Lobos Face Utah State on Thanksgiving Night

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — It’s a little Thursday night fun on tap for the Lobos and the Utah State Aggies as the two teams will tangle at Maverik Stadium in Logan as the two teams face off, each looking for their first win of the season.  The game kicks off at 5 pm Mountain Time on FS1 and the Lobo Radio Network and the Lobo Sports App.

It used to be that New Mexico and Thanksgiving football were synonymous with each other.  The Lobos have played on Thanksgiving 27 times prior, all in the daytime and all prior to 1938, meaning this is UNM’s first Thanksgiving game in 82 years.  UNM is 13-12-1 all-time on Turkey Day. Utah State has played 41 Thanksgiving games, going 13-27-1.  Utah State has played 18 Thanksgiving games since UNM last played one.

The short week is helpful for UNM as the Lobos are looking to get the bad taste out of their mouth after a somewhat bizarre 28-0 loss to Air Force in which UNM was shutout and went 0-for-4 on field goals, becoming the only team in at least 21 years to do that.  UNM’s offense also had nine of its 11 drives get into Falcon territory.  UNM allowed touchdowns on the first three drives of the game, but the defense responded, including forcing three straight fumbles in Falcon territory, but UNM couldn’t cash any of them in.

This week’s game marks not only the second straight non-Saturday, short week game for UNM, it’s also the second time UNM is facing a team coming off of a COVID break as Utah State’s game last week with Wyoming was canceled.  Now, UNM has to come back and show that what happened on Friday night was an aberration and that the progress made in the first three games will continue.

“We have to get our pride back.  I think it was taken,” said head coach Danny Gonzales.  “That was a terrible performance by everyone involved both coaching and playing.  I don’t think we did a good enough job of coaching them to make them successful.”

 

While Gonzales and staff didn’t miss any tackles or miss assignments, he certainly feels that the players understand the lessons learned from Friday night.  “They have the right attitude and the willingness to do it,” said Gonzales, specifically talking about the offensive line, but in reality about his entire team.

As for the Lobos, who will become the first team in the FBS to play an entire season away with no home games and all games outside of its home state, it will make for an odd Thanksgiving, but one that the squad is looking forward to.  “I grew up watching Thanksgiving football on TV, so it’s an honor to be playing on Thanksgiving,” said defensive back Nico Bolden.  Trae Hall was a little more succinct about the holiday game.  “It’s going to be fun.”

As for Thursday, it will be Thanksgiving for most everyone else, but for Lobo Football, it’s a regular gameday.  “It will be a regular game day for us,” said Gonzales.  “We’ll have little Thanksgiving festivities here on Friday at the hotel.”  Gonzales also said he is thankful for the opportunities in front of him, and that includes leading his alma mater.  “I’m very thankful to be the head coach of The University of New Mexico.”

And will there be any turkey on Thursday?  “No turkey on Thursday for pregame,” he said.  “Too much tryptophan.