Lobos Ready to Open Season at 23/25 Texas A&M

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s been a long, cold winter in Albuquerque waiting for the 2023 season to approach, so perhaps it’s only fitting that the temperature in College Station will be in the 90s for kickoff of the season as the New Mexico Lobos travel east to face the No. 23/25 Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday, September 2 at 6:05 pm Central/5:05 pm Eastern.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN with Mark Jones, Louis Riddick and Quint Kessinech on the call for the mothership.  The game will be heard nationally on the Lobo Radio Netowrk with Voice of the Lobos Robert Portnoy and DonTrell Moore bringing fans the action.

The game is expected to be a sellout, and if so, that would be 102,733, and that would be the largest crowd to watch a Lobo football game, and just the third crowd of 100,000 all-time, joining UNM’s trip to Texas in 2012 (100,990) and last years sojourn to LSU (100,501).  Games three and four are 99,000+ crowd against Texas A&M in 2017 and 2021.

About that 2021 trip.  That was not a fun one to start for UNM as the Aggies came out and four offensive plays into the game for Texas A&M, it was 14-0 and TAMU had 103 yards.  But a funny thing happened on the way to the blowout … the Lobos settled in and didn’t allow a lengthy drive until the final drive of the third quarter.  In between, Joey Noble proved to be quite unstoppable and Tavian Combs picked off Zack Calzada.

In the end, it was a 34-0 loss, one in which head coach Danny Gonzales said the Lobos were tentative at first and scared of the moment.  He also said he was excited to come back to College Station in two years for another shot.

That shot is Saturday.

Gone is UNM’s previous offense, one in which from that game against Texas A&M onward averaged just 9.6 points per game against FBS foes over the next 21 games.  “In this era of college football, if you can’t score points, you can’t win.  And we certainly couldn’t score points.”  Now, Gonzales is hoping a massive infusion of coaches and talent changes that fortune.

To whit, enter Bryant Vincent, formerly of UAB.  After serving as the OC since 2018, Vincent was the interim head coach of the Blazers and went 7-6, winning the Bahamas Bowl.  For that, he was not retained, and UAB’s loss is 100% UNM’s gain.  Along with Vincent is an influx of new coaches and talent.  He brought with him highly thought-of young coaches in Cam Blankenship and Joe Scelfo, along with Power-5 coach Cornelius Williams while retaining on of the greatest high school coaches in New Mexico history in Heath Ridenour.

But coaches coach, and players play, and there are a lot of new players.  First and foremost, the starting quarterback for Vincent’s UAB squad, Dylan Hopkins is in tow and will start.  Owner of 25 career starts, Hopkins is surrounded by plenty of talent.  Alabama State transfer Jacory Croskey-Merritt, known to most as Bill, will tote the rock, and he leads a stable of ball carriers, all of whom can do damage.  Andrew Henry is back after missing time with an injury, Dorian Lewis is in the fold after leaving New Mexico’s high school ranks for the JC ranks as one of the state’s top players.  He is a Gatorade Player of the Year, as is Zach Vigil.  Two holdovers from last year, Sherod White and Christian Washington both proved they can get tough yards a year ago, and will look for bigger holes in 2023.

Hopkins also has holders Luke Wysong and Andrew Erickson in the receiving corps, but transfers DJ Washington, Jeremiah Hixon, Ryan Davis and Caleb Medford have all shined in camp.  Add to that tight ends that well, look like tight ends, and the optimism is sort of obvious.

But offensively, it’s the line that’s the key according to Gonzales.  “If those five guys can play well, we will play well.  I like our line. Of course, they are facing maybe the best front seven in the SEC, so it’s baptism by fire, but I like what we have.”

All five lineman are well over 300 pounds, and all can move.  While CJ James, JC Davis and Ise Matuatia are returning, the addition of Taurrian “Teedo” Stafford might by the biggest key.  Teedo is the vocal leader, and whther woofing or hollering or doing every drill at 100% speed, he has certainly set the pace.  It’s also great to have DJ Wingfield back after missing all but six plays in 2022.

Defensively, UNM returns one starter in Donte Martin, but most of the defense actually got action in a starting role in the last two years, just not enough to be considered a returning starter.  Linebackers Ray Leutele, Alec Marenco and Syaire Riley have all been starters. Jermarius Lewis and Bryson Taylor have starts.  Bryce Santana has starts, so UNM has experience, and one thing that has been a hallmark of Danny Gonzales coached teams is the defense.  The names change, but the results don’t, and that’s what UNM and Gonzales are banking on.

Of course, Texas A&M isn’t ranked for grins and giggles, and they will be looking to make a statement after a 5-7 season that saw the Aggies miss a bowl game.  They did make a statement to finish 2022 with a drubbing of No. 6 LSU 38-23, a team UNM lost to 38-0.  Back is Ainias Smith, the four-year letterwinner that UNM struggled mightly with in 2021.  “I was hoping he’d go to the NFL.” said Gonzales dryly, and it’s understandable.  Smith had just three catches, but was a thorn in UNM’s punt coverage with 78 yards on four returns.  He will figure big in the Aggie plans for sure, as he owns career numbers of 384 yards rushing with four touchdowns, 1,612 yards receiving with 12 touchdowns, 257 yards of kickoff returns and 551 yards of punts returns with a touchdown.

Defensively, the Aggies were solid in 2022, allowing 111 or fewer passing yards in four of the 12 contests.  Leading tackler Demani Richardson is back for a fifth season, and his number 26 will be hard to miss on the field Saturday.

NOTES: The Lobos will return home after the game to host Tennessee Tech (September 9) and New Mexico State (September 16).  Fans that puchase a single-game ticket for New Mexico State (or any of the other four final home games of the season) can get a ticket for Tennessee Tech for 50% off, meaning you get four tickets for any other home game, you can get four tickets for Tennessee Tech at 50% the price of the ticket.  Additionally, for the New Mexico State game, there will be a postgame fireworks show.

Fans to go to www.golobos.com/tickets to purchase.