HOMECOMING FOR UNM
Lobos host Liberty Flames today
New Mexico’s opponent today, Liberty, reads as a nonconference game against a team in its inaugural season as an Football Bowl Subdivision squad.
But UNM coach Bob Davie has told his players the Mountain West Conference season starts today at Dreamstyle Stadium.
The Flames remind the Lobos’ head man of teams in the MWC with key players who have experience and are well-coached by Turner Gill, who is in his seventh season at Liberty.
Davie also believes Liberty’s current rise is similar to a specific MWC team: Boise State.
“(The Flames) have 12 straight winning seasons,” Davie said. “Eight Big South Conference championships in 10 years. Boise was that. (The Broncos) won at every level as they built the program. (The Flames) are also in a great location (Lynchburg, Va.) for players.”
The Lobos (2-1) don’t want to be a part of Liberty’s success story, as the 1-2 Flames will be looking for their first road win as an FBS team at 4 p.m. at Dream-style Stadium for UNM’s homecoming game.
“This is absolutely a Mountain West Conference team coming in here,” Davie said. “With their experience in their quarterback (Stephen Calvert, 21 consecutive starts) and wide receivers (Antonio Gandy-Golden and B.J. Farrow). And, they have the confidence it takes to win.”
UNM’s MWC season officially begins next week at UNLV, but the Lobos will be mindful not to look past the Flames. New Mexico is a 7-point favorite, down from 8½ points earlier in the week.
The Lobos are off to their best start since 2007, when they began 3-1.
UNM will try to build off the momentum it grabbed when
beating New Mexico State 42-25 in Las Cruces on Sept. 15.
Davie worked his players harder than last year during their bye week. He was disappointed with the way the Lobos came out of the bye last year, when they lost to Fresno State 38-0.
Davie said he was pleased with the conditioning over the past two weeks.
In addition, the Lobos are bolstered by the return of Tevaka Tuioti, UNM’s redshirt sophomore quarterback who sat out the game against NMSU with a concussion. He was cleared on Monday, but showed rustiness and Davie held off naming the starter until Wednesday after Tuioti improved over the following two practices.
The last time the Lobos played at home was Sept. 1, their season opener when Tuioti was part of producing seven passing plays of 30 yards or more that resulted in a 62-30 win over Incarnate Word.
Today’s game against the Flames will not be televised. It was not picked up by the MWC for television rights. The game is not being live-streamed partly because there are hopes that a blackout would draw more fans to the game and because there is not enough staffing to produce it properly, said Frank Mercogliano, UNM athletics spokesperson.
Davie said college football fans will have more than enough reasons to come watch today, believing that UNM has multiple playmakers on offense and defense.
“I’m excited about our team,” Davie said. “We are kind of an exciting team to watch.”