UNM Football Coach Eck on Elks, Rams, Lobo Fans and Hunting a Winning Season
Autumn annually marks the arrival of big game hunting season.
Anyone listening to New Mexico football coach Jason Eck this week, however, might be confused as to which game is endangered during Saturday’s game at University Stadium.
Eck’s Lobos (6-3, 3-2 Mountain West) entertain Colorado State (2-7, 1-4) with UNM as a 14.5-point favorite. New Mexico still is in contention for an MW championship.
The Rams enter as the wounded animal. CSU fired head coach Jay Norvell in October and comes in with a three-game losing streak. This week, Jalen Dupree, the Rams’ leading rusher with 508 yards on the season, announced he is leaving the program and entering the transfer portal.
And so, there’s the adage about a wounded animal being more dangerous.
But CSU has recent history on its side as well, having won 13 straight over UNM since the Lobos’ 29-27 win at home in 2009 to mark one of the two wins in the Mike Locksley coaching era.
Eck addressed both those aspects of the rivalry during his news conference this week, but his mind wandered away from Lobos and Rams to another big game.
UNM is riding a three-game winning streak, and Eck fielded a question about guarding against his team taking its foot off the gas pedal during last week’s bye week.
“I think we’ve got to keep bringing that out of them,” Eck said of maintaining his team’s motivation. “I think that’s human nature, like the cavemen and stuff when they went out hunting, they killed like three elk or whatever. And then they had a stockpile of elk sitting in their cave, they probably relaxed a little bit and said, ‘Yeah, I got enough food for a while. I don’t have to go kill more elk.’
“So, I think that is human nature … and we’ve got to fight that a little bit. We’ve got to make sure there’s no complacency, and we’ve got to understand that we have a challenge, no matter who we’re playing.”
Among the Lobo wounded going into the game is backup quarterback James Laubstein, who suffered injury late in the victory over UNLV.
Eck stressed the importance of winning No. 7 on the season to ensure a winning record (which would be the first time since 2016). UNM played its best two games of the season during its last two games – at home against Utah State and on the road at UNLV.
“Our teams have been showing a good knack for doing things that haven’t been done in a long time,” Eck said, “whether it’s getting bowl eligible for the first time since 2016, or beating a Power Four school (UCLA) for the first time since 2008 or selling out University Stadium for the first time since 2007. We’d love to add another thing to our list with something that hasn’t been done for a long time around here.”
A big reason for the Lobos’ improvement is their plus-3 turnover margin in those two games after ranking dead last among the 136 FBS schools with a minus-12 margin prior to those wins.
CSU played its best game on Oct. 10 in a 49-21 rout of Fresno State, in which the Rams won the turnover battle 4-0.
Lots of factors to consider entering Saturday, but the conversation about big game in November being directed toward Lobo football is definitely a delicious treat – as long as UNM doesn’t get too fat and happy.
No animals were harmed in the writing of this article.
