A New Mexico victory comes from…
A Lobo victory will require this offense, led by UAB Blazer transfer Dylan Hopkins, to have long scoring drives to keep the Pokes offense off the field.
Hopkins is listed as 3rd in the Mountain West Conference, with a quarterback rating of 146.7.
He is listed through week four only behind Mikey Keene at Fresno State, with a 151.4 rating, and Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi, with a 150.5 rating from Colorado State.
So, one of the reasons for the Lobo’s success is the very large offensive Lines the Lobos have under the tutelage of a UAB transfer who followed Coach Cam Blankenship, who can flat-out coach the big guys in the trench.
The Lobo offensive line is massive up front, with each player well over 300lb per position. There is a reason Hopkins has time to throw, and Merritt is one of the leading rushers in the Mountian West Conference.
Jacory Croskey-Merritt, “Bill” as the family nicknames him, is second in the MWC with 328 yards, seven TDs, and a whopping 6.8 yards per carry.
He is one of those FBS players who has the potential to play on Sundays if he continues to develop and get bigger, faster, and more robust.
Danny Gonzales is cleaning house on the offensive staff from
last year and hiring Coach Bryant; Blankenship continues to show what a great hire he was. Numbers don’t lie.
Consider this: last year’s Lobo offense was dead last in total offense at 125 in FBS and now is listed at 38th, a jump of 87 spots. It reminds me of when Rocky Long came to help Gonzales out as the Defensive Coordinator. The Lobos jumped 55 spots on total Defense.
This year’s current Lobos total Defense in FBS is listed at 93, giving up 398 yards per game, compared to last year in 2022, finishing at 61, giving up 360.2 yards per game.
Mountain West Football: 12 Statistics That Have Shaped The Season So Far
Once this Lobo defense, especially in the secondary, can develop and not give up big backend plays, this Lobo team will be easily the most improved team in the Mountain West Conference.
Gonzales stated that his young secondary needs to grow up quickly for his Lobo defense to be effective against their opponents.
A Lobo victory will require the secondary to finally have a complete game and not give up the big plays that have seemed to come every round until they stop them.
So this is when Gonzales hopes to bring balance on both sides of the ball to help the Lobos win ball games.
A victory on the road against the Cowboys is a massive incentive to this year’s Lobo squad, who are coming into their own as a team given all the transfers brought on board. The Lobos must control the time of possession on offense to keep the Pokes offense from long scoring drives.
They were 13tin the country with a time of living for the first three games of the year with an average of 33 minutes and 30 seconds up until they played Appalachian State.
Keeping the Pokes’ Andrew Peasley off the field as much as possible will bode well for the Lobos, as they have more than enough firepower on offense to pull the upsets.
New Mexico’s strength for many years, which is this writer’s opinion, is that they tend to have more athleticism on the field to counter the brute force strength in the trenches of a team like the Cowboys.
There is too much incentive for the Lobos not to win this game, to go 3-2 and 1-0 in Mountain West Play.
This game would be massive for this program to come out victorious; the thought of them going bowling this year would be soon in the conversation as they are that close to being a very good team.
With the Lobo team’s help on both the Offensive and defensive side of the ball, Danny Gonzales pulls off one of his most significant victories on the road in his four years.
New Mexico 35 – Wyoming 31
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