encouraging.

Some 56 years later, after New Mexico’s 35-28 football loss at San Jose State, I asked essentially the same question in print about the Lobos — then 3-2, with a road game at perennial power Boise State coming up.

How close at that point was this UNM roster, so hastily assembled by a first-year coach in this bizarre new world of college football, to being as good as its physical makeup would allow it to be the rest of the way?

Saturday at University Stadium, the Lobos gave me (and Peggy) a loud and clear answer:

They could, and have, gotten a lot better. A whole lot better.

New Mexico beat Utah State, coached by one-year makes-you-wonder former UNM coach Bronco Mendenhall, 33-14. Blowout? Not quite. Almost.

The Lobos are 5-3, one victory short of bowl-eligible status for the first time since 2016. And following Mendenhall’s departure for Utah State after just one season, first-year Athletic Director Fernando Lovo’s hire of Jason Eck is starting to look like UNM’s best since AD Pete McDavid reached for a University of Iowa assistant coach named Bob King to head up his men’s basketball program in 1962.

Too soon? Of course, just as it was too soon, in hindsight, for me to ask the Peggy Lee question after the San Jose State game — but only because Eck and his Lobos have made it so.

The basketball court at the Pit bears King’s name. It’s a tad premature to name the University Stadium field after Eck, but the 20,097 souls who came to watch the Lobos throttle Mendenhall’s Aggies on Saturday likely wouldn’t have objected.

By game’s end, “Thank you, Eck!” chants had joined the derisive “Bron-co, Bron-co” hoots floating from the stands.

“I heard a lot of things,” UNM linebacker Jaxton Eck said afterward, suggesting the jabs directed at Mendenhall weren’t all G-rated.

Back in August, at Mountain West media days, Mendenhall said Utah State-New Mexico wouldn’t be on the 2025 schedule if he’d had his way. It was a trip he wasn’t looking forward to.

Looking back, it was almost as if Mendenhall never showed up. Coaching decisions he made, or that he was at least responsible for, helped Eck and the Lobos ruin his reluctant return.

After a 51-yard Daniel Hughes punt pinned the Aggies at their 1-yard line with 9 minutes, 8 seconds left in the second quarter and UNM already up 14-0, Utah State chose to run wide on first down. Jaxton Eck (yes he’s the coach’s son) dropped Aggies running back Noah White for a safety and a 16-0 Lobo lead.

Then in the third quarter, with Utah State trailing 26-7, Mendenhall opted to punt from mid-field on 4th-and-4 at the 50-yard line and later on 4th-and-9 from the UNM 38.

The Aggies wound up running only 48 offensive plays and controlling the ball for just 21 minutes, 44 seconds compared to UNM’s 38:16. Mendenhall’s undue caution on fourth down was at least in part responsible.

In sharp contrast, after Utah State had drawn within 12 at 26-14, the Lobos ran what I’ll call a designer fake punt on 4th-and-1 from its own 34.

Running back Deshaun Buchanan’s nifty escape of a tackle on the fake punt gave UNM a first down. Three plays later, running back Damon Bankston emerged from a thicket of Utah State arm tackles to complete a 41-yard touchdown run and remove all doubt regarding the outcome.

After the resounding victory, Jaxton Eck (seven tackles, two tackles for loss, the safety) and freshman tight end Cade Keith (seven receptions, 104 yards, a 40-yard touchdown) — neither of whom played for Mendenhall — said they’d been made aware of the added meaning behind Saturday’s matchup.

They were equally aware, though, that there are four games left with a strong possibility of a fifth.

“It was a really big game to win, just because it was a big win to get closer to a bowl game …” Jaxton Eck said.

“… I didn’t have that anger (regarding Mendenhall), but I knew some guys on the team took it a little personal.”

Personally, after the San Jose State game, I wouldn’t have predicted that the Lobos would be 5-3 at this point. I wouldn’t have predicted a UNM victory against Bronco and the Aggies, and in fact I didn’t. But here we are.

The Lobos and Lobo fans won’t have Mendenhall to kick around going forward, since Utah State will join the rejiggered Pacific Coast Conference next fall.

So, at least from that standpoint, Peggy, this is all there is.