New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
New Mexico Lobos Biggest Key: Offense
Just be more consistent throwing the ball. The passing game was fine. The running game was fine. The two just weren’t always great together.
This isn’t going to be the type of offense that can line up and blast away on anyone, but the ground attack has parts to come up with a whole lot of big dashes. The O has four quarterbacks who can all move, and the receivers aren’t bad, so now the completion percentage has to come up past the 57% of last season.
Again, there were yards, but the 6.4 yards per pass and eight touchdown passes in the seven games were light. finding consistency under center – four quarterbacks were used in 2020 – should help.
New Mexico Lobos Biggest Key: Defense
Quit getting lit up by the teams that can throw a forward pass. How bad was the New Mexico pass defense? In the seven games, two of them were against Air Force and Wyoming – two, to put it nicely, passing-challenged teams – and yet the D still allowed 283 yards per game.
And to be fair to Air Force, it only threw five passes, but it hit four of them averaging 13 yards per toss.
Everyone but the Falcons and Cowboys threw for three touchdowns or more with San Jose State, Hawaii, Nevada and Fresno State all rolling for 340 yards or more.
The Lobos don’t have to be brick wall in the secondary, but with just about everyone back the deep shots have to slow down. Quarterbacks have to stop getting fat on this group.
New Mexico Lobos Key Player To A Successful Season
WR Manny Logan-Greene, Sr.
The Lobos have the quarterbacks, they’ve got the ground game, the experience on the defensive side, and the lines aren’t going to be all that bad. However, they need a steady go-to receiver.
The 5-9, 170-pound Logan-Greene started out his career at UCF, came to New Mexico in 2019, and last year he took off – relatively speaking – with a team-high 30 catches for 277 yards. He didn’t score, and he averaged just 9.2 yards per catch, but he’s got the quickness to be dangerous.
The Lobos need him – or someone else – to be a true No. 1 target.
New Mexico Lobos Key Game To The 2021 Season
Air Force, Oct. 2
There’s a chance New Mexico could be 3-1 to start the Mountain West season.
Don’t sleep on Houston Baptist, but that has to be a win, followed up by New Mexico State, a sure-thing paycheck loss at Texas A&M, and then a trip over to UTEP.
With four road games in the next six games after hosing the Falcons, it would be a nice moment to get the win.
Or a point.
The Lobos were blanked 28-0 in last year’s meeting to make it three losses in a row going back to 2017. Win this, and – possibly – 4-1 could be the program’s best start since 1997.
– New Mexico Lobos Football Schedule
2020 New Mexico Lobos Fun Stats
– Field Goals: Opponents 10-of-10 – New Mexico 9-of-15
– 4th Down Conversions: Opponents 6-of-11 (55%) – New Mexico 2-of-8 (25%)
– Fumbles: Opponents 12 (lost 7) – New Mexico 9 (lost 3)