Open Announce

Lobos Face Uphill Task Against Wyoming

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The University of New Mexico has been down this road before.  For the second straight year, UNM nears a game near the end of the season with a quarterback who was not listed among the top three on the depth chart when the season opened.  It will be freshman walk-on Connor Genal that gets handed the keys to lead UNM to its first win of the season as Genal and the Lobos will take on the Wyoming Cowboys at Sam Boyd Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Pacific/8:30 pm Mountain Time on Saturday, December 5.  The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network and also on the Lobo Radio Network.

UNM enters the game 0-5 on the season, coming tantalizingly close to a win several times, losing a pair of games by two scores, and leading at the half in three of the five games.  The culprit has been the third quarter where UNM is getting outscored 62-21 in the third, including Utah State scoring 28 straight to turn a 13-6 Lobo lead into a 34-13 deficit.  Now it will be up to Genal, who was the fourth-string quarterback to start the year but with Tevaka Tuioti, Trae Hall and Brandt Hughes all out with injuries (Hughes since prior to August camp), Genal gets the call.

When he takes the opening snap, he will become the first walk-on quarterback to start for UNM in 20 seasons, and it marks the second straight year that UNM will be starting at least three quarterbacks.  After using just two quarterbacks in UNM’s last two bowl seasons of 2015 and 2016, the Lobos have started at least three QBs every season since.  In 2017 Lamar Jordan, Tuioti and Coltin Gerhart all started games. In 2018 UNM had three starting quarterbacks in Tuioti, Sheriron Jones and Gerhart. In 2019 UNM actually started four quarterbacks with Hughes, Jones, Tuioti and Hall all getting at least one start.  Genal becomes the third this year joining Tuioti who started the first two and Hall, who started the next three.

“I think Trae Hall is one of the toughest guys on our team,” said Gonzales, “right now we are trying to get better in all aspects as a football team in a physical, physical nature.”  However Hall left in the third quarter with what has now been confirmed as severely bruised ribs, which has him out for this week.  In Genal, Gonzales got to see the lanky freshman’s moxie.  Playing in his first game in over two years, he led a long scoring drive to get UNM within a touchdown late, and he survived a brutal late helmet-to-helmet hit to finish off an 87-yard scoring drive.  “He came into a bad situation on Thursday night and brought us to within a touchdown of tying the game and if we could make a play on defense on third and five we’re going to get the ball with a chance to score and tie or go for two and try to win,” said Gonzales.

For Genal, who ran the ones on Tuesday, understands the benefit of those reps. “Definitely getting to watch practice instead of being on with the scouts, because from the start of last year that’s where I was, so this year I’ve gotten to just watch the offense and practice and see how those other guys handle certain situations,” said Genal.  “Breaking down the defense by being able to watch what (Tuioti and Hall) do during those practices and looking at what the defense is doing, going through it mentally in my head … now I can do the same thing, but I’m in.”

And as for Genal’s collegiate debut which saw him take the field in the only football game being broadcast nationally on Thanksgiving night?  Well, a lot of folks saw him in the game. “I had so many text messages, from people I haven’t talked to in a while,” he said.  “They were like ‘saw you on TV,  you did good’ so it was kind of a crazy experience.”  As for whether or not he is fazed by all of a sudden being ‘The Guy”, he raced out to his first practice on Sunday as the guy and hit the cement and skidded on his cleats when he went to stop when someone called his name.  Just like on Thursday after the targeting hit, he shook it off, raced onto the field and led the offense, and that’s what will be expected of the rookie on Saturday.

NOTES:  The only other active quarterback available is another freshman walk-on in true freshman Isaiah Chavez, who also will get plenty of reps this weekend.  Chavez was the Gatorade Player of the Year in 2019 for Rio Rancho.