What a wild ride it has been for New Mexico Vice President of Athletics Fern Lovo in his first year as the AD at UNM, losing Bronco Mendenhall his first week on the job, having to make a Football Hire right off the bat, and needing to find someone who would embrace UNM, the city of Albuquerque, and the state of New Mexico. That led to a certain Head Coach at the University of Idaho, by the name of Jason Eck. How would someone with only FCS Head Coaching experience adjust to the FBS level at a very unique job, having to build a completely new roster and balancing a staff of FCS assistants and FBS assistants, all hires and portal adds would be imperative for the Lobos to be good in year one. Before everything even settled Eck would lose his DC as he would be named the new Head Coach at South Dakota State, so Eck has to go with plan B, leading to Spence Nowinsky, I would say that has worked out well. Everything that could go right went right in year one, that leads to what the month of November has meant for the Football Program, UNM Athletic Department, and the Lobo fan base.

Going Undefeated in the month of November is obviously a big thing, not many teams do that, and the Lobos ended a lot of different streaks, beating UNLV on the road for the first time in a long time, beating CSU for the first time in forever (how was Mike Locksley the last coach to win a game against CSU), beating AFA for the first time at the Academy for the first time in forever, and beating SDSU for the second straight season after they said UNM isn’t good enough to be part of their new conference. The Lobos have had some good results and some good match ups in November, but that never got the crowd going to what it has been this year, and last night against SDSU was a legit College Football crowd, something I thought would never happen again at UNM. For instances UNM has had final home games with announced crowds of over 10k with well less than that at these games. There was no home field advantage, and those games look depressing. There should be tons of credit to Coach Eck, his staff, and players, and also Fern Lovo and his team, they all knocked it out of the park this year (more on this later), but UNM fans have embraced this program and team this year, and just showing up helps, but just showing up doesn’t lead to the crowd that happened in ABQ last night, it doesn’t lead to three straight pre snap penalties to give the opponent a 4th and goal for the 30, it doesn’t lead to a crowd that is on the level of a PIT GAME across the street. This fall has been a massive win for UNM, and UNM can keep on building from this season, even if they don’t get to host the MW Championship Game or play in that game. This season has been full of great emotions that are hard to put into words, this program dealt with a lot of apathic emotions (if that makes sense) with so many fans heading across the street with all their focus on Lobo Men’s Basketball and the up coming holidays. Lobo Football can become a thing, and this fall proved that. Enjoy the ride and it could continue for a while.

Now lets talk numbers and what the investment made by fans has done for the Athletics Department and Coach Eck’s contract. For the last decade, UNM was always relying on the Media Deal money to help the Football program stay as the money maker for UNM (media deal is mostly Football money), with very little incoming money from games after the home opener and the bi-annual home game against NMSU. There’s been plenty of new incoming money since the sold out NMSU game this year. Yes, UNM did awesome promotions to get new fans and returning fans to University Stadium this year, but remember that UNM had roughly 20-25k of empty seats to play with if not more in November. Those are just seats that have no money attached to them, no parking, no merch, no concessions, no alcohol, UNM was getting nothing from those 20k+ empty seats. UNM was smart to use those as leverage to get people to the Stadium, getting them there is the hardest part, then you have to take full advantage of this and make it where they want to spend the day and futures days around the Stadium. UNM hit this out of the park, and I’m excited to see what improvements happen these next few years. UNM had a true College Football Experience, and has made a dent into the community. This will only help with keeping players and coaches, and getting recruits/transfers, coaches, and attention around the country. The crowd last night is something a College Football fan will want to experience. The bottom line UNM’s Athletic Budget has made a lot of extra money this year, they deserve it, and the Lobo Faithful embraced this program with more than just their words online and talking to friend, they showed up with their hard earned money when this team showed up for them. This also leads to the big question…

Will the Lobos be able to keep Coach Jason Eck? This should be said that Coach Eck and his family have fallen in love with UNM, the city of Albuquerque, and the state of New Mexico, but as we saw last spring with Richard Pitino that doesn’t mean they will be staying around. With the caveat of a truly life changing offer at a place he could win a National Championship, it’s hard to see Coach Eck getting that kind of offer right now, but could come in the next few years. I’m pretty confident in saying Coach Eck will be coaching at UNM next year, and will have a new contract in hand. UNM is already paying him good salary for the level they are in, but because of the support and investment made by Lobo fans, UNM will be able to offer Coach Eck a contract that takes away all those potential G6 openings. Coach Eck and his program sees the potential here at UNM, and strangely enough this job is leaps and bounds better than it was just last fall, there is a true path to the College Football Playoff at UNM, and UNM has a chance to do some awesome stuff these next few year. Everyone around the city of Albuquerque, the state of New Mexico, and the university should jump on board and see where this goes. It’s easy to say that it is a fun time to be a part of the UNM Athletics Department, and it can continue to roll.

P.S.: While it stinks to see the Mountain West ending the way we know it, it is also opportunity for UNM to advance in their position in the NCAA Landscape, also some MW bylaws could make them very attractive in a couple of years. It is also way easier to go to the State and ask for Stadium improvements and upgrades when you have over 25k a game instead of the announced 13k.