Football on the Fringe Season Previews were ranked, then delivered in random order.
2009 was not a good year for the New Mexico Lobos. The season began with three blowout losses, then coach Mike Locksley punched an assistant. Amazingly, that doesn’t get you fired in football coaching, so after a 10 day suspension the he was able to continue coaching Lobos to defeat. They did give BYU a massive scare, holding the Cougars to 24 points in a five point loss, then got their only win of the year over Colorado State, 29-27.
2010 will probably be another building year for the Lobos, with only five starters returning on offense and six on the defensive side. They have a three-headed quarterback battle going on in camp now, but do have two experienced RBs ready to go. The schedule, however, is not going to help matters this year.
Schedule
9/4/2010 at Oregon
9/11/2010 Texas Tech
9/18/2010 Utah
9/25/2010 at UNLV
10/2/2010 UTEP
10/9/2010 at New Mexico State
10/23/2010 San Diego State
10/30/2010 at Colorado State
11/6/2010 Wyoming
11/13/2010 at Air Force
11/20/2010 at BYU
11/27/2010 TCU
This is a rough schedule for a struggling team. The Lobos, as we sit now, probably would not be favored in a single game, and they’re probably going to have to pull an upset to put a win on the board. They do have a four game stretch of their best chances to get a win or two- back to back rivalry games with UTEP and New Mexico State, followed by a tougher San Diego State team and rebuilding Colorado State. After that, though, it’s a rough road to the end of the year.
Coaching
Mike Locksley is back after a disastrous first year as head coach. Prior to coming to New Mexico, he spent time as offensive coordinator under Ron Zook at Illinois. Do with that what you will.
Rankings
The MWC media picked New Mexico to finish last in the conference this year.
Outlook
It’s bad. I don’t mean to pile on, really, but a winless season is a substantial possibility. The timing of the schedule makes it worse, too- if they get to 0-8, it’s all but a given that 0-12 is going to happen.
New Mexico Connections
The Lobo Lair – Independent message board
The local paper might cover the Lobos, but I don’t know because it’s all behind a paywall- they don’t even give you a freebie to get you interested. So no link for them.