New Mexico Lobos: CFN College Football Preview 2021
College Football News Preview 2021: Previewing, predicting, and looking ahead to the New Mexico football season with what you need to know.
– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– New Mexico Football Schedule Analysis
– New Mexico Lobos Previews
2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
2020 Record: 2-5 overall, 2-5 in Mountain West
Head Coach: Danny Gonzales, 2nd year, 2-5
2020 CFN Final Ranking: 95
2020 CFN Preview Ranking: 118
2019 CFN Final Ranking: 120
New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Offense
– The offense showed signs of potentially being a whole lot of fun in the first year under new head coach Danny Gonzales. The yards were there early on with a decent balance, but the defense couldn’t hold up. The running game rolled late, the two wins came, and now there’s something to get excited about with a with a whole bunch of main parts returning. However …
– The quarterback situation just got a lot more interesting with veteran Terry Wilson coming in from Kentucky. He might not be a high-powered passer, but he’s been through the SEC wars and is more than capable of adding a steady leader to the mix.
However, Tevaka Tuioti is still around – he’s fantastic when he can stay healthy – Trae Hall led the team in passing, and Isaiah Chavez led the way to the team’s two wins in the final two games.
The receiving corps is good enough, but it needs the ball more. The running game is the star, but Emmanuel Logan-Greene is a dangerous playmaker who led the team with 30 catches for 277 yards, and Andrew Erickson is a good-sized veteran who can stretch the field a bit. However, the most dangerous receiver – Jordan Kress – is in the transfer portal.
– The offensive line that was good for the ground game but struggled in pass protection returns four starters. It’s not a huge group around star C Kyle Stapley – there aren’t an earth-moving 300+ guys – but it should be effective.
The running back situation is a tad thin. Leading rusher Bobby Cole is a solid, shifty-quick runner who averaged 5.6 yards per carry with 548 yards and six scores, but second-leading rusher Nathaniel Jones is in the transfer portal and third-leading rusher Bryson Carroll is gone.
– What You Need To Know: Defense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– New Mexico Football Schedule Analysis
NEXT: New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Defense
New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Defense
– The New Mexico defense couldn’t stop anyone from throwing in the first three games, couldn’t stop anyone from running in the next three, and got bombed on by Fresno State in the regular season finale. Overall, it was one of the worst defenses in the Mountain West, but now it’s at least loaded with veterans.
– The pass rush wasn’t anything special, but there’s just enough experience and upside back on the end to expect more. Joey Noble led the team with four sacks, 280-pound seniors Ben Gansallo is a decent option on the nose, and most of the depth up front is back.
Leading tackler Brandon Shook is gone from the linebacking corps, and there’s not a lot of size, but Devin Sanders is a decent tackler who can work inside or out.
– The secondary had a whole lot of problems, but almost everyone is back around all-star Jarrick Reed, who came up with a team-high four interceptions and was fourth on the team with 33 tackles.
Several parts of the depth are gone through the transfer portal, but if the pass rush is better and the corners emerge, this should be a better overall situation.
– What You Need To Know: Offense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– New Mexico Football Schedule Analysis
NEXT: New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Top Players
Best New Mexico Lobos Offensive Player
RB Bobby Cole, Sr.
Cole found a role late in his sophomore season as he closed out with good production over his final three games – he averaged seven yards per carry on the season with two scores – and he finished strong again as a junior.
It took a little while to get going – he didn’t get the ball enough – but it’s no coincidence that the two wins came when he was on, running for 131 yards against Wyoming – with 53 yards and a score on two catches – and 138 yards and three scores against Fresno State.
2. QB Terry Wilson, Sr.
3. C Jake Stapley Sr,
4. WR Mannie Logan-Greene, Sr.
5. OT Cade Briggs, Jr.
Related
New Mexico Football Schedule 2021
Best New Mexico Lobos Defensive Player
DE Joey Noble, Sr.
Part linebacker, part defensive end, the 6-4, 250-pound Noble came in from the JUCO ranks and had a decent first year in the rotation, and last season he took off with 40 tackles with four sacks and five tackles for loss. The team needs him to be a pass rusher, but he’s solid as a volume tackler with two double-digit stop games last year.
2. S Jerrick Reed, Sr.
3. S Tavian Combs, Soph.
4. LB Devin Sanders, Sr.
5. DT Ben Gansallo, Sr.
Top Incoming New Mexico Lobos Transfer
QB Terry Wilson, Sr.
The New Mexico quarterback situation was already going to be okay before landing the former Kentucky starter from the transfer portal.
The 6-3, 200-pounder ran for over 1,000 yards with ten scores for the Wildcats – missing most of the 2019 season with a knee injury – and hit 65% of his passes for almost 3,500 yards and 20 touchdowns. He might not be a big-time downfield passer, but he’s got 25 games of SEC-caliber experience – he knows what he’s doing.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Keys To The Season
– What Will Happen, Win Total Prediction
– New Mexico Football Schedule Analysis
NEXT: New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
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)
NEXT: New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
New Mexico Lobos College Football Preview 2021: What Will Happen, Season Prediction
Well that wasn’t easy for first year head coach Danny Gonzales.
After a cancellation against Colorado State, the Lobos didn’t get to start their season until Halloween. To crank up the degree of difficulty that much more, none of their seven games were at home thanks to New Mexico state restrictions.
So they not only began the 2020 campaign with a road trip to San Jose, they took a flight to Honolulu, followed it up their first non-away opener – neutral site to you and me – in Las Vegas against Nevada before traveling six days later to Colorado Springs and six days after that to Logan, Utah and …
They can be forgiven if they weren’t exactly consistent in the first five games with a new coaching staff.
All of a sudden, though, things started to click with two wins in Las Vegas to close out the season of adversity.
Set The New Mexico Lobos Regular Season Win Total At … 5.5
Through it all, Gonzales now has a well-traveled, battle-hardened team – at least that’s the hope – that gets to enjoy a few real live home games. There’s experience, a good offense, and enough in place to make the idea of a winning season for the first time since 2016 not all that crazy.
The offense was and will be fun, the defense can’t help but be better, and best of all there’s no Nevada, San Jose State or Hawaii on the schedule.
There are trips, though, to Texas A&M, San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State – be stunned if that’s anything less than an 0-4 clip – to go along with a few tough home games, but the dates in Albuquerque are all winnable.
For the New Mexico football program, and the rest of the world, 2021 should be a whole lot easier to handle.
After all of that, the Lobos could be ready to break out.
– What You Need To Know: Offense | Defense
– Top Players | Keys To The Season
– New Mexico Football Schedule Analysis
