Lobos coach sees progress

zero contact with the outside world, of student-athletes attending classes virtually and team workouts held at UNLV’s facilities, of having a makeshift weight room thrown together from gear trucked to Henderson, Nev., from Albuquerque.

Last season could be considered a step back, as UNM lost nine of its final 10 games and finished last in the country in scoring offense at just 12.2 points per game.

Toss in that Gonzales was committed to the long-haul approach of recruiting primarily high school players, making UNM one of the youngest, least-experienced teams in all of college football. While the slow burn may have been great at developing talent, it saw the Lobos lose their final three games by an average of nearly 30 points — granted, against Fresno State, Boise State and Utah State, three teams that combined for 28 wins in 2021.

“When I sat up there and talked about building a program in four or five years and have a chance to compete for a conference championship, in my mind the kids we recruited would be here in those four or five years unless we ran them out of here,” he said. “But it’s the rules they make, and we’ll play by them.”

Which brings us to the second major change to the college game: The advent of the one-time transfer rule and the meteoric growth of the NCAA transfer portal. Since the start of last season, 5,230 players entered the portal.

“We’re looking at rosters and asking, ‘Who are these people?’ ” said Mountain West Conference commissioner Craig Thompson. “It’s hard for the fans to develop an affinity for some of the people on the rosters because there’s such a great turnover and the pressures it puts on their coaches to fulfill their rosters.”

The Lobos suffered a big loss back in January when the future star of the offensive backfield, running back Aaron Dumas, transferred to Washington after just one year at UNM. Same, too, for the offensive line as two key contributors left for Texas Tech and Arizona.

“The problem is now they can take them off our campus,” Gonzales said. “So, that’s OK. We’ll have to figure out how to do that and come up with another niche that allows us to continue to be successful. The one-year transfer rule and the transfer portal hasn’t affected us yet, but I fear once we win six, seven, eight games, they’re going to try and come to take some of our best players, and that’ll be the new challenge.”

Enter aspect No. 3 in all of this: Name, image, likeness. Student-athletes can now make money in exchange for their endorsement of products. While competing for recruits already pits one program’s wares against another, now they have to convince players their town has more opportunities to make money than others.

“When I got here, none of those three things existed,” Gonzales said. “Now they’re just a way of life. I mean, heck, we’re still dealing with COVID-19. All three things, though, have made it a lot more different than I expected. No one could have predicted it, either.”

The media apparently has no faith in Gonzales making strides this year. The Lobos were a near-unanimous pick to finish last in the Mountain Division despite flashing small bursts of growth in some parts of their game.

Turning the tide will come as early as Week 2 of the upcoming season, when the Lobos, after opening with a home game against Maine on Sept. 3, host Boise State in a nationally televised game on a Friday night at University Stadium.

Fans will see the construction project for a new multi-million dollar weight room that dominates the south side of the stadium. On the field, Gonzales said, they could see the moment UNM finally takes a major step in the win column against the conference’s preseason favorite.

“I’ve always said, if you want to be a conference champion, you have to beat the guys at the top, and Boise’s one of those teams that’s always there,” he said. “Getting them at home on TV on a Friday night where there aren’t any big high school games to keep some people away, it’s a big chance for us.”

With approximately half the roster having just two or fewer years of college experience, the third year of Gonzales’s tenure may be the most important of them all. With the men’s basketball team still trying to find success, the opportunity for the football team to win over a notorious fickle fan base is getting smaller by the second.

“And you know what? I’m not worried about that because, I promise you, we’re getting there,” Gonzales said. “It just takes time.”

NOTES

Still waiting: UNM has never won a Mountain West title, averaging just 2.7 wins a season since the conference was formed in 1999. Only UNLV and Hawaii have overall winning percentages lower than theirs in that time. Staying power: Gonzales said 71 percent of UNM recruits remain in Albuquerque after their playing days. Technically that includes himself and defensive coordinator Rocky Long, a pair of former Lobo players.

MWC vs. the elite: The Lobos’ fourth game of the season is at LSU. Historically speaking, the Mountain West has fared far better against the SEC than against the Big Ten, going 11-27 all-time against teams from the SEC and just 8-52 against the Big Ten.

The biggest breakthrough in that span? Utah’s win over Alabama (the pre-Nick Saban Crimson Tide, it should be noted) in the 2008 Sugar Bowl, a time when the Utes, BYU and TCU were still part of the MWC lineup. A close second is TCU’s win over Wisconsin in the 2010 Rose Bowl. Both wins completed undefeated seasons for the Mountain West champ.

If you’re scoring at home, the one Power Five team that’s unbeatable? Minnesota. The Golden Gophers are 11-0 against MWC competition. Change of address: New Mexico State moves into Conference USA in 2023, making it the fourth different league the Aggies will have been in since the Mountain West was formed. They were in the Big West when the MWC came together but have spent time in the Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conference, not to mention plenty of time as an NCAA independent.

The Aggies are 14-20 all-time against teams from the Mountain West, but 0-12 during their time as an independent.