HAIL TO THE DEBUT: Eck era begins in front of a national audience

Aug 30

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – It’s a day of firsts in Tree Town.

It’s the first meeting between the UNM football team and the University of Michigan.

It’s the first time UNM will play at Michigan Stadium and, obviously, the first time Michigan will host UNM.

But most notably, and perhaps the most significant first for UNM, its athletic department, UNM alumni and fans, is its first game under Jason Eck as the head coach of the Lobo football program.

“First games are always a little bit of an adventure, I’d say my whole coaching career,” Eck said. “Now you add in all the transfers and things like that, that can turn over rosters. There are a lot of unknowns in the first game. You got to focus on yourself and play sound football.”

And his first game: a date with the No. 14-ranked Michigan Wolverines and a phenom freshman quarterback.

Eck said his first impression of Michigan is that they are a physical and well-coached team under Sherrone Moore.

“They lost some guys in the defensive lineman room, but they still have a lot of good players who are left,” Eck said.

But what is new for the Wolverines is local quarterback product Bryce Underwood.

And Saturday will be his first start. Underwood beat out Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for the starting job.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore announced on Monday.

"He's earned the opportunity, it was not given to him," Moore told The Detroit Free Press. “(Underwood) took the necessary steps, took ownership of his abilities, took ownership of the team and became a leader on the team − a guy that guys look to. Did things the right way. Used his skill, never tried to do too much, for a young guy very mature...he's going to make mistakes, but that's what we're here for, coaches and players.”

Underwood, who played at Belleville in Belleville, Mich., decommitted from LSU to play for Michigan in the offseason after reports broke that he received $10 million to 12 million to play for the Wolverines for four years.

The big question for Michigan heading into the 2025 season was who would start at quarterback?

A position that the Wolverines lacked last season after the success and consistency of J.J. McCarthy in 2023. McCarthy helped lead Michigan to its first national championship since 1997.

Eck said his coaching staff had prepared as if Underwood was named the starting quarterback.

“Tom Brady isn’t playing on Saturday,” Eck said. “But it’s different… you watch his high school film and you see he is a really good athlete. So, we have to be ready for him in the quarterback run game or just scrambling. Make sure we have answers for that.”

NEXT UP: New Mexico Lobos at No. 14 Michigan Wolverines

Time: Saturday, 5:30 p.m.

Location: Michigan Stadium

Listen: Lobo Radio Network (96.3 FM/770 AM)

Watch: NBC/Peacock

Football

Ryan Tomari

Host of The University of New Mexico-centric sports show “The Pit Press Live!” and “The Pit Press Podcast,” Ryan Tomari wrote the famous prognosticating column that led to former UNM head coach Mike Locksley’s infamous blowup at ABQ Uptown Sports Bar. Tomari is equal parts New Jersey and New Mexico, although his tenure in the Land of Enchantment is more successful than 2-26. It took him a decade to get his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of New Mexico. Still thinking two plus two is five, he’s a statistics class away from a print journalism degree, but he doesn’t really need it after spending his college years at the Daily Lobo, the beloved and bedraggled independent voice known affectionately by students as “The Daily Low Blow.” Rising to sports editor, Tomari covered the failed Locksley experiment, New Mexicans’ jilted love affair with former UNM men’s head basketball coach Steve Alford and the abrupt retirement of former UNM women’s head basketball coach. He worked in media relations for the Albuquerque Isotopes. He spent a year with the Albuquerque Journal before returning closer to his family roots in Central New Jersey, where he worked for CBS Sports, cutting highlights and doing research during live broadcasts of NFL, college football and basketball games. Tomari loves the tortured New York Mets, and joyously took in David Tyree’s miracle-helmet catch and Mario Manningham’s toe-tapping “insurance” clutchness that aided the New York Giants’ blissful Super Bowl runs. A sports nerd, Tomari has an encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and still regrets not approaching baseball icon Tony Gwynn at Bandido Hideout decades ago. He misses his late father, Stephen, a Rutgers graduate who started his Ph.D. at Wichita State University before moving to New Mexico to take a job at Sandia Labs. And he enjoyed every moment of Wichita State’s magical tourney run in 2013. Tomari has a 7-year-old son, Aidan, who loves his home state because it’s “not that new and not that old,” prefers green over red chile and considers 1990s Homer Simpson the “best thing since sliced bread.” His radio personality is a little bit Jim Rome and a little bit Jay Mohr – sharp, comedic and endearing. He’ll never regret calling the new Lobo men’s head basketball coach “Rich” on air. Strike that Richard Pitino.

HAIL TO THE DEBUT: Eck era begins in front of a national audience

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