LOBO FOOTBALL: UNM opens up MWC play against a longtime friend, foe
UNM Quarterback Dyland Hopkins dives for the goalline against UMass defenders on Saturday, Sept. 23 in Amherst, Mass. The Lobos would win in overtime 34-31. Courtesy of UNM Athletics
Danny Gonzales isn’t shy about his relationship with Craig Bohl.
The UNM head football coach considers the Wyoming head football coach to be a football father figure - of sorts.
“Coach Bohl is a mentor of mine,” Gonzales said. “He’s been really good to me and we have a very similar philosophy: it’s to play really physical defense, beat each other up, take care of the football, take it away. Our schematic philosophies are different, but the endpoint is the same. And he’s been unbelievable for the game of football. He is one of those coaches (who has) done so much for the game outside of actual playing.”
But cut and clear for both Gonzales and Bohl, it’s 60 minutes each year when they don’t like one another.
They want to beat the tar out of each other.
The Lobos (2-2) head to Laramie, Wyo. to open Mountain West Conference play on Saturday when they take on the Wyoming Cowboys (3-1).
Prior to UNM’s win last week at UMass, the last time the Lobos won on the road was at – you guessed it – Wyoming.
UNM beat UW in back-to-back years to start the Gonzales era.
Both were sloppy wins. The Lobos – who were marooned to Las Vegas, Nev. because of New Mexico health ordinances during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic – beat Wyoming 17-16. This is in large part due to some late heroics by quarterback Rio Rancho native Isaiah Chavez. And that last road win for UNM was a 14-3 win.
While the Rocky Long defense that Gonzales still utilizes, Bohl will now have his attention on a Lobo offense that has finally scored some points.
UNM has scored 16 touchdowns through four games. The Lobos only scored 17 total during the 2022 season. Fifteen of those 17 were offensive. UNM has averaged nearly 30 points (29.3) and 384.5 yards through the first quarter of the 2023 campaign.
Even if it is in four games, it’s a huge step forward for a team that really lacked any offense last year and was bottom of the barrel in most statistical categories for the duration of 2022.
In 2022, UNM finished dead last (131 out of 131 FBS teams) in offense per game. The Lobos put up a pedestrian 228.1 yards per game.
Bohl said this Lobo 2023 offense is one to take notice of.
“It’s significantly different,” Bohl told the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune on the new look New Mexico offense. “I think the world of Coach Gonzales and he’s got this program going the right way.”
Bohl has the Cowboys going the right way in 2023. Albeit some close calls with a
Wyoming beat Texas Tech in come-from-behind fashion and in overtime in the first week of the season on a nationally televised game on CBS.
This is a Wyoming team that was tied with Texas at the half two weeks ago before the Longhorns opened the floodgates in the second half to a 31-10 win.
And this last week, the Cowboys rallied against Appalachian State. The Pokes were down 19-7 before scoring 15 straight which included a blocked put return for a touchdown with two minutes left.
Gonzales said this Wyoming team is sound on both sides of the ball.
“They play really hard on defense like us, they run to the ball and try to create turnovers with extra effort and all those good things,” Gonzales said. It’s two teams that have the same philosophy and play the same. It’s come down to who has made big plays.”
PLAYER TO WATCH: Wyoming Linebacker Easton Gibbs was voted the Mountain West Conference Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.
Gibbs is living up to the hype, the junior defenseman has 35 tackles on the season and had 11 against Texas.
Gonzales told The Pit Press Podcast that Gibbs is talented but it’s the rest of the Wyoming defense that makes him extra special.
“He can run sideline-to-sideline and he’s aggressive,” Gonzales said. “The great thing about Wyoming and what Coach Bohl’s done, and especially defensively, they are so well coached in where they are supposed to be. Easton makes a lot of plays because he is always in the right spot.”
UNM at Wyoming
War Memorial Stadium, Laramie, Wyo.
Kickoff: 2 p.m.
Watch: Mountain West Network Chris Sylvester (play-by-play), N/A (analyst), Bridget Howard (sidelines)
Listen: Lobo Radio Network: 770 KKOB-AM: Rob Portnoy (play-by-play), DonTrell Moore (analyst)
Odds: UNM +14, UNM +438, Over/Under 40.5 (Odds provided by Caesars Sportsbook)