Lobos take hearty appetite to Oklahoma

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The University of New Mexico has been playing football for 134 years.

Think about that history for a moment.

Generations of players have worn the cherry and silver. Coaches have come and gone. There have been great players — Brian Urlacher, Don Perkins, Terance Mathis and DonTrell Moore would be New Mexico football’s Mount Rushmore.

Unfortunately, there have been plenty of moments Lobos fans would just as soon forget.

But after 134 years of football and only 51 winning seasons, we might be watching something extraordinary this season.

This Lobos team, off to a 2-0 start, has a chance to make a case that it belongs among the best — perhaps eventually the best — in school history.

We’ll learn considerably more Saturday.

The Lobos have arrived in Norman to play No. 24 Oklahoma, one of the storied programs in college football, in the kind of game that can change the way people around the country look at a program.

I understand what a game like this means.

I grew up following my beloved Tennessee Volunteers and have spent most of my life watching Southeastern Conference football. The Vols were futilely chasing Alabama most of the time. I’ve seen enough big-time SEC showdowns to know that sometimes one game can change the way a team is viewed.

That’s the opportunity in front of New Mexico, which will be a 21½- to 22½-point underdog to the Sooners, depending on the oddsmaker you prefer.

I’m not suggesting these Lobos are going to win a national championship. College football success doesn’t have to end with somebody holding that trophy.

For New Mexico, success can mean building something that matters in this state. It can mean filling University Stadium again. There are already signs that this is happening. The season-opening victory over Central Michigan drew a record 24,126 fans.

It can mean attracting better recruits, keeping talented players in Albuquerque and getting the attention of voters who decide which teams belong in the Top 25.

And it can mean walking into a place like Norman and making people notice.

One of the biggest reasons I believe these Lobos have a chance to be special is their defense.

And I particularly like UNM head coach Jason Eck and defensive coordinator Spence Nowinsky.

Eck knows the stakes. He had one of the best quotes of the year in college football about what the Lobos will face in Norman.

“We’ve been going to fast-food restaurants to eat,” Eck said, referring to early-season victories over Central Michigan and Mercyhurst. “Now all of a sudden, we got an invite to the nicest steakhouse in town, and you’re checking your wallet to make sure you have enough money to cover it because you don’t want to be embarrassed.”

Exactly.

Whether the Lobos stop Oklahoma on Saturday or not, Eck will be a hot coaching name at bigger schools after the season. And Nowinsky has established himself as one of the top defensive coaches in college football.

The numbers back that up.

In his first season at New Mexico, the Lobos went from allowing 38 points per game to 22.3. Their total defense improved by more than 150 yards per game, one of the biggest turnarounds in the country. Nowinsky earned a nomination for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation’s top assistant coach — the second such nomination of his career.

Saturday will provide a different kind of test.

Oklahoma plays with the size, speed and depth that New Mexico doesn’t see every week.

The Sooners were ranked No. 11 when they went to Michigan last week and lost, 17-10. They’ll be motivated, and the Lobos will have to withstand that early surge.

The timing only added to the frustration in Norman.

Three days after losing to Michigan, Oklahoma’s Board of Regents finalized a new six-year, $63 million contract for coach Brent Venables. The deal, which averages $10.5 million a year and runs through January 2032, had been announced in August but wasn’t formally approved until after the Michigan loss.

That didn’t sit particularly well with some Sooners fans.

So Oklahoma arrives home Saturday with plenty to prove — and a coach whose new contract is suddenly part of the conversation.

The Sooners will be as mad as a coyote who can’t catch the roadrunner.

That’s part of what makes this such an intriguing test for Nowinsky and the Lobos.

I’ve also watched enough football to know that even very good defenses sometimes get humbled against elite competition. So I’m not going to judge Eck or Nowinsky on one Saturday in Norman.

They’ve already convinced me.

What I want to see is whether their defense can make Oklahoma uncomfortable.

Because if it can, we’ll learn something important about these Lobos.

We’ll also learn something about their depth.

Oklahoma simply has more of it.

New Mexico may be able to match the Sooners for stretches. It may even be able to make Oklahoma uncomfortable deep into the game. But over four quarters, the difference in depth could become evident, particularly in the fourth quarter.

That’s the challenge. It’s also the opportunity.

You may have noticed that we’ve added a little something extra to our Lobo coverage this season.

For every home game — and for the rivalry game against New Mexico State — we’re publishing a special preview poster created by Journal staff designer and artist Mildred Levario.

You can’t exactly accuse the Journal of jumping on the Lobo bandwagon. We’ve been covering this football program for more than a century.

We’re doing it because we believe this could be a special season for Lobo fans, and we want to take our readers and viewers along for the ride.

Mildred’s posters have a collectible quality. Save them. Put them on the wall. Let the kids have them. And if this season turns out to be as special as we think it might, perhaps years from now they’ll remind you what it felt like to watch it unfold.

That’s what we’re hoping to accomplish with our coverage this season — not simply tell you what happened, but help you enjoy the ride.

Saturday is a big part of that ride.

Oklahoma represents a daunting assignment. It’s like eating at a fancy restaurant and knowing your salad fork from your regular fork. It’s having enough cash in your pocket to pay the bill.

But that’s precisely why the Lobos should embrace it.

If New Mexico wants to be viewed differently nationally — if it wants voters to put the Lobos among the Top 25 teams in the country — these are the games it has to play.

Win Saturday, and the conversation changes immediately.

Compete deep into the game, and people notice that, too.

So go to Norman, as a fan, believing you belong there.

After 134 years of football, the Lobos have an opportunity Saturday to do something this program has not done often enough: Make the rest of college football pay attention.

And not embarrass themselves when it comes time to pay the check.

James Bennett is managing editor of the Journal. Reach him at jbennett@abqjournal.com.

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